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Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution, Tailing Dams and Abandoned Mines

Mountaintop Removal Never Ended: Coal River Mountaineers Fight On – by Jeff Biggers (Huffington Post – October 17, 2016)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Standing in solidarity with the water protectors on the Standing Rock Sioux Nation, Coal River Mountain residents already fending off seven square miles of devastating mountaintop removal mining permits are planning a protest on Monday at the Department of Environmental Protection in Charleston, West Virginia against pending permits for a possible expansion of operations by formerly bankrupt Alpha Natural Resources.

Yes, Virginia, in 2016 formerly bankrupt coal companies continue to blast away historic Coal River Mountain and adjacent communities. Let’s call it morally bankrupt.

And while the presidential campaigns trade “war on coal” slogans, no candidate and few reporters have made a single mention of one of the most egregious environmental crimes and civil rights violations in our lifetimes: The enduring health crisis of residents living amid the fallout of mountaintop removal operations.

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Non-profit group pursues legal action over Mount Polley mine disaster – by Mark Hume (Globe and Mail – October 18, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

VANCOUVER — A group of non-profits are launching a private prosecution of Mount Polley Mining Corporation and the B.C. government more than two years after a dam breach released millions of cubic metres of tailings pond water into the environment.

Although the August, 2014, accident at the gold and silver mine near the city of Williams Lake in central B.C. was the largest mine-waste disaster in Canadian history, the province’s chief inspector of mines ruled out charges last December after an investigation.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Environment Canada and the B.C. Conservation Officer Service have also undertaken investigations, but no charges have resulted from any of those probes so far.

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South African Toxic Mine Dumps Fail Citizens, Harvard Body Says – by Kevin Crowley (Bloomberg News – October 12, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

South Africa is failing to uphold citizens’ human rights by allowing toxic waste from huge mine dumps in and around Johannesburg to seep into rivers, according to Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic.

The government hasn’t done enough to mitigate the impact of contaminated water from abandoned mines and dust storms from radioactive waste dumps, the IHRC said in an e-mailed statement Wednesday.

While a long-term plan announced in May to spend 12 billion rand ($843 million) cleaning water from mines is a positive, it came more than a decade after polluted water began seeping out west of Johannesburg, the clinic said.

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One man’s quest to restore Jordan River salmon; water fouled by old mine – by Amy Smart (Victoria Times Colonist – October 4, 2016)

http://www.timescolonist.com/

From atop a steep slope looking down on a narrow portion of the Jordan River, Ken Farquharson points to two saplings making their way out of the crumbly earth near his feet.

The saplings are an unusual shade of yellow-green and they’re the only things growing on land the Ministry of Environment recently confirmed as “high risk.” “See these little ones, they’re not very happy,” Farquharson says.

For the Metchosin resident, cleaning up the toxic site — a former copper mine dump — is vital if salmon are going to return in full force to the Jordan River below. The retired engineer has made it a personal project since 2012 and now, it looks like it might happen: A responsible party has been identified, a site-risk assessment has been conducted and an remediation plan is due by June 2017.

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5 abandoned mine sites near Yellowknife undergo environmental assessments – by Curtis Mandeville (CBC News North – October 04, 2016)

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

Two years after devolution, it’s still unclear who should be paying for the cleanup

Two years after devolution, the Government of the Northwest Territories is studying five abandoned mine sites around Yellowknife, but one local MLA says action on remediation is moving too slowly.

Environmental assessments are underway, or soon to begin, at five sites: the former Ptarmigan, Tom, Crestaurum, Tin and Burwash mines. Last month the territorial government announced that the Ptarmigan and Tom sites, in particular, would be fenced off to the public throughout September and October.

The intention of the assessments, according to the territorial government, is to figure out how much contamination there is in the soil, sediment, water and building materials of each mine site. It also wants to see if hydrocarbons and metals are migrating off site.

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[Graphite pollution] IN YOUR PHONE, IN THEIR AIR – by Peter Whoriskey (Washington Post – October 2, 2016)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/

A trace of graphite is in consumer tech. In these Chinese villages, it’s everywhere.

At night, the pollution around the village has an otherworldly, almost fairy-tale quality. “The air sparkles,” said Zhang Tuling, a farmer in a village in far northeastern China. “When any bit of light hits the particles, they shine.”

By daylight, the particles are visible as a lustrous gray dust that settles on everything. It stunts the crops it blankets, begrimes laundry hung outside to dry and leaves grit on food. The village’s well water has become undrinkable, too.

Beside the family home is a plot that once grew saplings, but the trees died once the factory began operating, said Zhang’s husband, Yu Yuan. “This is what we live with,” Zhang said, slowly waving an arm at the stumps.

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Argentina judge to rule on suspended Barrick mine soon -local gov’t (Reuters U.S. – September 28, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

Barrick Gold Corp’s Veladero mine in Argentina could reopen in coming days if a report confirms repairs were made after a leak of processing solution containing cyanide earlier this month, a provincial government said.

San Juan province Mining Minister Alberto Hensel said in a statement on Tuesday that a team of police investigators would deliver a technical report within 48 hours to the judge who ordered the temporary suspension.

“If all the repairs have been completed and the mining police give the OK… there will be no reason to sustain the injunction,” said Judge Pablo Oritja, according to the provincial government’s statement.

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Mosaic’s Radioactive Sinkhole Problem Could Mean Mine Delays – by Jen Skerritt (Bloomberg News – September 27, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

As the world’s largest producer of phosphate fertilizer, Mosaic Co. is used to digging up parts of Florida to recover the mineral. But lately, one particular hole is causing the company some headaches.

A sinkhole 45 feet (14 meters) wide has opened up in a pile of mining waste at the company’s New Wales site in Polk County, about 30 miles east of downtown Tampa, swallowing about 215 million gallons of radioactive wastewater — enough to fill about 326 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Mosaic says it believes the sinkhole has reached the Floridan aquifer, which provides the local community’s water supply.

While Mosaic first noticed the problem in late August, it didn’t make a public announcement until Sept. 15. Three local residents are now suing the company, alleging improper storage of chemical waste. The spill could mean increased hurdles for Mosaic’s expansion plans in Florida, according to Jonas Oxgaard, a New York-based analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

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Activists: Old uranium mines polluting Angostura – by Staff (Rapid City Journal – September 22, 2016)

http://rapidcityjournal.com/

Members of three activist groups say recent research shows that abandoned uranium mines are contributing to elevated uranium levels in Angostura Reservoir in the southern Black Hills.

The research was recently published in the journal Environmental Earth Sciences by authors that included two South Dakota School of Mines & Technology scientists, Rohit Sharma and James Stone. The article is titled “Stream sediment geochemistry of the upper Cheyenne River watershed within the abandoned uranium mining region of the southern Black Hills.”

According to the Clean Water Alliance, Dakota Rural Action and It’s All About the Water, the research shows that elevated uranium levels at Angostura are partly caused by human activity, including abandoned uranium mines and a former mill at Edgemont. Elevated uranium levels at Angostura Reservoir are comparable to the elevated uranium levels upstream in the Cheyenne River watershed at abandoned mines, the groups said.

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Barrick says Argentina mine may resume within two weeks – by Nicole Mordant(Reuters U.S. – September 19, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

DENVER – Barrick Gold’s Veladero gold mine in Argentina, one of its five core mines, could resume operations in the next two weeks, Barrick President Kelvin Dushnisky said in an interview on Monday.

“I am hopeful that it could be up and going in that kind of two-week window depending on how the reparation work goes,” Dushnisky said.

Barrick Gold said on Thursday that mine operations were temporarily suspended by the government after a “small quantity” of processing solution containing cyanide leaked outside a processing area.

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Potential $1 billion work to clean up Arizona’s dangerous Navajo uranium mines – by Mike Sunnucks (Phoenix Business Journal – September 19, 2016)

http://www.bizjournals.com/

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is starting what could be a $1 billion, years-along process to clean up abandoned uranium mines on Navajo Nation land in northern Arizona. There are more than 500 abandoned uranium minds on the sprawling Indian reservation that cuts across northeastern Arizona as well as parts of Utah and New Mexico.

From 1944 to 1986, mining companies extracted more than 30 million tons of uranium from mines on Navajo land. The mining was fueled by the U.S. Cold War with the former Soviet Union and the super powers’s nuclear arms race.

Uranium is key to nuclear weapons and northern Arizona, in particular the Navajo Nation, had deep deposits. Private companies often hired Navajos to work at the mines.

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Immediate Review of B.C. Mining Safety Demanded by Alaska Native Leaders – by Richard Walker (Indian Country Today – September 15, 2016)

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/

An organization of Alaska Native leaders wants the U.S./Canada International Joint Commission, formed by a 1909 treaty, to ensure British Columbia mines use best practices to prevent contamination of rivers that cross from Canada into Southeast Alaska.

They also want Alaska Native governments to be consulted because their territories, economies and environmental health are at stake. The United Tribal Transboundary Mining Work Group, a union of 15 federally recognized Alaska Native governments in the state’s southeast, takes issue with a September 8 letter to Secretary of State John Kerry from Alaska’s congressional delegation.

The congressional delegation asked that the federal government “partner with Alaska to press Canada on policy answers” regarding mining, “encourage British Columbia officials to consider the cumulative impacts of mining and their potential impacts on transboundary waters,” and determine whether the International Joint Commission “is a suitable venue to determine whether Canadian mines are following ‘best practices’ in treatment of wastewaters and acid-producing mine tailings.”

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Barrick’s Argentina mine suspended after cyanide spill – by Susan Taylor (Reuters/Globe and Mail – September 15, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

TORONTO — Reuters – Barrick Gold Corp said on Thursday that operations at its Veladero mine in Argentina were temporarily suspended by the government after a “small quantity” of processing solution that contains cyanide leaked outside a processing area.

The solution flowed over a berm surrounding the leach pad where gold is processed after a pipe was damaged on Sept. 8 by a large block of ice that rolled down a valley slope, Barrick said.

The affected ground and other material was collected and returned to the pad, said Barrick spokesman Andy Lloyd. “We are working with authorities to confirm the volume estimate,” he said.

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Transboundary mine developer shutting down – by Ed Schoenfeld (Alaska Public Radio Network – September 14, 2016)

The company trying to reopen the controversial Tulsequah Chief Mine, upstream from Juneau, is being taken over by an investor that’s owed millions of dollars. It means polluted water could continue to drain from mine tunnels into a Taku River tributary. But there are disagreements over what, if any, damage is being done.

Toronto-based Chieftain Metals has been trying to reopen the historic Tulsequah Chief Mine for about six years. The zinc, copper and gold mine is in northwest British Columbia, about 20 miles from the Alaska border. It’s next to a waterway that drains into the Taku River, near the capital city.

Biologists call it one of Southeast Alaska’s largest salmon-producing watersheds. But a major investor wants its debt repaid. Chieftain Metals doesn’t have enough money to do it. So, it’s going into receivership, which can lead to bankruptcy.

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Poisoned Waters: Navajo Communities Still Struggle After Mining Disaster – by Suzette Brewer (Indian Country Today – September 14, 2016)

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/

SHIPROCK, New Mexico—On Friday, as the Obama administration temporarily halted construction of the Dakota Access pipeline due to concerns of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, another water-related human tragedy continued to unfold within the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico.

A year after the Gold King Mine spill that turned the San Juan River bright orange with millions of gallons of toxic chemicals, Navajo families continue to struggle against the ongoing, catastrophic effects on their water supply that threaten both their health and the economic stability of an already fragile community. On a daily basis, tribal members along the San Juan River say, they are still confronting the environmental, agricultural, health and spiritual fallout from the disaster that has pushed some to the brink of despair and left many others teetering on poverty.

In August 2015, more than three million gallons of toxic acid sludge and heavy metals, including lead, mercury, cadmium, beryllium, arsenic and dozens of other dangerous contaminants, was released into the Animus River at its headwaters in Silverton, Colorado, the largest tributary to the San Juan River.

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