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Reported Incidences of Cyanide Spills from May 2002 to August 2004
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Submitted to NICNAS Review
Prepared by Ruth Rosenhek, Rainforest Information Centre
email: ruthr@ozemail.com.au
1. SPILLS AND LEAKS
Saturday 23rd of October 2004, Ghana: A cyanide spill occured from a new tailings dam of the Canadian company Bogoso Gold Limited (BGL) into the river Aprepre which serves as drinking water for surrounding communities,and other rivers including Egya Nsiah, Benya and Manse. Residents of downstream villagers found hundreds of dead fishes, crabs, shrimps and other life forms floating on the river in the morning of the 23rd of October, adn some communitiy people harvested and ate the fish before they receieved information about the spillage. (Source: Ghanaweb, www.ghanaweb.com)
- This was pasted in ! ! check formating to plaint text via notepad or rewrite: 20th October 2004 (need to check the date) , (Media Release, Robin Chapple, Western Australian Member of Parliament)
A report commissioned by the WA Government into the tailings dams at the Kalgoorlie Gold mine confirmed that the mine has been leaking cyanide into the surrounding groundwater which was contaminated by cyanide and heavy metals. Contamination was such that the report stated that other mining operations face increased costs because of the need to de-water excavations and take extra precautions to avoid contact with contaminated water. Surrounding community members have been complaining of impacts for over a decade but the company had previously denied the allegations.
August 7th 2004 PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Cyanide was discharged from the Misima mine, a subsidiary of Placer Dome, during decommissioning of the minesite, polluting oceans around the small island. The discharge resulted in poisoning of marine life, with reports of dead fish found floating in the oceans confirmed by the company as linked to the discharge. (The National, PNG, 11 of August)
June 25 2004 CHINA: The State Council of China reported seven cases of leaks of lethal chemical products in the past week, which claimed a total of 21 lives across the country. The latest was a hydrogen cyanide gas leak from a gold mining plant in Beijing's suburban district of Huairou that killed three people and left another 15 hospitalized.
(Source: People‚s Daily Online, 25th June 2004)
March 21 2004, GHANA: On Saturday March 21, 2004, villagers near Prestea Sankofa Goldmine, a concession own by the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) in the Western Region spotted a cyanide spillage in their river and reported the matter to the mine.
(Source:http://www.wildchild777.com/mambo/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=68&Itemid=2)
March 24 2004, NEW ZEALAND: About thirty-five people were evacuated from a Lower Hutt transit depot as emergency services mopped up a toxic chemical spill. Two 180-litre drums of cyanide solution were damaged inside the Mainfreight depot, possibly by a forklift.
March 18 2004, ROMANIA: Romania's Siret River, a tributary of the Danube, was reported to be contaminated by cyanide. The chemicals involved in the spill leaked from a deactivated chemical processing plant, where storage conditions may not have been up to international standards. Estimates are that "10 tons of toxic substances leaked into the river", according to Ioan Jelev, of Romania's Environment Ministry. A similar incident occured in 2001 in the same place, poisoning fish. (Source: Reuters).
May 29 2003, GHANA: A cyanide spillage occurred at Tarkwa gold mine in the Wassa West District, when the dangerous chemical spilled from one of three newly constructed pipelines.
January 14 2003, NICARAGUA: A cyanide solution spill took place at the Canadian gold-mining company HEMCONIC and/or Greenstone in Bonanza, in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region, dumping cyanide into the Bambana river. Health workers from local Indigenous communities reported the deaths of twelve children who are suspected of having been poisoned by drinking water from the Bambana River.
(Source: WRM's bulletin Nº 74, September 2003).
January 2003, WESTERN HONDURAS: A massive cyanide spill at the San Andrés mine, department of Copán, Western Honduras, contaminated the Lara River, which feeds into the river providing drinking water for the town of Santa Rosa de Copán. Even though local inhabitants reported witnessing company employees hauling away evidence, they managed to amass some 18,000 dead fish, a testament to the environmental destruction caused to the now lifeless river and to the ecosystems it nourishes.
December 2nd, 2003 USA: A cyanide spill was reported near the Briggs Mine in Balleratt.
GHANA June 18th, 2002: The residents of Togbekrom, a farming community near Akyempim in the Wassa Mpohor East district of the Western Region, appealed to the Minister of Environment and Science to come to their aid immediately. Due to the closeness of the mine to the village, the cyanide being used by the company in its operations is giving them a lot of health problems.
(Source: Emmanuel Akli, Akyempim Ghanaian Chronicle Accra, June 18th, 2002)
NEVADA, USA June 9, 2002: Leaching process solution used at the Denton-Rawhide Mine, located in Mineral County, Nevada, overflowed containment structures from a ruptured pipe triggering the mine’s Emergency Response Plan. Approximately 40,000 gallons of dilute cyanide process solution spilled into the environment. The spill was caused by a failure of a weld on a 16-inch diameter pipeline that was carrying process solution from a lined storage pond to a lined heap leach pad. The process solution is at a concentration of about 140 parts of cyanide per million parts of solution, resulting in a spill of approximately 47 pounds of cyanide.
NEVADA, USA 16th May, 2002: In Nevada, 24,000 gallons of cyanide solution were spilled at a mining facility, Twin Creeks Mine, owned by Newmont Mining Company. A Nevada official said 10,000 gallons entered a creek. In recent years, the owner of the proposed Crandon mine spilled cyanide twice, including a 13,000 pound spill of cyanide in Arizona. In another accident, 300,000 cubic yards of mine wastes were spilled into an Arizona creek.
(Source: Humboldt County News - 16 May 2002)
2. TRANSPORTATION
TAIWAN, 5th April, 2003: More than 100 people in Taichung County were hospitalised after being poisoned by liquefied cyanide from an overturned truck. Environmental officials feared the cyanide, which flowed into a nearby sewer, could create an ecological disaster when it streamed into the sea through Taichung Harbour.
Transportation concerns pre-May 2002: http://www.alphacdc.com/treaty/security.html
3. TERRORISM
New York, USA, 13th February, 2003: New York City hospitals were placed on high alert after the government warned of a potential cyanide gas attack by terrorists. The use of cyanide in acts of terrorism is an increasing concern to U.S. officials. The city Health Department has urged hospitals to increase levels of sodium thiosulfate, the antidote to cyanide, and other pharmaceutical agents in emergency rooms to deal with chemical warfare. (Source: Daily News Police Bureau)
Texas, USA, 17th May, 2002: The hijacking of ten tons of deadly cyanide en route to a mine shows the risks of trucking huge amounts of cyanide through Wisconsin to the headwaters of the Wolf River. The hijacking took place some 500 miles south of Brownsville, Texas. When the truck was found there were unconfirmed reports that some of the cyanide was missing.
MEXICO, 28th May, 2002: Nearly eight tons of sodium cyanide to be used in silver mining was hijacked from a truck in central Mexico and has not been recovered despite an extensive law enforcement search. The incident raised serious concerns among officials of a potential security threat in Mexico and the United States, due to the extreme toxicity of the substance. The chemical is commonly used in gas chamber executions, and even trace amounts can be deadly when inhaled or ingested. (Source: Washington Post Company)
For more information, please contact:
Techa Beaumont
Executive Director
Workphone: +61 2 9557 9019
Mobile: +61 (0) 409 318 406
Created: 03 Sep 2004 | Last updated: 18 Sep 2004
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