BAN MINE WASTE DUMPING IN THE WORLD’S WATERWAYS

BAN MINE WASTE DUMPING IN THE WORLD’S WATERWAYS

The Mineral Policy Institute, together with Oxfam Australia has initiated “Not in Anyone’s Backyard” ,  a coalition of organisations seeking to ensure that the extractive industry (the mining, oil and gas sector) is responsible for its own waste.

We are calling for an immediate ban on the use of waste disposal practices that involves the dumping of wastes (including tailings and overburden) into waterways.

The industry must take responsibility for safely containing and managing the waste it creates, and ensure that this burden is not placed on the community and our environment.

Meaningful progress on these issues will also require:

-           a commitment to responsibility for  the legacy of past failures to contain mine waste and the impacts of these failures on the environment and communities

-           a commitment that communities affected by mine waste have their full rights to participation recognised and upheld (including  the right to free and prior informed consent). Those who are potentially affected by mine waste must have access to the necessary resources and capacity to make informed decisions and the ability to give or withhold consent in light of the risks or negative impacts that they may have to bear as a result of mining activity.

OPEN LETTER TO THE MINING INDUSTRY, FINANCIERS AND MINING MINISTERS

see www.minedyourwaste.org for the full list of signatory organisations
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Dear Ministers, Company Executives and Financiers

We are deeply concerned that the mining industry dumps billions of tonnes of toxic heavy metals such as mercury and lead into the rivers and oceans of some of the world's poorest countries such as Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and the Philippines.  These actions cause irreversible environmental damage, rob people of livelihoods and drive human poverty.

Dumping mining waste in rivers and oceans has led to the obliteration of aquatic life, and affected food supplies as well as livelihoods.  These senseless and selfish acts have also contaminated drinking water, contributed to flooding, caused skin lesions, blood poisoning and even the deaths of local people.  There is no justification whatsoever for wantonly destroying the environment and social fabric of some of the world’s most vulnerable people.

Many of the worst offending mines are owned and operated by Australian, US and Canadian companies whose countries have effectively banned the practice of dumping waste into their own rivers and oceans.  But together these companies dump over 540,000 tonnes of mine waste daily into the rivers of Papua New Guinea and Papua alone.

The safe containment of mine waste is the single largest environmental challenge facing the mining sector worldwide. The industry also needs to clean up the legacy of pollution and respect the right of communities to determine their own development.

We call on you to commit to an immediate ban on mine waste disposal in waterways as you meet this week in Perth to discuss "Improving Leading Practice Sustainable Development in the Mining Industry".

Yours sincerely,

If mining is to contribute to local development and poverty alleviation, the industry must stop practices that cause environmental degradation, rob people of livelihoods and drive poverty.

For more information, please contact:

Techa Beaumont
Executive Director

Workphone: +61 2 9557 9019
Mobile: +61 (0) 409 318 406

Created: 14 Feb 2007 | Last updated: 14 Feb 2007

This page: http://www.mpi.org.au/ campaigns/waste/minedurwaste/

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