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Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution, Tailing Dams and Abandoned Mines

Multiple Dams Fail at Indonesian Nickel-Mining Facilities – by Ellen Moore (Earthworks.org – March 28, 2025)

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Three people are feared dead and hundreds more are at risk of negative health impacts after multiple tailings dams, which store toxic mine waste, collapsed inside an industrial park in Indonesia. According to media and worker testimony, on March 16, the PT Huayue Nickel Cobalt tailings storage facility was breached, and liquified tailings flowed into the Bahadopi River.

The breach flooded facilities at the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) and the village of Labota with a wave of red water, putting the health of workers and 341 families at risk through exposure to heavy metals.

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This may be the most lead polluted place on Earth. Is there any hope? – by Julie Bourdin (NPR.org/Goats and Soda – March 30, 2025)

https://www.npr.org/

In a soft, faltering voice, her large brown eyes staring absently ahead, Winfrida Besa repeats “A-B-C-D” over and over as she tries to sing the ABCs. With her thin, hollow face and slight frame, 7-year-old Winfrida looks much younger than she really is.

“Winfrida doesn’t go to school. She would just leave the classroom and wander off, and we worry she would get lost,” sighs her grandfather, Bobby Besa, 60. The little girl was born “normal,” he says, but soon she was exhibiting a constellation of disturbing symptoms that are familiar to residents of Kabwe, Zambia. The diagnosis came after blood testing at the local clinic: Lead poisoning.

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Indonesian watchdog demands prosecution for environmental crime ‘cartels’ – by Hans Nicholas Jong (Mongabay.com – March 14, 2025)

Mongabay – Conservation News

JAKARTA — Indonesia’s largest environmental group, Walhi, has filed a formal complaint with the Attorney General’s Office, accusing 47 companies of environmental destruction and corruption. The companies, which operate in industries like palm oil, mining and forestry, are accused of being responsible for 437 trillion rupiah ($26.5 billion) in state losses.

Based on field investigations and spatial analysis, Walhi says it has identified 18 forms of gratuities paid by the companies to officials in the 47 cases. In some of these cases, Walhi found that officials had approved the rescinding of forest status for certain areas by revising zoning plans, thereby allowing the companies to clear forests for their concessions.

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Mine tailings in Sudbury, across Canada worth billions – by Darius Snieckus (Sudbury Star/National Observer – March 18, 2025)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Waste not, profit much: toxic tailings in Canada could ’re-mined’ for billions of dollars in critical minerals, report says

Toxic tailings discarded at some 10,000 abandoned mines together with those currently being produced by 200 others in operation across Canada could hide a multi-billion-dollar market opportunity as demand for critical minerals explodes globally in the coming decades, a new study has concluded.

Tailings – a byproduct of large-scale mining operations – could be changed “from a liability into asset” by monetizing recovered minerals and metals from current waste for use in renewable energy technologies, data centres, and defence applications, said the report from Action Canada, a leader development programme.

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Can Toxic Mining Waste Help Remove CO2 from the Atmosphere? – by Moira Donovan (Yale Environment 360 – March 13, 2025)

https://e360.yale.edu/

On the coast of Newfoundland, waste from a shuttered asbestos mine has been a troubling source of contamination for decades. Now, a company plans to process the waste to draw CO2 from the air — one of several projects worldwide that aim to turn this liability into an asset.

Just outside Baie Verte, a tiny town on Newfoundland’s rocky north coast, a 50-ton toxic liability lingers like a bad dream. In the mid-20th century, a local prospector discovered asbestos in the hills above the bay. The Advocate mine opened in 1963 and became one of Canada’s largest asbestos producers, providing mineral fiber for insulation and fire-resistant materials.

But as asbestos’s health risks — which include mesothelioma and other lung diseases — became clear, global demand for the mineral dropped, and in 1995 the mine closed. “There’s a stigma now to the town,” says Trina Barrett, who grew up in Baie Verte. As a child, her father worked in the mine, as did most of their neighbors. When the mine shuttered, those jobs disappeared.

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Barrick fined for releasing excessive cobalt into British Columbia river – by Staff (Mining.com – March 15, 2025)

https://www.mining.com/

Barrick Gold has been hit with a C$114,750 (approximately $79,800) fine for its repeated, excessive discharge of toxic materials from the now-decommissioned Nickel Plate gold mine located 3 km away from Hedley, BC.

The decision follows an inspection by provincial inspectors who found that the former underground and open pit mine had been releasing mine waste containing high concentrations of cobalt into Hedley Creek, which flows into the Similkameen River. This occurred on 17 separate occasions between 2021 and 2023, the inspectors found.

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No harm from tailings, says McEwen Mining about First Nation allegations – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – February 26, 2025)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Matheson miner argues no share compensation arrangement exists with First Nation

Matheson gold producer McEwen Mining contends there’s no cause for concern regarding its mine waste tailings storage facility that a nearby First Nation claims is causing environment harm and is a human health risk.

In a news release, McEwen responded to a lawsuit that was launched this month by Apitipi Anicinapek Nation (AAN) against the Toronto gold company for allegedly violating an impact benefit agreement (IBA) between the two parties.

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Experts and advocates warn of nickel mining’s risk to precious marine region of Indonesia – by Victoria Milko (Associated Press – January 31, 2025)

https://apnews.com/

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — One of Earth’s most biodiverse marine regions is threatened by the expansion of nickel mining projects in Indonesia, according to a new report.

Satellite analysis and on-the-ground visits found a rapid increase in land given over to mining pits in Raja Ampat Regency, a group of tropical islands near West Papua, according to the report from Auriga Nusantara, an environmental and conservation organization in Indonesia.

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In Namibia, a Canadian copper company leaves a legacy of toxic waste – by Geoffrey York and Samuel Schlaefli (Globe and Mail – January 15, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Sickness has been common for years in Tsumeb, where Dundee Precious Metals was the biggest employer for more than a decade. Tests have now found the soil is contaminated with arsenic and other heavy metals

In the citrus orchards above the Namibian town, workers often fall sick. They say they feel a burning sensation in their eyes and throats and a metallic taste in their mouths as the wind blows across from the copper smelter a few kilometres away.

“When the gas is coming from that side, we get headaches and dizziness, and sometimes you feel like you want to throw up,” says Festus Gawab, who has worked for three years on a citrus farm near Tsumeb, watering the orange and lemon trees.

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Opinion: When resource companies leave a toxic mess, First Nations are stuck with the consequences – by Tanya Talaga (Globe and Mail – December 14, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Na-Cho Nyäk Dun First Nation Elder Jimmy Johnny no longer fishes in the waters that generations of his family members have relied on since memories are remembered.

This past summer, 68 dead fish were found in beautiful Haggart Creek, downstream from the site of an environmental disaster that occurred on June 24 at Victoria Gold Corp.’s Eagle Gold mine, on the Na-Cho Nyäk Dun traditional territory, near Mayo in central Yukon.

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Mining company charged 10 years after spilling toxic waste into B.C. waters – by Andrew Kurjata (CBC News British Columbia – December 10, 2024)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/

Collapse of Mount Polley tailings dam considered one of the worst environmental disasters in Canadian history

More than a decade after spilling millions of litres of toxic wastewater into rivers in the B.C. Interior, Imperial Metals Corp. has been charged with 15 violations of the federal Fisheries Act.

The charges were announced Tuesday by the B.C. Conservation Officer Service, which said it worked with the Department of Fisheries and Environment and Climate Change Canada to build the case for taking the company to court.

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BHP, Vale cleared by Brazil court over 2015 dam disaster – by Lucia Lacurcia (AFP/Yahoo – November 14, 2024)

https://www.yahoo.com/

A Brazilian court on Thursday cleared mining giants BHP and Vale, and their Brazilian joint venture Samarco, of responsibility over a 2015 dam collapse that caused the country’s worst ever environmental disaster.

The dam’s rupture on November 5, 2015 near the town of Mariana unleashed a giant torrent of toxic mud that swamped villages, rivers and rainforest, killing 19 people on its way to the sea. Scientists say the sludge caused “permanent” pollution on the river Doce and its coastal plain.

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Indonesia’s Small Islands Pay the Price for Nickel Mining – by Firdaus Cahyadi (China Global South Project – November 11, 2024)

https://chinaglobalsouth.com/

The push for electric vehicles (EVs) promises a cleaner future, but the production of their batteries comes at a steep cost to Indonesia’s small islands. Nickel, a critical component in many EV batteries, has spurred mining activities that devastate local ecosystems and communities.

Nickel batteries—particularly Nickel Cobalt Manganese (NCM)—dominate the EV market, accounting for 60% of market share, according to the Global EV Outlook 2023. While alternatives like Lithium Ferro Phosphate (LFP) are gaining traction, the demand for nickel remains robust. In July 2024, global EV sales increased by 21% compared to the previous year, with Chinese-made vehicles leading at 800,000 units sold.

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Acid rock intelligence: An enormous amount of progress has been made over the last decades to predict and address water-related risks at mine sites – by Ryan Bergen (CIM Magazine – November 7, 2024)

https://magazine.cim.org/en/

For a few days in mid-September, Halifax, Nova Scotia, became the world’s centre for geochemical expertise when the International Conference on Acid Rock Drainage (ICARD) convened there. Given the interruption caused by the global pandemic, and that the conference happens only every three years, this was the first in-person event since 2018’s meeting in Pretoria, South Africa, so there was a lot of ground to cover.

And the ground has shifted. Charles Dumaresq, vice-president of science and environmental management at the Mining Association of Canada, noted in the opening day panel that a series of high-profile tailings dam failures has trained the attention of regulators, operators and the broader public on the geo­technical risks associated with mines and legacy sites, which has the potential to divert resources away from addressing geochemical concerns.

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China Tries to Blot out Tibetan Criticism of Mining Firm’s Damage to the Environment – by Duncan Bartlett (The Diplomat – October 28, 2024)

https://thediplomat.com/

Chinese censors are trying to prevent people from viewing posts that allege severe environmental damage in Tibet caused by sand mining. A young Tibetan man named Tsowo Tsering initiated the online discussion with a video post, delivered in Mandarin. In it, he says he is speaking from Ngawa Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in southwest China’s Sichuan Province.

He shares video footage that he says proves the severe impact of activities by a Chinese mining company on his community. Tsowo Tsering claims that “large amounts of sand have been recklessly mined, leading to serious soil erosion in the surrounding areas. This endangers the foundations of residents’ homes.”

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