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FIELD NEWS: Mined Your Own Waste
This MPI Field Report is also downloadable as a PDF. Click here
Campaign Coordinator, Dr. Helen Rosenbaum
My name is Helen Rosenbaum. I have recently come on board with the Mineral Policy Institute as Campaign Coordinator for the Mined Your Own Waste (MYoW) campaign. The MYoW coalition is facilitated by MPI, and consists of an international coalition of over 30 organisations calling for the elimination of the dumping of mine waste into waterways.
At MPI we value your support. Supporting us means you are supporting a key Australian based mining industry watchdog.
In our work to campaign for the safe disposal of mine waste we continue to build strong relationships with the local communities who are directly affected. By holding the interests of communities as paramount in the work that we do MPI has been able to expose national, regional and international mine waste disasters. This has included exposing the massive cyanide spill by Australian owned mining company Esmeralda in Romania and the release of cyanide pellets into Papua New Guinea's pristine rainforest at the Australian owned (Dome Resources) Tolokuma mine.
The MYoW campaign was born at the meeting of APEC Ministers for Mining in Perth, Western Australia in February 2007, with the publication of an open letter seeking a ban on mine waste disposal in waterways. Twenty-six non-government organisations from throughout the Asia Pacific region signed the open letter, expressing their concern about the risks to human health, livelihoods and ecosystems resulting from discharge of mine waste directly into waterways.
The 2008 MYOW campaign builds on this initial appeal. We work to influence governments, mining companies and financial institutions to employ safe methods of waste disposal. In particular we will focus on:
The 2008 MYOW campaign builds on this initial appeal. We work to influence governments, mining companies and financial institutions to employ safe methods of waste disposal. In particular we will focus on:
• Supporting the struggles of local communities to stop the disposal of waste into waterways and to exercise their rights of free and prior informed consent over any impacts of mine waste
• Increasing awareness amongst the general public, decision-makers, financial institutions, and the mining industry of the impacts of the disposal of waste into waterways
• Promoting the independent scientific analysis of the environmental and public health risks associated with the dumping of waste into waterways.
• Seeking the policy commitment of key stakeholders associated with mining projects to phase out the disposal of mine waste into waterways.
Case Study - Mine Waste in Papua New Guinea
• The Ok Tedi mine in Western Province: majority owned for more than 15 years by the big Australian, BHP has desecrated the once sacred Mt Fublian. For almost 25 years the mine has discharged its metal laden waste directly into the Ok Tedi – Fly River system (see photo opposite) at about 115 tonnes per minute. It has rendered much of the 1000km Fly River system biologically dead with impacts felt as far away as Indonesia and the Torres Strait. Around 40,000 local people along the Fly and Ok Tedi River are experiencing food shortages. Coastal Papua New Guineans and Torres Strait Islanders may slowly be being poisoned.
• The planned Ramu Nickel mine has been the subject of considerable controversy due to a proposal, developed by its Australian consultants, to dump mine waste into the ocean. Astrolabe Bay supports a thriving tuna fishery as well as innumerable small scale fishers. It is also a centre for PNG's tourism industry. The mine has already destroyed sacred sites of local people.
• Every day the Tolukuma mine in Central Province disposes of 430 tonnes tailings into the Angabanga River. Tailings and drainage from the mine introduce heavy metals such as mercury, cadmium, chromium, arsenic, nickel and lead to the waterway. The impacts on the environment and health of local peoples led the world's second largest pension fund, the Norwegian Government Global Fund, to divest from the mine's owner DRD Gold last year. Until last month the mine was majority owned by Emperor Gold, the Australian division of DRD Gold.
• Over its expected 37 year life, the Lihir mine on Lihir Island will dump 89 million tonnes of cyanide contaminated tailings and 330 million tonnes of waste rock into an area of ocean rich in marine biodiversity and seafood resources. Fish kills as far away as Bougainville have been attributed by islanders to the mine. The Chair of Lihir Gold, Ross Garnaut was recently commissioned by the
Australia's State and Territory Governments to review climate change policy in Australia, this resulted in the release of the Garnaut Climate Change Review.
And two mines majority owned by Barrick Gold, the largest gold mining company in the world, and managed out of its Perth Australia-Pacific Office:
• The Porgera mine in Enga Province has destroyed the food gardens and alienated the land of the traditional landowners. Deprived of their means of livelihood, local people fossick for gold amongst the mine's operations and waste dumps where they have been shot and killed by the mine's security forces. Villagers living adjacent to toxic mine waste stockpiles are still awaiting relocation. The mine's waste erodes directly into the river system, impacting communities for hundreds of kilometres downstream.
• The Misima mine, which closed in 2004, disposed of 50 million tonnes of tailings waste onto a near shore coral reef. It pumped fresh water from the small island's aquifers, depleting the islands drinking water resources.
• The planned Ramu Nickel mine has been the subject of considerable controversy due to a proposal, developed by its Australian consultants, to dump mine waste into the ocean. Astrolabe Bay supports a thriving tuna fishery as well as innumerable small scale fishers. It is also a centre for PNG's tourism industry. The mine has already destroyed sacred sites of local people.
• Every day the Tolukuma mine in Central Province disposes of 430 tonnes tailings into the Angabanga River. Tailings and drainage from the mine introduce heavy metals such as mercury, cadmium, chromium, arsenic, nickel and lead to the waterway. The impacts on the environment and health of local peoples led the world's second largest pension fund, the Norwegian Government Global Fund, to divest from the mine's owner DRD Gold last year. Until last month the mine was majority owned by Emperor Gold, the Australian division of DRD Gold.
• Over its expected 37 year life, the Lihir mine on Lihir Island will dump 89 million tonnes of cyanide contaminated tailings and 330 million tonnes of waste rock into an area of ocean rich in marine biodiversity and seafood resources. Fish kills as far away as Bougainville have been attributed by islanders to the mine. The Chair of Lihir Gold, Ross Garnaut was recently commissioned by the
Australia's State and Territory Governments to review climate change policy in Australia, this resulted in the release of the Garnaut Climate Change Review.
And two mines majority owned by Barrick Gold, the largest gold mining company in the world, and managed out of its Perth Australia-Pacific Office:
• The Porgera mine in Enga Province has destroyed the food gardens and alienated the land of the traditional landowners. Deprived of their means of livelihood, local people fossick for gold amongst the mine's operations and waste dumps where they have been shot and killed by the mine's security forces. Villagers living adjacent to toxic mine waste stockpiles are still awaiting relocation. The mine's waste erodes directly into the river system, impacting communities for hundreds of kilometres downstream.
• The Misima mine, which closed in 2004, disposed of 50 million tonnes of tailings waste onto a near shore coral reef. It pumped fresh water from the small island's aquifers, depleting the islands drinking water resources.
Case Study - Goro Nickel Mine, New Caledonia
"The cultural and natural values of this region are a priceless jewel that warrant protection and safeguarding, both for the local indigenous people who depend on a healthy environment for both cultural and economic sustenance, and as a treasure for all of humanity.”
- Techa Beaumont, Executive Director, Mineral Policy Institute
In the pristine coastline of Grand Terre, the main island of New Caledonia, Indigenous Kanak people are adamant that a mine waste pipeline will not pollute their unique coastline, home to whale birthing sites, traditional fishing grounds, and unique geological formations including an underwater ʻcathedral', the Prony needle.
Top image: Mother and child at a cultural fair in Canala.
Top image: Mother and child at a cultural fair in Canala.
Bottom image: An area where a river has been silted up from ongoing erosion from an abandoned mine in New Caledonia. Photos: Techa Beaumont
The sustained opposition has intensified over the past month in an effort to prevent the Goro Nickel mine from laying the pipeline in the oceans. This local opposition and mobilisation has successfully halted the proposed construction of the pipe, while the provincial administration has indicated its own concern by placing a 1% levy on the revenue of the mine due to the proposal to use the lagoon.
This culturally and environmentally significant region has been identified for inclusion within a World Heritage nomination lodged by France and scheduled for inscription in a meeting of UNESCO in July this year. The Goro Nickel mine is yet another case study of inadequate mine waste disposal practice. The Mined Your Own Waste Coalition will support the resistance of local communities, like the Kanak People in New Caledonia, by launching the call to ban the dumping of mine waste in oceans, lakes and rivers, and to call on the industry to contain its own waste.Your support is appreciated. DONATE NOW!
Become a part of a growing movement that is calling for an immediate ban on the use of waste disposal practices that involve dumping of wastes, including tailings and overburden, into waterways.
To donate to MPI please complete the enclosed donation form or visit: www.mpi.org.au/support/
Be part of the solution. VOLUNTEER with MPI
The Mineral Policy Institute and the Mined Your Own Waste campaign would not be able to undertake work with mine affected communities in Australia and the Asia Pacific without the help of dedicated volunteers and interns. MPI welcomes expressions of interest from graduate research students and senior level undergraduate students as well as volunteers with prior experience in campaigns, communications and administration.
Please email your interest to: admin[at]mpi.org.au
Mineral Policy Institute
www.mpi.org.au
PO Box 435, Katoomba, NSW 2043, Australia
Phone: (02) 9557 9019 | Email: mpi[at]mpi.org.au
Membership enquiries, donations: Email: projects[at]mpi.org.au
For more information, please contact:
Techa Beaumont
Workphone: +61 2 9557 9019
Mobile: +61 409 318 406
Created: 14 Apr 2008 | Last updated: 14 Apr 2008
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