Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution, Tailing Dams and Abandoned Mines – Page 40

Norilsk Nickel’s Potanin says his company should be an environmental example – by Anna Kireeva (Bellona.org – December 21, 2016)

December 22, 2016

MURMANSK –Vladimir Potanin, chairman of the giant and notoriously polluting Norilsk Nickel, has said his company’s biggest problem is environmental – and he knows how to fix it.

The company is looking stem sulfur dioxide emission that pollute Northwest Russia and Northern Norway by shutting down its nickel smelting facility in the Murmansk regional industrial town of Nikel.

In an interview to the business daily Vedomosti, Potanin said in order to transform Norilsk Nickel from a polluter into an example of ecological cleanliness, he’s willing to spend up to $14 million in a process that he says should take about seven years.

Russian Billionaire Is Cleaning Up in Nation’s Dirtiest City – by Yuliya Fedorinova (Bloomberg News – December 15, 2016)

December 15, 2016

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Vladimir Potanin makes an unlikely environmentalist. The Russian tycoon, worth $17 billion at last count, derives half his wealth from a mine operator that’s the biggest polluter in the nation’s dirtiest city.

The smelting of nickel and other metals from the mines pumped about 2 million metric tons of waste into Norilsk’s air as recently as 2013, eight times the level of Russia’s next most-polluted metropolis.

Yet if Potanin makes good on plans to spend billions of dollars on the largest modernization of MMC Norilsk Nickel PJSC since the Soviet era, he’ll have cut annual sulphur-dioxide emissions equal to the entire output of the toxic gas from Europe’s five biggest economies.

The Goose-Killing Lake And The Scientists Who Study It – by Sarah Zhang (The Atlantic/Huffington Post – December 14, 2016)

December 15, 2016

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

In late November, a flock of migrating snow geese landed in a lake in Butte, Montana. Soon, they began to die. Because what they landed in was the Berkeley Pit, a Superfund site filled with acidic and metal-laden toxic waste from copper mining. The lake was “white with birds;” thousands died. Weeks later, as the story has gone viral, officials are still counting.

The Berkeley Pit had killed migrating geese before. “It was a shock to hear it happening again, on a much larger scale,” says Andrea Stierle, who, along with her husband Don, has been studying the Berkeley Pit for more than three decades. In 1995, over 300 migrating geese landed in the pit and died from ingesting the toxic water.

The Stierles were chemists at nearby Montana Tech at the time, and they were in search of microbes living in the toxic waste water that could make antibiotics and other useful substances. That arrival of the first flock of geese changed the microbial makeup of the Berkeley Pit and likely the outcomes of Stierles’ research, too.

Soviet Uranium Mines Still Have Deadly Impact in Kyrgyzstan – by Ryskeldi Satke (The Diplomat – December 13, 2016)

December 14, 2016

http://thediplomat.com/

MAILUU-SUU, Kyrgyzstan — The remote town of Mailuu Suu in South Kyrgyzstan is known for a Soviet legacy that still haunts the local population of more than 22,000.

Residents of Mailuu Suu commonly say that the very first Soviet atomic bomb was made out of locally extracted uranium in the late 1940s. The township is surrounded by uranium tailings and radioactive dumps that have been of greatest concern to the country’s neighbor, Uzbekistan, for decades.

The gravest dilemma for the Kyrgyz government is related to the frequent landslides in the areas along the river of Mailuu Suu where the Soviet government kept radioactive waste from the uranium mining. The glaciers of the southern Tian Shan feed this river, which flows directly to the neighboring republic of Uzbekistan in the Ferghana Valley.

Thousands of snow geese die after landing in contaminated Montana mine pit – by Debbi Baker (San Diego Union Tribune – December 7, 2016)

December 9, 2016

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/

Thousands of snow geese died last week in Butte, Montana after a snowstorm forced them to land in contaminated water in an open pit at an old copper mine.

The site, called the Berkeley Pit, was the only open water in the area. Witnesses said it looked like “700 acres of white birds,” said Mark Thompson, environmental affairs manager for Montana Resources, which is responsible for the mine along with Atlantic Richfield Co.

According to The Montana Standard, mine officials estimated that as many as 10,000 of the migratory birds may have perished. Some were found dead or dying in and around town, including two in a Walmart parking lot.Thompson told the Associated Press that as many as 25,000 birds were flying through the area since Nov. 28, thousands more that the usual numbers of between 2,000 and 5,000 a year.

Vale-BHP’s Samarco expects preliminary license in first quarter – by Marta Nogueira and Stephen Eisenhammer (Reuters U.S. – December 7, 2016)

December 7, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

RIO DE JANEIRO/BRASILIA – Brazilian iron ore miner Samarco Mineracao expects to receive a preliminary environmental license in the first quarter, an important step in its effort to resume operations by mid-2017, Chief Executive Officer Roberto Carvalho said in an interview on Tuesday.

This would be the first of three environmental licenses needed by the company, which is jointly owned by Vale SA and BHP Billiton. Samarco’s operations were suspended in November 2015 after the collapse of a dam holding mining waste, or tailings, killed 19 people and caused Brazil’s worst environmental disaster.

“They are deep discussions, slow discussions, but they are advancing,” Carvalho said, referring to the process of getting the licenses approved by Semad, the environmental body for the state of Minas Gerais, where Samarco’s mine is located.

Navajo Nation Seeks More Than $160 Million From EPA in Colorado Mine Disaster – by Sara Randazzo (Wall Street Journal – December 5, 2016)

December 7, 2016

http://www.wsj.com/

Nation seeking to recover costs from spill, ongoing environmental monitoring

The Navajo Nation filed a claim Monday seeking more than $160 million from the federal government for damages tied to last year’s Gold King Mine disaster in Colorado, which sent three million gallons of toxic sludge into nearby waterways and triggered environmental concerns in several states.

In a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency, the Navajo Nation requested $3.2 million to cover costs already incurred as a result of the spill, and another $159 million to pay for ongoing environmental monitoring and an alternative water supply. The Navajo Nation says the spill has shattered its longstanding reliance on the San Juan River, which it calls “the lifeblood of the Navajo people.”

The claim, sent to the EPA’s office of general counsel on Monday, follows a lawsuit filed by the Nation in August against the agency and several mining companies seeking recovery for response costs under federal and state laws.

Environment group takes De Beers Canada to court over mercury – by Nicole Mordant (Reuters Canada Reuters – December 6, 2016)

December 7, 2016

http://ca.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – An environmental group said on Tuesday it filed a lawsuit against De Beers Canada, accusing the diamond producer of failing to report toxic levels of mercury and methylmercury at its Victor diamond mine in northern Ontario.

The Wildlands League alleged that De Beers Canada failed to report mercury levels from five of nine surface water monitoring stations for the creeks next to its open pit mine between 2009 and 2016.

This was an offense under the Ontario Water Resources Act, the group said in a statement. It said it had alerted the province of Ontario and De Beers Canada to the failures more than 18 months ago.

ICMM commits to new tailings dam measures – by Esmarie Swanepoel (MiningWeekly.com – December 6, 2016)

December 6, 2016

http://www.miningweekly.com/

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) has adopted a range of new measures to manage tailing dams, following the Samarco disaster in 2015, which claimed the lives of 19 people in Brazil.

The ICMM in December last year launched a review of the global tailings management of its member companies, which include majors BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Newmont and South32.

The review report focused on surface tailings management across the ICMM membership, including a review of standards and governance. The review, which was published on Tuesday, concluded that an increased emphasis on governance was needed to ensure that extensive existing technical and management guidance was more effectively applied.

Environmentalists allege De Beers failed to report on mercury in water – by Tanya Talaga (Toronto Star – December 6, 2016)

December 6, 2016

https://www.thestar.com/

A Canadian environmental group is taking DeBeers Canada to court, claiming the company failed to report toxic levels of mercury and methylmercury in the waters surrounding a northern Ontario diamond mine.

The Wildlands League, a chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, represented by Ecojustice lawyers, says De Beers has failed to consistently report the levels of methylmercury in the creeks surrounding the Victor Diamond Mine, located 90 kilometres west of Attawapiskat First Nation.

De Beers Group denies the allegations, saying, “To suggest that we have not been reporting per our legal requirements for seven years is grossly misleading. That is simply not true.”

Vale slashes Sudbury nickel refinery emissions – by Norm Tollinsky (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal – November 14, 2016)

November 23, 2016

http://www.sudburyminingsolutions.com/

$75 million project reduces metal particulate emissions by 90 per cent

Vale has announced the completion of a $75 million Nickel Refinery Emissions Reduction Project in Sudbury.

The largest investment and facility upgrade at the Copper Cliff nickel refinery since it was constructed in 1973 brings the company into compliance with new provincial and federal government standards for the emission of nickel and total suspended particulates.

The new provincial standard took effect July 1, 2016 and is based on an annual averaging period as opposed to the 24-hour averaging period of the previous standard.

Kola Peninsula nickel giant promises to cut sulfur dioxide emissions in half – by Charles Digges (Bellona.org – November 21, 2016)

November 22, 2016

http://bellona.org/

MURMANSK –The notoriously polluting Kola Mining and Metallurgy Combine (KMMC) has said it plans to reduce annual emissions of sulfur dioxide by nearly half within two years, it’s parent company told Bellona.

A source of tension between Norway and Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union, the KMMC – a daughter company of the giant Norilsk Nickel based in Northern Siberia – yearly emits some 80,000 tons of the heavy metal, much of which finds its way into northern Norway.

Norilsk Nickel itself announced last week that it would slash emissions in its hometown – the most polluted city in Russia – by as much as 75 percent by 2020. Yury Yushin, who heads the Norilsk Nickel’s department of cooperative programs told Bellona that the company intends to reduce its emissions to 44,000 tons a year by 2019. He didn’t, however, discuss any specifics behind the dramatic reduction.

BHP Said to Seek Samarco Restructure as Vale Wants More Time – by R.T. Watson and David Stringer (Bloomberg News – November 15, 2016)

November 16, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

BHP Billiton Ltd. is pushing to restructure debt at its Samarco venture as joint owner Vale SA prefers a grace period on payments until it secures licenses to resume mining, people familiar with the matter said.

While the owners have said they don’t intend to cover Samarco’s more than $3 billion in debt, they’re at odds over how the Brazilian iron miner should approach banks and bondholders after a year-long halt in output, the people said, asking not to be identified because talks are private. BHP’s preference for restructuring now would mean a haircut for creditors, the people said.

Samarco Mineracao SA, as the joint venture is formally known, has been shut since a tailings dam ruptured a year ago. The accident, described by the government as Brazil’s worst ever environmental disaster, killed as many as 19 people and polluted waterways in two states. The venture has already missed two bond coupon payments. Its bonds due 2022 are trading at about 35 cents on the dollar, down from 39 cents at the end of last month.

Gold mining invades new areas of Peruvian Amazon – by Benji Jones (Mongabay.com – November 11, 2016) Environmental Headlines

November 14, 2016

Illegal gold mining in Peru – once restricted to the southern states – is now spreading across new territory in the northern and central Peruvian Amazon. In a report released earlier this month, Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) revealed three new “frontiers” of gold mining in the departments of Amazonas and Huánuco – regions that boast exceptional biological and cultural diversity.

Across the frontiers, MAAP detected 32 hectares of mining deforestation – an area equivalent to about 42 soccer fields. These mining scars are fresh, and relatively small, indicating that a larger-scale deforestation event can still be prevented.

“Deforestation in these cases is still in its early stages, so there is still time to avoid larger-scale damage, as in the case of [the southern region of] Madre de Dios,” the report states.

Green dreams: Duterte and the Philippine mining industry – by by Robert Veldhuizen (Global Risk Insights – November 7, 2016)

November 7, 2016

Throughout its history, the Philippine mining industry has been defined by its diverse set of political risks relating to governance, inequality, elitism, foreign export and absent contribution towards the country’s overall economic growth. President Duterte’s nomination spells a radically different future for the industry; unprecedented opportunities may lie ahead for foreign investors, however they are not without risk.

Pervading problems

Since the 1500s, mining has played a critical part in the economic development of the Philippines. Despite the abundance of chromite, copper, gold and nickel deposits, the industry has been marred, since the 1980s, by issues of volatility, and defined to a realm of ‘potential’—rather than direct opportunity.

Issues that have and continue to plague the industry range from matters of foreign ownership, corruption, obdurate and unforced regulatory laws, environmental incidents, murky issues of land rights, militant attacks, as well as disastrous weather conditions.