Twitter

Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution, Tailing Dams and Abandoned Mines

Sherritt International fined $1 million for coal mine spills in 2011 and 2012 – by Kim Trynacity (CBC News Edmonton – October 4, 2017)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/

Mining giant Sherritt International Corp. has pleaded guilty to three violations under the Fisheries Act for spills in 2011 and 2012 of potentially harmful wastewater into a tributary of the Erith River, part of the Athabasca River watershed.

The company was fined a total of $1,050,000, of which $990,000 will be paid to the Environmental Damages Fund, used for research and preservation of fish habitat.

“It’s a deterrent for any corporation when you have over a $1 million fine,” said Erin Eacott, counsel with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada. Eacott said had the company been charged after penalties under the Fisheries Act were substantially increased, it would have faced a much stiffer penalty.

Read more

[Australia Coal Mine] The hunt for Adani’s 10,000 jobs brings up ‘zero results’ – by Charis Chang (News.com.au – September 27, 2017)

http://www.news.com.au/

THERE’S a bit of an in-joke among Townsville residents about Adani’s mega coal mining project that if you ask them to explain, is an instant conversation killer. The first time I hear it is from a local scientist touching on some potential environmental concerns linked to the construction of railway line.

“Not having a go at it (the mine) but just making a point,” he says. “Coming from Townsville I’d be shot if I had a go at it.” There’s laughter among those listening but when I ask him later to clarify, the conversation takes on a serious tone and he’s reluctant to expand further.

He tells me opinion within Townsville is split and when I ask him if he feels he can’t be open he says: “I just feel like without having all the information I wouldn’t want to judge either way”.

Read more

Barrier put in mine that sent toxic water into 3 states – by Dan Elliott (Montreal Gazette – September 20, 2017)

http://www.montrealgazette.com/

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS – DENVER — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is installing a barrier and valve inside an inactive Colorado mine to prevent another surge of wastewater like a 2015 blowout that contaminated rivers in three states.

The 12-inch (30-centimetre) valve will regulate wastewater pouring from the Gold King Mine in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, where the EPA inadvertently triggered a wastewater spill while excavating at the mine entrance in August 2015.

That spill released 3 million gallons (11 million litres) of wastewater containing aluminum, iron and other heavy metals and instantly became a major embarrassment for the EPA.

Read more

Elements of bio-mining: Engineering collaboration aims to turn mine waste into valuable metals – by Tyler Irving (U of T Engineering News – September 13, 2017)

UofT Engineering News Home

They are invisible to the naked eye, able to withstand extreme conditions and capable of breathing rocks. They are the microbes that thrive in tailings ponds at mining sites around the world, and a team of Canadian researchers believes they are the key to transforming waste material into something much more valuable.

“There are bugs that thrive on metabolizing sulfur, others on metabolizing iron,” says Professor Vladimiros Papangelakis (ChemE). “If we can control such biochemical reactions, we could both remediate the waste and recover valuable metals that could pay for the cost of processing.”

Papangelakis, along with Professor Elizabeth Edwards (ChemE) is leading the Elements of Bio-mining project, a multidisciplinary collaboration between U of T Engineering, Laurentian University, and the University of British Columbia (UBC), as well as a number of technology, engineering and mining companies, including Glencore, Vale, Teck, Barrick and Hatch.

Read more

State’s Abandoned Mine Lands program looks back on 30 years – by Adella Harding (Elko Daily Free Press – September 7, 2017)

http://elkodaily.com/

Thousands of potentially dangerous deserted mine workings from the past dot Nevada’s landscape, but the state’s Abandoned Mine Lands program has been securing these sites for 30 years, decreasing related accidents and fatalities.

Over the years, people have fallen into old mines or drowned in old pit lakes, but there have been no reported accidents at abandoned mines in more than three years, thanks in part to the program. “These aren’t playgrounds,” said Robert Ghiglieri, chief of the abandoned mines program for the Nevada Division of Minerals. “It’s not worth the risk to go into these.”

From 1961 to 2011, 20 people died in accidents at abandoned mine sites. The last fatality occurred March 2011, when a 28-year-old man fell 190 feet down a mine shaft in Pershing County. The last reported abandoned mine accident was in 2013, when a 17-year-old male incurred minor injuries in a fall down a 60-foot mine shaft in Lyon County.

Read more

[Canada First Nations – Historic Pollution] The Monster Underground – by Hilary Beaumont (Vice News Canada – September 6, 2017)

https://news.vice.com/

There are more than a thousand cases of industrial pollution affecting 335 First Nations in Canada. Some of them have serious health effects. But the governments responsible have dragged their feet for decades.

Johanne Black wants to start a legend to tell future generations about the deadly arsenic in the soil and water in N’dilo, a Dene community of 200 people in the Northwest Territories. She calls it: “The Monster Underground.”

When the Giant Gold Mine opened across Great Slave Lake in 1948, nobody warned the locals that the mine was using an especially deadly form of arsenic that dissolved easily in water. Not long after the mine opened, it emitted arsenic into the air and it settled into the snow that the children played in.

English newspapers warned of contamination, but most Dene people couldn’t read these warnings. People became sick, and according to oral evidence from elder Therese Sangris, in the spring of 1951 four children died. The details of the event are recounted in a report to the federal government, based on evidence given by local elders.

Read more

How green are the batteries?: Electric car revolution boosts business for big Arctic air-polluter – by Thomas Nilsen (The Baren Observer – September 7, 2017)

https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/

Nornickel eyes sharp increase in demand for nickel and copper as tens of millions of electric cars hit the roads over the next few years. Nickel prices leap to new heights, increasing 36% over the last two months. Copper, another key metal for electric car batteries, has seen prices climb by nearly 20% since mid-summer.

That is very good news for Nornickel, one of the world’s largest suppliers of both nickel an copper. With factories on the Taymyr Peninsula and in the Murmansk region, the company’s directors are smiling all the way to the bank. And back. With workers’ salaries to be paid in rubles, and sales abroad in dollars, Nornickel is benefiting from Russia’s turbulent economy with low currency rate.

Nornickel now wants to expand sales to the electric car industry. Recently the company signed an agreement with BASF on possible supply of raw materials for future battery material production for lithium-ion batteries in Europe.

Read more

Philippine lawmakers seek to ban mining in watershed areas, export of raw ore – by Manolo Serapio Jr (Reuters U.S. – August 25, 2017)

https://www.reuters.com/

MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine lawmakers have filed a bill seeking to ban mining in watershed areas and exports of unprocessed ores and will require miners to get legislative approval before operating, in line with President Rodrigo Duterte’s pledge to overhaul the sector.

The Philippines is the world’s top nickel ore supplier but Duterte says miners pay too little tax and not enough to compensate mining communities that suffer environmental damage.

“The challenge for government is to ensure proceeds translate into sustainable development, environmental protection, and greater transparency and accountability in the mining industry,” according to the bill authored by 22 congressmen led by Pantaleon Alvarez, the speaker of the House of Representatives and a strong ally of Duterte.

Read more

Environmentalism: A Slippery Slope of Ignorance and Hypocrisy – by Saurabh Malkar (Modern Diplomacy – August 13, 2017)

http://moderndiplomacy.eu/

Perusing through my morning news digest, I came across an article from The Daily Mail featuring a story on the employment of child labor in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

While I can be chillingly apathetic to social plight, especially, when it doesn’t concern my loved ones: something I impute to my upbringing in a third world country; I was deeply moved by this story, which shed light on the horrors of artisanal cobalt mining, employing children, working in dangerous conditions, with no safety measures, and being paid a pittance. The kicker, though, of this story was that much of this cobalt would go into battery packs that would be installed in electric cars marketed to gullible, do-gooders around the world.

But, why would one want to buy cars that take hours to refuel and can only be refueled at specific points, thus, imposing a massive time cost on their usage? These contraptions don’t match in utility to gasoline-powered cars, let alone surpassing them. No wonder governments around the world are trying to get consumers to buy electric cars through purchase subsidies and tax exemptions of all sorts.

Read more

No provincial charges for Mount Polley mining disaster, but possibility of federal charges remain – by Gordon Hoekstra (August 3, 2017)

http://vancouversun.com/

The disclosure Wednesday that there will be no charges laid under B.C.’s environmental laws for Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley tailings dam failure in 2014 has environmentalists questioning whether the province’s laws are strong enough.

There remains the possibility of federal charges under the Fisheries Act, but the B.C. Conservation Officer Service has said a B.C.-federal investigation will not be complete by Friday — when the three-year time limit to lay charges under B.C.’s Environmental Management Act ends.

The B.C. conservation service-led investigation — involving a dedicated team of officers and several federal investigators — started almost immediately after the Aug. 4, 2014, failure of the earth-and-rock dam at the gold-and-copper mine northeast of Williams Lake.

Read more

No provincial charges in 2014 Mount Polley dam collapse in B.C. – by Camille Bains (Globe and Mail – August 2, 2017)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

VANCOUVER — Canadian Press – There will be no provincial charges for a tailings dam collapse in British Columbia but the province’s new environment minister says a mining company may still be held responsible through federal laws.

George Heyman said Wednesday the August 2014 disaster has had tremendous economic and environmental consequences and British Columbians deserve to know what went wrong at the Mount Polley mine located in the province’s Interior.

“A disaster like this should never have happened in B.C., and it must never happen again,” Heyman said in a statement, adding that charges under the federal Fisheries Act“ remain very much in play and, in fact, potential penalties are more significant.”

Read more

UN Singles Out Tycoon German Larrea’s Grupo Mexico For Unfulfilled Pledge In Ecological Disaster – by Dolia Estevez (Forbes Magazine – July 28, 2017)

https://www.forbes.com/

Three years after a mine belonging to Grupo México caused the worst ecological disaster in Mexican history, the mining giant owned by Mexico’s second richest person, German Larrea Mota Velasco, has failed to fulfill its obligations with the victims, a new UN report said.

“Business enterprises have a responsibility to respect human rights independent of States’ abilities and/or willingness to fulfill their own human rights obligations,” the UN said after a special Working Group visited Mexico to review how business practices affect human rights.

In August 2014, Buenavista del Cobre, a subsidiary of Grupo Mexico, spilled 10 million gallons (40,000 cubic meters) of copper sulphate and heavy metals into the Sonora and Bacanuchi rivers. This environmental disaster affected approximately 24,000 people directly and 250,000 people indirectly in seven municipalities on the banks of the Sonora River, 25 miles south of the Arizona border.

Read more

BHP-Vale JV Excused From Paying $6.3 Billion Legal Guarantee – by R.T. Watson (Bloomberg News – July 19, 2017)

https://www.bloombergquint.com/

(Bloomberg) — A Brazilian judge denied a request by prosecutors for companies and individuals facing criminal charges related to a dam spill to pay financial guarantees, according to court documents obtained by Bloomberg.

The stalled Samarco Mineracao SA joint venture and its owners BHP Billiton Ltd. and Vale SA won’t have to pay a 20 billion-real ($6.3 billion) guarantee while the case is being tried and final damages calculated, the documents show. The judge also ruled that the individuals aren’t required to pay any financial guarantees or be subjected to travel restrictions such as passport seizure.

Federal prosecutors filed criminal charges including homicide against 21 people linked to the operators and owners of the iron-ore mine, while also accusing defendants of a series of environmental crimes. A November 2015 tailings dam collapse killed as many as 19 people and polluted waterways in two states. Among the accused individuals are Vale’s head of iron ore, Peter Poppinga, and Samarco chief executive officer at the time of the incident, Ricardo Vescovi. The case could go before a jury.

Read more

Who cleans up the mess when oil and mining companies go bankrupt? – by Tim Gray (Globe and Mail – July 14, 2017)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Tim Gray is the executive director of Environmental Defence.

Last week, the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) announced it would appeal a judge’s ruling that gave creditors priority access to a bankrupt oil company’s assets over its financial obligations to clean up abandoned wells. The AER is right to appeal because cleaning up environmental damage should take precedent over financial obligations. This appeal highlights a broader problem in Canada and the need for legislative action both provincially and federally.

The broader problem is that Canadians are burdened by the accumulating financial liability associated with cleaning up the environmental messes made by abandoned oil wells, closed mines and decaying tailings dams.

For example, in Alberta, the oil sands have been producing a vast and growing legacy of tailings ponds. These ponds contain leftover toxic hydrocarbons, heavy metals, water and sand. They now cover an area larger than the preamalgamation city of Toronto and Vancouver combined and are growing at a rate of 25 million litres a day.

Read more

Potential rare-earths industry in the US must avoid China’s mistakes – by Carly O’Connell (Asia Times – July 8, 2017)

http://www.atimes.com/

As of 2016, the United States’ demand for rare-earth elements depended on imports, mostly from China. Rare earths are a class of critical minerals, 17 in number, that are used in many technologies such as smartphones, medical treatments, wind turbines and high-performance defense-industry equipment.

Recently, politicians from America’s coal country with the help of researchers, have moved to break that dependency. They hope to re-purpose old mines to produce rare earths, thus stimulating new economic growth in places like West Virginia. But we must learn from China’s example and avoid devastating environmental consequences, which are costing China billions of dollars to correct.

The US uses about 15,000 tonnes of rare-earth elements every year, more than 700 tonnes of which go to defense. West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin recently told the Washington Examiner that America’s reliance on foreign sources for such a vital material is “a national security concern that must be addressed.”

Read more