Joint-venture owners Newmont Mining and Barrick Gold move to increase the size of super-pit tailings dam that spilled cyanide two years ago

The more gold goes up, the further down the Kalgoorlie Super Pit partners want to go.

Joint-venture owners Newmont Mining and Barrick Gold want to increase the heights of two controversial tailings dams, and re-open another, as part of its plans to expand Australia's biggest gold mine, the massive Super Pit operations in the West Australian goldfields capital of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.

Newmont and Barrick, through their joint-venture company KCGM, which manages the mine, have won environmental approval to increase the heights of the Fimiston 1 and Fimiston 2 dams, the same dams that are part of a system that broke down only two years ago and contributed to a spill of cyanide and hypersaline water.

Newmont and Barrick want to increase the size of the Super Pit and extend the life of the mine, which sits on the eastern fringe of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and was originally the brainchild of disgraced businessman Alan Bond. The mine yields upwards of 800,000 ounces of gold a year for its North American owners and the expansion would lengthen the mine's life to 2017 by adding a further five years of production.

Gold prices are currently on a high as the value of the US dollar declines further amid serious concerns about the state of the world's biggest economy.

Gold producers exposed to spot prices nearing $US1000 an ounce are cashing in with expectations that the good times will continue to last for a while yet.

However, any increase in the footprint of the mine would leave its borders within 200m of people's houses in some cases in what is a concern to many residents. The pit's depth would be increased to 600m and the extension, called the Golden Pike Cutback, would cover 46ha.

KCGM was fined $25,000, described as "chicken feed" by the owner of the neighbouring lease, for the spill and promised authorities that it had implemented a "number of improvement measures" to better retain all process material, which it is bound by law to do. KCGM also argued that the seepage was mitigated by rainfall at the time and that it co-operated fully with government investigations at the time.

It was not the first time KCGM had been guilty of spilling waste water, with a similar breach in 1993. KCGM has also been caught out twice breaching sulphur dioxide emission limits and is the nation's biggest emitter of mercury. It released more than eight tonnes into the surrounding environment during the 2004-05 period.

Neither KCGM general manager Russell Cole or community relations manager Danielle van Kampen returned emailed questions about the nature of the proposed lift in the Fimiston dams or the reopening of the Kaltails site.

While KCGM has received approvals, nearby residents have raised their concerns with the Environment Department appeals convener ahead of a decision by West Australian Environment Minister David Templeman on whether the expansion can proceed.

The Kaltails Dam has been criticised by state environmental authorities in the past for its poor construction, site selection and the destruction of a large tract of vegetation.

KCGM has indicated that it would not re-open the Kaltails dam if it was allowed to increase the other Fimiston operations.

Here is the full article.

Estimation of Environmental Damages from Mining Pollution on River Systems

Introduction

Pollution, in general, can cause damages on natural resource systems which provide valuable though unpriced services to society. Oftentimes, the harmful effects of pollution are not considered by the polluter in decision-making, thus creating excessive environmental externalities. To estimate the externalities generated by pollution, it is necessary to develop economic measures of values of the environmental and resource services provided by the affected resource systems. The estimation process is undertaken primarily to provide inputs to the information base supporting public resource and environmental management decisions. One of these decisions that is of primary relevance to this study has to do with determining the natural resource damage liability of responsible parties in pollution cases, which can be used as basis for damage compensation to affected parties.

Mining pollution has historically been a major source of degradation of natural resource systems such as river, coastal, and air (USEPA 1995). For this reason, mining, as an economic activity, is subject to major environmental regulations worldwide, including the Philippines. Unfortunately, the current information on mining externalities is insufficient to be useful for policy setting. This study was undertaken partly to partly fill this information gap, particularly in the development of policy instruments which require information on social costs of mining, and partly to assist in the formulation of guidelines on damage assessment and compensation for the mining sector. A case study of an accident-induced mining pollution was implemented.

The Mining Accident

Marinduque Island is located about 170 kilometers south of Manila. It has a total land area of 959.2 km2 (see Map 1). Administratively, it is one of 11 provinces of Region IV or the Southern Luzon region. The provincial population in 1995 was 199,910, with almost one-fourth (44,609) of the population residing in Boac, the provincial capital.

The Marcopper Mining Corporation (MMC) had been engaged in copper open-pit mining in the municipality of Sta. Cruz, Marinduque since the early 1970s. When the mining operation moved from the Mt. Tapian to the San Antonio mine site in 1989, the drainage tunnel in the Tapian Pit was plugged with concrete so the pit could serve as disposal pond for the mine tailings. In August 1995, seepage was discovered in the drainage tunnel, which consequently ruptured on 24 March 1996, discharging mine tailings into the Makulapnit-Boac River system (henceforth referred to as Boac River), initially at a rate of 5-10 cubic meters per second (see Map 2).

The incident resulted in the release and deposition of some 1.6 million cubic meters of tailings along the 27-km span of the river system and the coastal areas near the river mouth west of the island-province. The impact on the river ecosystem was extensive. The devastating effects of the pollution on the river and coastal ecosystems were of such magnitude that a UN assessment mission declared the accident an environmental disaster (UNDP 1996). Boac River was left virtually dead. The onrush of tailings downstream displaced the river water, which in turn flooded low-lying areas, destroying crop farms and vegetable gardens along the banks and clogging the irrigation waterways to ricefields. Road sections straddling the river were damaged, temporarily isolating some barangays (villages) and affecting trade and access to services. All these impacts adversely affected the local residents in Boac whose livelihood activities were river-dependent.

The Boac River

The Boac River is a major river system in Marinduque and has traditionally been used for a variety of purposes by the population residing in towns along the river. The tailings spill not only had a significant visual impact on the quality of the river, but also resulted in the total loss of the river-based sources of livelihood as well as of other non-economic uses such as recreation.

During its pre-release condition, the Boac River was an important source of subsistence food for the local population such as fish, shrimps, and snails. Some of the local population engaged in river fishing as a secondary occupation. A significant amount of vegetables was being grown along the river banks, both for commercial sale and subsistence consumption. Another important source of household income from the river was its use for commercial laundry services. Some of the local population also engaged in gravel and sand quarrying in the river banks. The river was also a transport route used to haul agricultural crops upstream to the Boac town market.

The river's nonmarket uses included being a source of recreational opportunities for the local residents, especially children. Some of these activities included swimming, fishing, strolling along the river banks, and picnicking. The river has also been used as a receptacle of both industry and household wastes. Other household uses of the river included bathing, washing clothes, work implements and dishes, watering gardens, and maintenance of livestock.

Damage Valuation Approaches

1] Contingent valuation. Contingent valuation as an approach to benefit/damage estimation involves soliciting responses to hypothetical questions regarding the value people place on environmental amenities. The most commonly used hypothetical questions ask people for the value they place on a specified change in an environmental amenity or the maximum amount they would be willing to pay for the change to occur (Freeman 1993). A variation is the question on how much compensation people are willing to accept to endure or risk an environmental dis-amenity. These two measures, willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to accept compensation (WAC), when aggregated over the population concerned, can provide a value of the resource as an asset.

2] Travel cost. The travel cost method, which is extensively used to value recreational goods and services, requires data on people's observed visitation behavior to a recreational site. From these data, a demand curve for use of the site is derived. Then, the total amount of consumer surplus may be estimated. The estimated consumer surplus is a measure of the recreational value of the resource and is used as basis for estimating park entrance fees and related charges for use of a recreational site. However, the value of changes in the quality of a recreational site or changes in the quality of the flow of recreational services is better measured through a variant of the travel cost -- the random utility model, which does a "better job of capturing the role of site characteristics in influencing the decisions about whether to participate in recreation and the choice of a site to visit" (Freeman 1993).

3] Hedonic property value. One potential valuation approach to measure the value of lost services of the river is the application of hedonic pricing using changes in property values as a measure of pollution damage. The method is a surrogate-market approach which assumes that purchasers of property reveal their attitude to a bundle of attributes, including environmental, by their willingness to pay (Dixon et al. 1994). Through multiple regression analysis, the environmental attribute coefficient, after controlling for other attributes, is used to predict changes in property values given changes in environmental quality. The approach requires extensive data on the selling prices of individual properties as well as on their physical characteristics (e.g., location, size, distance to an environmental amenity).

4]Restoration Cost. In addition to the discounted foregone use values of the river, an alternative measure of natural resource damages in the Marinduque mining accident is the cost of restoring or rehabilitating the river to its pre-release condition. In the U.S., the estimate of the cost of restoring an injured natural resource to its pre-damage state is favored as basis for compensatory damages by the U.S. Court of Appeals over an estimate of the reduction in value of the flow services of the injured resource. The argument is that monetary values as a measure of the value of a public asset is an understatement of its social value (Smith 1996).

Impact on Fishing

Coastal fishing. A total of 35 sample households (15%) from three barangays (Laylay, Pili and Balogo) were engaged in coastal fishing. The initial income losses experienced by coastal fishermen immediately after the accident were due to the pervasive fear of the local people of eating fish caught from the coastal waters near the river outlet. For a couple of months after the spill, fish was avoided as stories of alleged food poisoning spread and the seawater remained discolored by tailings silt. Whatever fish was caught at that time was bought at depressed prices. Unfortunately, data to validate this observation were not collected in the survey.

Later, however, coastal fishers reported a real reduction in their fish catch which resulted in foregone annual average income losses averaging P17,938 per household. The average monthly income loss for those who used non-motorized boats (n=31) was higher at P1,830 than for those with motorized boats (n=4) at P1,410. This result was expected since fishers with motorized boats can fish farther offshore to avoid the pollution and to the extent that their catch revenue could offset the added fuel cost. Thus, they were likely to suffer less than the non-motorized boat fishers who did not have similar options.

Short-term Mitigation Activities in the Boac River and Affected Communities

Immediately after the accident, Marcopper and government agencies conducted relief operations and dispatched medical missions to affected communities. The Marcopper Environmental Guarantee Fund (EGF) compensation mechanism was activated with the formation of a Committee and Secretariat to oversee the fund's dispensation, most of which was allotted for damage compensation payments and construction of core and evacuation centers (see Section 8.6). In addition, Marcopper spent funds outside the EGF for infrastructure-related activities such as road repair and construction of new access roads to remote barangays isolated by floods. Relief and medical missions were dispatched to the affected areas immediately following the accident.

Long-term River Rehabilitation/Restoration Options

Table 13 summarizes the seven options addressing the tailings deposition in the rehabilitation of the Boac River, namely: (1) landfill, (2) haul to Tapian Pit, (3) pump, (4) coastal reclaim, (5) settling basis, (6) deep ocean disposal either by river or settling basin, (7) dredged channel, with corresponding estimated costs. Each option was evaluated by those concerned on technical, social, and economic grounds. The construction of the dredged channel had actually been completed at the time of the study; however, the option to redredge the channel was being evaluated. Assuming the redredging would cost the same as the original dredging and that it will address the tailings deposition adequately, this activity appears to be the least costly among the options. The cost, however, excluded the externalities from the redredging activities such as lower fish productivity and others.

Conclusion

The study makes the following prescriptions:

1. Guidelines for the conduct of a systematic natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) for events resulting in release of hazardous substances to the environment should be formulated. These should include the three stages in damage assessment, which are injury determination, quantification of effects, and damage determination. In the first two stages, the Philippine EIS System, which is fully institutionalized, should provide the physical, technical, and even economic data required. In the damage determination stage, the guidelines should prescribe the range of valuation methods for valuing foregone natural resource services applicable in different pollution cases.
   
   
2. Government policy on the nature and extent of liability of polluters for injury on natural resource systems should be clearly defined. Moreover, the efficiency implications of alternative liability rules should be considered in the formulation of liability-cum-compensation policies.

Here is the full article.

Canadian Uranium One's dam bursts in South Africa

Canadian miner Uranium One Inc. said on Monday that a storm water containment at its Dominion Reefs uranium mine in South Africa burst over the weekend after 58 millimeters of rain fell on the area in 30 minutes.

The company said it repaired the damage, and estimates that about 100 megalitres of water was discharged into a nearby stream that feeds the Vaal River.

"Based on initial water sampling and analysis," the company said in a statement, it "does not expect any environmental impact due to the discharge." (There never is, and thankfully it did not occur in Canada.)

Here is the full article.

Radioactive Water, the Price of Gold in South Africa - no natural water in the whole area that was safe for use by humans, animals or plants.

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 3 (IPS) - Large gold-mining companies operating to the west of South Africa's commercial centre, Johannesburg, stand accused of contaminating a number of water sources with radioactive pollutants.

One case involves the Wonderfontein Spruit ("water course", in Afrikaans): a stream that runs 90 kilometres from the outskirts of Johannesburg to the south-west past the towns of Krugersdorp, Bekkersdal, Carletonville and Khutsong, before flowing into the Mooi River near Potchefstroom.

Mariette Liefferink, an environmental activist, blames the mines for the high concentrations of heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium, copper cobalt and zinc in the waters of the spruit. She is particularly troubled by the levels of uranium, which gives off radioactive by-products such as polonium and lead.

"The Wonderfontein Spruit is of major concern to us because every year the gold mines discharge 50 tonnes of uranium into the receiving water course. The Water Research Commission (a parastatal research body) has found that there are approximately 1,100 milligrammes per kilogramme of uranium in the upper Wonderfontein Spruit, and 900 milligrammes per kilogramme in the lower Wonderfontein Spruit area."

Heavy metal concentrations are higher in the upper reaches of the river because a large percentage of the pollutants sink into the sediments as water flows downstream. This means that under normal circumstances water tests in lower areas do not cause great concern, and users may feel that they are not under threat from heavy metal contaminants.

If, however, the sediments are in any way disturbed -- by cattle, or children playing in the river, for example -- the uranium can easily be dislodged from the sediments and reabsorbed into the water.

Mixed messages

Government bodies have commissioned several studies to ascertain the gravity of the water pollution in the Wonderfontein Spruit. The most recent study, known as the Brenk report, was commissioned by the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) -- a governmental body set up to monitor and regulate the production and use of nuclear materials -- and compiled under the direction of German physicist Rainer Barthel.

Initially government was so embarrassed by the Brenk report that the NNR refused to release it to the public, and as Barthel was due to present his findings to the Environmin 2007 conference on Jul. 24-25, organisers of this event were told to withdraw his invitation.

When the Brenk Report was eventually made public in August, it resulted in a number of contradictory messages.

Harmony Gold -- the world’s fifth largest gold producer, and one of the mines responsible for the uranium discharge -- relayed to farmers on its lands a directive from the NNR saying that livestock may not consume water from the Wonderfontein Spruit.

The report said that water in the river had absorbed polonium and lead. Barthel also noted in the study that there was no natural water in the whole area that was safe for use by humans, animals or plants.

However, Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Lindiwe Hendricks said in a written response to a question posed in parliament that none of the 47 samples from the Wonderfontein Spruit exceeded the NNR regulatory limit for public exposure. "The use of this water is therefore safe for drinking purposes, but it should be borne in mind that the water is raw or untreated river water that has not been treated to potable drinking water standards."

This assurance came despite her acknowledgement, in the same response, that "Elevated levels of radioactive contamination have been detected in the sediments of dams and weirs along the river. This may pose potential problems should it be ingested by live-stock churning up the sediments."

The chief executive of the NNR, Maurice Magugumela, has made an effort to quell public fears over this situation, saying that the poisoned water and sediments posed "no cause for concern."

In addition, the city council of Potchefstroom has gone to great lengths to assure its residents that the city’s drinking water is safe. Potchefstroom sources much of its water from the Boskop dam which is partly fed by the Wonderfontein Spruit.

"Treated water from the Boskop and Potchefstroom dams are of high quality especially regarding its heavy metal and uranium content," said mayoral spokesman Kaizer Mohau, in a statement.

There is no reason to doubt Mohau’s statement, which must certainly comfort city residents who drink tap water.

But it will do little for the estimated 150,000 people living in impoverished settlements along the Wonderfontein Spruit’s banks. They may have no choice but to drink untreated water from the river.

Acid mine drainage

Gold mines are also finding themselves in the dock over acid mine drainage, another means by which heavy metals are being released into the environment.

Mining operations expose heavy metals and sulphur compounds that have been locked away in the ground. Rising ground water then leaches these compounds out of the exposed earth, resulting in acid mine drainage that can continue to pollute the environment decades after mines have been closed down.

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Water coming out of the disused mine in Randfontein could not simply be channelled into the nearest river because it was far too acidic and could have had serious consequences for the environment.

As an emergency measure, Harmony fed the water into Robinson Lake, at that time a popular recreational area where fishing was a favourite pastime. Today the lake has very high levels of uranium and a pH level of 2.2, which makes it as acidic as lemon juice and completely incapable of sustaining any life forms.

The NNR measured in the water a uranium concentration of 16 milligrammes per litre, obliging it to declare Robinson Lake a radiation area.

Here is the full article.

Alaska Mine tells villagers: "we can't stop discharging (tailings waste) unless it stops raining." - requests new discharge permit from EPA

Kivalina, Alaska - It's the most successful major mining operation in Alaska. The Red Dog Zinc Mine north of Kotzebue is seeing unprecedented revenue, while its partner, NANA Regional Native Corp., is sharing in the success.

But one community in the region remains unsatisfied and is suing the mine.

Looking north from the village of Kivalina, one sees foothills of the Delong Mountains in the distance.

Deep in those mountains, about 50 miles from the village, lies the Red Dog Mine.

Red Dog is seeing a banner year. The operation has posted record production numbers - 1.2 million metric tons of zinc and lead concentrate - and record profits. The company overseeing Red Dog reported $645 million in profit for the first nine months of this year.

NANA Regional Corp. received a reported $155 million in royalties this year, 62 percent of which is shared with other corporations created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, or ANCSA.

"Every shareholder that's a shareholder of an ANCSA Corporation or a village corporation is seeing a benefit from Red Dog," said Rosie Barr with NANA's Lands and Natural Resources Dept.

But there's another element of the story.

The mine discharges water into Red Dog Creek, which flows into the Wulik River. The river flows into the sea in Kivalina.

For the last several years the mine has been unable to meet the requirements of its water quality permit.

"I have no choice. I just have to believe them that the fish are good to eat," Kivalina resident Joe Swan Sr. said. "I hope so because I'm eating them."

Swan is one of a small group of Kivalina residents now suing Tech Cominco Ltd., which operates Red Dog Mine, demanding that the company comply with its permit and pay fines for violations.

Red Dog officials say the mine is working with the Environmental Protection Agency to get a new permit that would allow more discharges.

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"All of the heavy metals up there - you stirred it up. It may have been in the water before but it never created a problem for us," Kivalina tribal administrator Colleen Swan said. "Now it's in the air, on the vegetation, we have it wherever our subsistence foods come from."

"As I've told you folks here in the past, we can't stop discharging unless it stops raining," Kuals said. "Until that happens we must discharge water or that dam will fill up and overtop and nobody wants that to happen."

Lead can have damaging effects on children, according to health experts and community leaders here.

"Every indication says lead levels are safe and not harmful including for children," Kuals said.

Tech Cominco plans to finish mining the original Red Dog ore deposit in 2010.

It's hoping to expand into a new deposit that could prolong the mine's life another 20 years.

Kivalina's residents aren't sure they can stomach it.

"We've been to the EPA. We've been to the state from the beginning," Kivalina resident Enoch Adams said. "We've gone to Red Dog, told them our concerns, and we've said these things for years and finding that nothing is being done."

The EPA is currently doing an environmental impact statement on Red Dog's expansion plan.

That environmental study will also consider the mine's request for a permit that allows more discharges into Red Dog Creek.

Here is the full article.

Chile’s National Environmental Commission (CONAMA) launches new website that contains detailed information about Chile’s most egregious polluters.

(Nov. 30, 2007) Chile’s National Environmental Commission (CONAMA) launched Thursday a new website that contains detailed information about Chile’s most egregious polluters. According to CONAMA, the webpage is intended to both improve transparency and increase citizens’ awareness about environmental issues.

The website, dubbed Emissions Register and Contaminants Transference (RETC), will contain profiles of more than 5,000 businesses based on information from 2005 to the present. Each profile will include details of the companies’ emissions records, incidents of chemical or other potentially hazardous leaks, and energy efficiency records. Additionally, the web site will include a forum where citizens can ask follow-up questions regarding the posted information.

CONAMA officials say that the site’s information, available only in Spanish, will be complied from other governmental organizations. For example, emissions information will come from the Health Ministry, National Statistics Institute (INE), the Santiago Metropolitan Region Sanitation Authority, and the Inter-ministerial Secretariat of Transportation Planning (SECTRA). Still, officials say that the data will not be fully available until mid December.

CONAMA also said the website has thus far received more than US$1 million in financing from a variety of domestic and international organizations, but did not disclose the names of specific donors.

Environmental NGOs reacted favorably to the creation of this new webpage, which they say could revolutionize citizen’s knowledge about Chile’s environment.

“This is the tip of the iceberg in terms of understanding the country’s environmental conditions. The fact that we now have access to this information allows us to become far more familiar with the country’s reality,” said Samuel Leiva, a Greenpeace Chile representative. “We will also be able to see if companies improve or worsen their records.” Leiva said not only Chile’s government, but NGOs and common Chilean citizens will now be able to monitor business practices.

For more information about the new website: http://www.retc.cl

Here is the full article.

Mine tailings dam collapse kills six, seven missing in China

BEIJING (Reuters) - A dam collapse in northeast China sent a torrent of mud and debris into two nearby villages, killing six and leaving another seven missing, Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.

The collapse of the dam, holding back waste from iron ore production, in Liaoning province's Shiqiaozi village injured another 17, all of whom were in a stable condition.

Rescuers were searching for the missing as 10 bulldozers cleared mud and ore.

An 80-metre wide river of debris spilled across fields and into two low-lying villages, destroying cropland and 33 houses.

"The priority of our work is to look for the missing and resettle the homeless," Xinhua quoted Yang Jinfang, head of the publicity department in the nearby city of Anshan, as saying.

The dam, which Xinhua said belonged to the Dingyang Mining Co. Ltd, an iron ore producer, was supposed to be used to contain waste ore, but over the years there had been a buildup of water.

Authorities had sent inspectors to check four similar dams in the area, the report said.

China is frequently beset by industrial and environmental disasters.

Last week, 31 people were crushed in a landslide in central China, most of them trapped in a long-distance bus that was buried under an avalanche of boulders, earth and mud at the entrance to a railway tunnel being built near the site of the Three Gorges Dam.

Here is the full article.

Modern Mining Myths

Modern Mining Myths

Modern metal mining is producing a legacy of dead rivers, ruined landscapes, and groundwater dangerously polluted by heavy metals and chemicals. Ecological damage of this magnitude isn't just happening in countries with lax environmental regulations. It's also happening in the United States, despite environmental laws like the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Clean Air Act.

Part of the problem is that modern mining with its open pits, massive waste rock dumps and toxic processing chemicals has outstripped environmental and mining regulations. They simply weren't written to deal with massive open pits over a mile wide, mountains of waste rock and water pollution that can last 1000 years. And where regulations prohibited some actions, such as dumping tailings in stream drainages, industry has successfully gained exemptions to the law.

Another part of the problem is perception. Greenwashing by the mining industry portrays mines as strictly regulated facilities that temporarily use the land with minimal lasting effects. Public relations campaigns by industry trade groups, such as the Gold Institute, imply that with modern technology, mining nowadays poses little risk to the environment or public health. This article looks at two major mining components - cyanide leaching and "zero discharge" tailings impoundments - in an effort to explode these myths.

Cyanide - Mining's Poison Pill

Used to process both base and precious metals, cyanide is the reagent of choice at modern mines. 85% of the world's gold is produced through the cyanide leach process. Although acknowledging cyanide's acute toxicity (1 teaspoon of 2% cyanide solution will kill an adult) the mining industry maintains that accidental releases of cyanide are rare, but that when they do occur, impacts "are transient and the recovery of the environment occurs in a short period."

However, that claim is not born out on the ground; lots of mines leak lots of cyanide into ground and surface waters. In Idaho, the Grouse Creek mine had numerous violations discharging cyanide at levels two to five times higher than allowed. Even after mining ceased in 1997, cyanide continued to leak into nearby Jordan Creek at levels harmful to aquatic life. At the Beal Mountain, Kendall, Golden Sunlight and Zortman-Landusky mines - all in Montana - numerous cyanide spills and leaks contaminated drinking water aquifers and killed streams. These weren't transient effects. Because of persistent cyanide contamination, Pegasus Gold had to provide an alternative drinking water source to the town of Zortman, and Placer Dome bought out landowners downstream of the Golden Sunlight mine . In fact, Montana has so many streams and aquifers contaminated with cyanide from mining operations that, in 1999, a citizen's initiative to ban new cyanide leach operations passed by a healthy margin. Clearly Montana taxpayers, after watching their streams die and faced with a clean-up bill of close to $60 million, didn't buy industry's argument that cyanide doesn't cause long-term problems.

"Zero Discharge" - Fact or Fiction?

Most mines process millions of tons of ore a year. The consistency of wet cement, tailings are what's left over after the ore has been processed. Current practice for permanent tailings storage is to construct a dam across the mouth of stream, divert the stream, and dump the tailings in the drainage. At Ft. Knox, outside of Fairbanks, for example, over 1,000 acres of the upper Fish Creek drainage will be consumed by tailings.

See the full article at: Northern Alaska Environmental Center.

Chilean authorities outraged over new leak at Los Pelambres mine

Over 300,000 Liters Of Toxic Liquid Spilled In Latest Accident

(Nov. 1, 2007) Chilean authorities expressed outrage Wednesday when informed of a Friday-night toxic leak at a tailings dam in Region IV’s Los Pelambres Mine. That leak, which lasted five hours before mine officials notified authorities, was disclosed to the press Tuesday evening.

Los Pelambres is 60 percent owned by Chile’s powerful Luksic family and administered by Antofagasta Minerals, the mining arm of the family’s economic empire. (ST, Aug. 23) This is the second time since August that the plant has been responsible for a toxic spill.

“This most recent spill happened during a 40 minute time span at about 4 a.m. As soon as we received word of the accident, we immediately went out to the scene to investigate what happened. Still, we were not able to make it out to the mine until about 11 a.m,” Marcelo Gamboa, the head of Region IV’s Environmental Authority (COREMA), told the Santiago Times.
Radio Universidad de Chile reported that toxic residue flowed from the facility at a rate of 128 liters per second, resulting in a spill of more than 300,000 liters in the surrounding area. Officials believe that the waste traveled some two kilometers before entering the nearby Cuncumén River and its tributaries. A faulty pump, they say, was the source of the accident.

Radio Universidad de Chile also quoted Los Pelambres mine officials, who said the liquid contained 1,500 milligrams of sulfate and 0.2 milligrams of molybdenum per liter - quantities that are highly toxic for local flora and fauna.

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This latest spill follows allegations that the mine spewed toxic water into the Cuncumén River in early August. According to mine officials, one of Los Pelambre’s major valves ruptured on August 3, allowing some 5,000 cubic meters of water to leak from the plant to the area surrounding it.

While company officials claim that the leak was not toxic, CONAMA suspects otherwise. CONAMA officials detected abnormally high amount of pollutants, including sulfur, in the Cuncumén River shortly after the accident happened.

“There was a deliberate attempt on part of the mine’s employees to not inform local governing bodies. This meant that samples of the surrounding area were taken too late to have confirmed the spill,” local Dep. Renán Fuentealba (DC) told reporters at the time. He went on to state that the pollution could potentially affect the nearby Choapa Valley’s agricultural production and that dozens of dead fish had already turned up in the river.

Here is the full article.

Photo Credit: Edward Burtynsky, an artist who explores landscapes transformed by industry. Here is his webpage: Manfactured Landscapes.

Cleanup of the Upper Blackfoot Mining Complex

Twilight of the Dam

LINCOLN - As the pool of water recedes behind the Mike Horse dam, so does the threat of another blowout.

At this time of year, the pool typically is at one of its lowest levels. And on a recent crisp fall day, amid howling winds and a hint of snow, a backhoe operator was carefully digging a V-shaped ditch 4 feet deep, just above the western boundary of the pool, which will completely drain it.

This is one of the first long-awaited steps toward restoring the headwaters of the famed Blackfoot River to its original state.

The work is oddly reminiscent of another man-made effort decades ago, when a crew carved a similar trench into the hillside to do what they're doing again today - rerouting Beartrap Creek around what most people call the Mike Horse dam.

Technically, the Mike Horse dam is an impoundment, not a bona fide dam constructed to hold back water. It originated in 1941, when ore was pulled from deep within the bowels of the nearby Mike Horse Mine. After the metal was extracted from the ore through a milling process, the wet tailings ran down a sluice next to Beartrap Creek, where they settled and excess water evaporated or seeped through the mound of tailings.

It's been decades since tailings were placed here, but the seeping is still taking place, sometimes at up to 500 gallons per minute. The giant slope that's the face of the impoundment is moist and spongy when trod upon; the metals that make their way through the ground with the water, now and in the past, have painted the soils bright orange, coal black and salty white.

At the base of the dam, where Mike Horse and Beartrap creeks meet, fluorescent green plants thrive in the metal-laden water.

"It only used to discharge during the springtime," notes Charlie McKenna, an engineer with the Helena National Forest. "But now, even when the water level is low behind the dam, water leaks through it.

"When the water level is high, it leaks like a sieve."

The Blowout

The impoundment and nearby mining sites are part of the Upper Blackfoot Mining Complex, 16 miles east of Lincoln and about 50 miles northwest of Helena. The land on which the Mike Horse dam sits is part of the Helena National Forest's Lincoln Ranger District.

Various entities have worked claims in the complex, but Asarco was the primary operator and created the ditch that funneled Beartrap Creek around the impoundment, according to a history of the site by David Stiller, who wrote a book about the Mike Horse and its impact upon Montana's environment.

On a cool, wet June day 32 years ago, the upper ditch gave way after days of powerful rainstorms cut loose landslides. The creek water mixed with trees, rocks, rain and melting snow, with the debris blocking the only spillway.

Cresting the 50-foot-tall impoundment, the water took bite after bite through a 100-foot-wide section on the east side, eventually carving a deep "V" through the dam and sending 100,000 tons of tailings into the headwaters of the famed Blackfoot River, immortalized in Norman Maclean's novel "A River Runs Through It."

The blowout caused a toxic stew of heavy metals to rush downstream, killing thousands of fish and all other aquatic life for 10 miles of the Blackfoot River. It became the poster child for environmental groups calling for the cleanup of the Upper Blackfoot Mining Complex, as well as other abandoned properties throughout Montana.

The Anaconda Co., which leased the mine and mill operation from Asarco, repaired the impoundment by November 1975. The new structure was 50 feet high, 500 feet long and 25 feet wide at the top. Upgrades made in 1980 raised the impoundment by two feet.

By this time, Beartrap Creek was flowing directly into the pool behind the dam. It's still considered a "dead" stream below the dam, devoid of fish.

Concerns were raised about the old impoundment in 1964, 1972 and 1974, before the blowout and dam repair.

Questions began circulating a few years ago about the new structure's stability.

A 2005 study by the U.S. Forest Service, which owns the land on which the dam sits, called the structure "compromised," and noted it had several large voids in it. Last spring, water was seeping through the dam at around 400 to 500 gallons per minute.

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