Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution, Tailing Dams and Abandoned Mines – Page 38

What’s Changed on the Ground Since the Mount Polley Mine Disaster? – by Christopher Pollon (The Tyee.com – April 12, 2017)

April 12, 2017

There are more than 120 tailings dams across British Columbia today, holding back a century of toxic mining detritus. Unless this number can be reduced, an average of two B.C. dams are predicted to fail in each coming decade.

The way to avoid this was laid out clearly in the wake of the Mount Polley mine disaster. For taxpayers and the environment to be protected, an independent review panel of three geotechnical experts concluded B.C. must move to safer ways of processing and storing tailings — the chemical and metal-rich byproducts of mineral processing.

Rejecting the notion that “business as usual can continue,” the review panel was clear that economic considerations must not trump long-term safety concerns. But even after multiple investigations and dozens of recommendations adopted by the B.C. government, there are indications that business as usual continues.

Could a virus spell the end of acid rock drainage? (Mining Technology – February 6, 2017)

April 11, 2017

http://www.mining-technology.com/

Microbes play a huge part in mining, both good and bad. But thanks to a new study by the University of British Columbia, which successfully identified and isolated the microbes responsible for acid rock drainage, the good may soon outweigh the bad. Molly Lempriere finds out what microbes to look for.

Microbes are an intrinsic element of the mining process, bringing both beneficial and dangerous side-effects. Naturally occurring micro-organisms are inevitably exposed during excavation, causing chemical reactions that vary from site to site.

Companies as large as Vale and Rio Tinto have begun to use microbes to their advantage with biomining techniques that capitalise on waning resources as regulations tighten. Research into microbes at mine sites continues to yield benefits; one new study by the University of British Columbia (UBC) has managed to identify and isolate microbes involved in acid rock drainage (ARD).

Thornton Joins Barrick Top Brass in Argentina After Rupture – by Danielle Bochove and Jonathan Gilbert (Bloomberg News – April 10, 2017)

April 11, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. Executive Chairman John Thornton flew to Argentina after authorities threatened to rescind the license for the Veladero mine on the same day the company agreed to sell half the asset.

Thornton joined President Kelvin Dushnisky, Chief Operating Officer Richard Williams and Chief Financial Officer Catherine Raw in meetings with local managers in Buenos Aires as the world’s top gold producer deals with the fallout from the third incident involving cyanide solution in two years.

“It underscores how seriously the company and the management team takes this issue,” Andy Lloyd, a spokesman for Barrick, said by telephone from Toronto. On Thursday, Barrick announced a $960 million deal with China’s Shandong Gold Group for a 50 percent stake in Veladero.

IN DEPTH: 60 years later, Alaska still calling B.C. to task on a mine leak flowing through its river – by Francis Plourde and Maryse Zeidler (CBC News BC – April 5, 2017)

April 7, 2017

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

In a quiet corner of B.C., a mine that shut down 60 years ago has been slowly leaking acid runoff into a river that flows into Alaska. Officials there are working to change that.

In 1957, the Tulsequah Chief mine on the shores of the Taku River in northwest B.C. closed its doors, leaving behind acid mine drainage — the acidic water created at mining sites that can then drain into waterways, which critics say can harm fish and other wildlife.

The drainage is a big concern for Alaskans given the location of the mine — next to one of the most important salmon rivers in the U.S. The Alaskan government has tried dozens of times to compel B.C. officials to do something about the drainage since the mine closed.

UPDATE 1-Argentine province to suspend some Barrick activities -report (Reuters Africa – March 30, 2017)

March 31, 2017

http://af.reuters.com/

BUENOS AIRES/TORONTO, March 30 (Reuters) – Argentina’s San Juan province ordered Barrick Gold Corp to suspend some activities at its Veladero mine after a pipe carrying gold-bearing solution ruptured on the leach pad, state-run news agency Telam reported on Thursday.

Reuters could not immediately reach the provincial government to confirm the report. A spokesman for Barrick said the Toronto-based company was confirming its understanding of the order.

Barrick said on Wednesday that a monitoring system at the mine had detected a rupture on the pipe on Tuesday night. The issue was “quickly corrected,” it added, following procedures to contain and mitigate the situation. All solution was contained within the operating facility and there was no impact to people or the environment, Barrick said in the statement.

Dealing With Central Asia’s Poisonous Nuclear Legacy – by Catherine Putz (The Diplomat – March 29, 2017)

March 29, 2017

http://thediplomat.com/

Soviet-era uranium mining and waste facilities spread across Central Asia remain a serious public and environmental risk.

A delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Coordination Group for Uranium Legacy Sites (CGULS) visited Tajikistan last week. The visit was part of ongoing preparations for the remediation of uranium legacy sites — efforts to reduce the public and environmental risks linked to what remains from the nearly five decades in which the Soviet Union mined and processed uranium in the Central Asian region.

More than 25 years ago, the Soviet Union collapsed. One of the biggest open questions as the Soviet Union disintegrated into 15 separate states was what would become of its nuclear weapons and material scattered across the constituent states. Kazakhstan and Ukraine, for example, hosted Soviet nuclear weapons.

Kazakhstan, the Nuclear Threat Initiative notes, “inherited 1,410 nuclear warheads and the Semipalatinsk nuclear weapon test site” with independence. Semipalatinsk was where the Soviet Union conducted more than 450 nuclear tests, including its first.

Mining Watch News Release: 25,000 Canadians Join First Nations, Local Residents in Seeking Justice for Canada’s Biggest Mining Spill (March 27, 2017)

March 28, 2017

http://miningwatch.ca/

Williams Lake (B.C.). As Federal Crown Prosecutors move today in B.C. provincial court to stay (i.e. shelve) MiningWatch’s private charges over the Mount Polley mine disaster, the mining watchdog is releasing the names of over 25,000 Canadians who have endorsed a petition urging the Trudeau government not to let those responsible off the hook for the biggest mining spill in Canada’s history. Local residents, regional groups, and First Nations support the effort to enforce the Fisheries Act.

The 25,000-strong petition is presented today in a demonstration in front of Williams Lake Court house. British Columbians and Canadians are invited to add their names to the petition, before the petition is delivered in the coming weeks to each of the federal ministers responsible for enforcing the Fisheries Act.

“We are deeply concerned that nearly three years after the disaster, and despite clear evidence of damage to water and fish habitat, no sanctions have been brought forward by any level of government,” states Ugo Lapointe, Canada Program Coordinator for MiningWatch Canada.

Advocates back in court pursuing charges Mount Polley dam collapse (Victoria Times Colonist – March 27, 2017)

March 27, 2017

http://www.timescolonist.com/

CANADIAN PRESS-WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C. — An advocacy group will be back in provincial court in Williams Lake, B.C., today pursuing private prosecution against the province and a mining company over the collapse of the Mount Polley tailings dam.

MiningWatch Canada launched the case last fall, saying the province and the Mount Polley Mining Corp. violated the Fisheries Act when a tailings pond collapsed at the copper and gold mine in August 2014.

The group alleges serious harm was done to fish and the environment when the dam’s failure sent 25 million cubic metres of wastewater gushing into streams and waterways in B.C.’s Interior.

Does Norilsk Nickel deserve to be Russia’s environmental gold standard? – by Charles Digges (Bellona.org – March 22, 2017)

March 23, 2017

http://bellona.org/

Norilsk Nickel, the giant Northern Siberian nickel producer and historically one of the country’s biggest polluters, won a prestigious environmental nod from the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs for closing down one of its most infamously befouling facilities

According to the Russian business daily Vedomosti, the environmental award from the industrialists’ union is one of the organization’s key annual events. Russia’s environmental minister, Sergei Donskoi, who presented the prize, called Norilsk Nickel “the absolute leader in environmental change occurring in the industrial policy in Russia.”

Brazil dam disaster lawsuit against BHP Billiton, Vale, suspended – by Paul Kiernan(The Australian – March 17, 2018)

March 17, 2017

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

A Brazilian judge has suspended a nearly $US50 billion ($A65bn) lawsuit against the mining firms responsible for the 2015 Samarco tailings dam disaster, as negotiations between the companies and authorities moved forward.

The decision came as part of a ruling in which federal judge Mário de Paula Franco Júnior approved a road map toward a final agreement between prosecutors and mining companies BHP Billiton (BHP), Vale, and their joint-venture Samarco Mineração.

Brazil’s government, which brought the lawsuit, was not immediately available for comment but in the past has indicated its main concern was reaching a settlement and safely restarting the mine.

Don’t trust B.C. on Tulsequah Chief Mine – by Chris Miller (Juneau Empire – March 11, 2017)

March 14, 2017

http://juneauempire.com/

Chris Miller is a professional photographer, based in Juneau, who focuses on commercial fisheries.

In June 2010, I visited the Tulsequah Chief Mine to see what was being done to halt the acid mine drainage flowing into the Tulsequah River, the largest tributary to the transboundary Taku River, since mine owner Redfern went bankrupt in March 2009.

It was shocking to see the site, which sits right on the banks of the Tulsequah River, about 13 river miles upstream of the Alaska/British Columbia (B.C.) border and 40 miles northeast of Juneau, essentially abandoned and the orange acid mine drainage pooling up and draining into the Tulsequah River.

In 2013, I flew over the site and the highly toxic acid mine drainage was still flowing out of the mine and into the river.

Mining industry, environmental groups watch as Canada plans new coal effluent rules – by Paul Withers (CBC News Nova Scotia – February 22, 2017)

February 23, 2017

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/

Environment and Climate Change Canada is considering plans to impose new effluent limits that would reduce harmful discharges from coal mining by 2019.

Ottawa’s proposal would require new coal mines to collect and monitor all effluent through a final discharge point where it would have to meet new limits for suspended solids, nitrates and a toxic byproduct called selenium.

For existing mines, effluent limits would be monitored after discharge into the environment. The department held its first stakeholder consultation in Nova Scotia on Wednesday. More meetings are scheduled for Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia in coming weeks.

From Appalachia To Standing Rock, Water Is Life – by Mary Anne Hitt (Huffington Post – February 13, 2017)

February 15, 2017

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Mary Anne Hitt is director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign.

I live in West Virginia, one of the states where residents can now expect more toxic coal pollution in our streams and rivers thanks to a repeal of mining safeguards by the Republican-controlled Congress.

A few short days after that disastrous decision, the White House cancelled an environmental review and then approved the permit for the Dakota Access pipeline, which threatens the drinking water for the Standing Rock Sioux and millions more people downstream.

The Standing Rock Sioux have long opposed the Dakota Access pipeline because of the risk to drinking water, and this week’s decision was one more painful demonstration of how quickly some political leaders will put profits over public health and tribal sovereignty.

Environmental justice: The Philippines mining industry – by Dr. Florangel Rosario Braid (Manila Bulletin – February 14, 2017)

February 15, 2017

http://news.mb.com.ph/

Pro-environment activists hailed President Duterte’s support for Environment Secretary Gina Lopez’s order to close 23 mining corporations that had violated environmental laws. The basis of the DENR ruling on the closure of these 23 mining firm(out of a total of 41 firm) was that they were operating in functional watersheds.

They shall not be operating unless they appeal the decision which would become final when the President says it is. Water is important, Lopez says, and the green economy can actually create more jobs.

The 23 firms include One Asia Mining and Development Corp. in Bulacan, the Benguet Corporation, the country’s oldest mining company, the Benguet Corporation’s Nickel Mines, Inc., the Diversified Metals Corporation in Zambales, the Eraman Minerals, three mining companies in Homonhon, six firms in Dinagat Islands, and seven other firms in Surigao del Norte. In addition, five corporations were also suspended.

Malaysia’s shooting-star bauxite industry faces burn up – by Emily Chow (Reuters U.S. – February 13, 2017)

February 15, 2017

http://www.reuters.com/

KUALA LUMPUR – Already under fire for widespread environmental damage, Malaysia’s once lucrative bauxite mining industry is facing a likely death knell from neighboring Indonesia’s move to allow a resumption of exports.

This time last year, Malaysia was the world’s biggest supplier of the aluminum-making raw material to top buyer China, but its exports tumbled after government action aimed at reining in the little regulated industry.

The latest move could spell the end for a sector that only sprang to life in late 2014 after Indonesia banned ore exports, and illustrates the risks facing miners across Southeast Asia from increasingly uncertain government policy.