Malaysia to Ban Bauxite Mining for Three Months – by Biman Mukherji and Celine Fernandez (Wall Street Journal – January 6, 2016)

http://www.wsj.com/

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—Malaysia on Wednesday imposed a three-month ban on bauxite mining beginning later this month amid worries over its environmental impact, potentially affecting exports of the aluminum-making ore to Chinese smelters.

Malaysia emerged last year as a major provider of bauxite after leading producer Indonesia banned ore exports to encourage more processing at home.

From January to November, Malaysia exported some 20 million metric tons of bauxite to China, the world’s biggest aluminum producer. That was nearly half China’s total bauxite imports and a sharp increase from 3.25 million tons in the same period in 2014.

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E.P.A. Is Moving to Designate Contaminated Nevada Copper Mine a Superfund Site (Associated Press/New York Times – December 24, 2015)

http://www.nytimes.com/

RENO, Nev. — Fifteen years after federal regulators started assessing damage and health risks at an abandoned Nevada copper mine, the Environmental Protection Agency is moving to designate the contaminated land a Superfund site, a step the state could still oppose.

Rural neighbors of the World War II-era mine that has leaked toxic chemicals for decades won a $19.5 million settlement in 2013 from companies they accused of covering up the contamination to drinking water wells near Yerington, about 65 miles southeast of Reno.

The E.P.A. sent a letter to Gov. Brian Sandoval this week announcing its intention to place the mine on the Superfund’s National Priority List of the nation’s most polluted sites to “mitigate exposures that are a substantial threat to the public health or welfare or the environment.”

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Imperial Metals judged ‘not liable’ for Mount Polley spill – by Lesley Stokes (Northern Miner – January 4, 2015)

http://www.northernminer.com/

VANCOUVER — After 16 months of deliberation, B.C.’s chief mine inspector has concluded that Imperial Metals (TSX: III; US-OTC: IPMLF) will not be held liable for the catastrophic failure of its Mount Polley gold and copper tailings dam and storage facility, 56 km northwest of Williams Lake, B.C.

The investigative report states that the dam failed because the design of the original facility and subsequent raises did not consider the strength and location of an underlying clay unit. However, this crucial geotechnical oversight did not contravene any existing mining laws, according to the B.C. Ministry of Energy and Mines.

In a press release, the ministry commented that the company exercised “weak practices” during the mines’ operation, but there wasn’t enough evidence to warrant further investigation and penalty.

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Potential Malaysia bauxite ban to chip away at China stockpiles -industry – by Joseph Sipalan and Melanie Burton (Reuters U.S. – January 4, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

KUALA LUMPUR/MELBOURNE, Jan 4 A potential suspension on bauxite mining in Malaysia, the world’s top exporter of the aluminium-making ingredient, could dent stockpiles in China but is unlikely to curb breakneck output in the aluminium sector there, industry and analysts said on Monday.

The Southeast Asian nation is pushing to suspend bauxite output due to concerns over its impact on the environment, threatening to interrupt supply to No.1 aluminium producer China, a cabinet source said at the weekend.

The councillor in charge of the environment for Malaysia’s main producing state of Pahang, Mohd Soffi Abd Razak, told Reuters on Monday that Pahang’s chief minister and the national resources minister would make a joint statement on the issue “very soon”.

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Rivers, sea run red in Malaysia as bauxite exports boom – by Joseph Sipalan (Reuters U.S. – December 30, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

KUALA LUMPUR – Rivers and the sea ran red in parts of Malaysia this week after two days of heavy rain brought an increase in run-off from the booming and largely unregulated bauxite mining industry.

Demand from China for the aluminum ingredient has fed a rapid rise in bauxite mining in the third-largest state of Pahang, in the east of peninsular Malaysia, and concern is growing about the impact on the environment.

Media on Wednesday showed images of red seas and rivers near the state capital of Kuantan, the center of the industry and the location of a port from which much of the bauxite is shipped.

Reporters said the sea were discolored along a 15 km (9 mile) stretch of coast.

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Anger at Vale over Brazil mine accident fed by cautious, slow public response -by Stephen Eisenhammer (Reuters U.S. – December 31, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

RIO DE JANEIRO – Within hours of a deadly mining spill in November that would become Brazil’s worst environmental disaster, BHP Chief Executive Andrew Mackenzie was in front of a camera offering his sympathies to those affected.

Meanwhile, his counterpart at joint venture partner Vale SA, Murilo Ferreira, took nearly a week after the mine wastewater flood to talk to the press, setting the tone for a media strategy experts say has been slow and clumsy.

While both companies’ legal strategies seem similarly aimed at limiting their direct liability for the dam collapse that caused the disaster, a divergence in public relations tactics has left Vale, the world’s biggest iron ore miner, taking the brunt of social media outrage and street protests over the tragedy, which killed 17 and left hundreds homeless.

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Millions of people being contaminated with toxic mercury used in mines – by Greg Rasmussen (CBC News British Columbia – December 30, 2015)

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

Brandon Nichols knows first hand what it’s like to get poisoned by mercury. “I got mercury poisoning two or three times,” he told CBC news. “I got some serious headaches.”

The University of British Columbia grad student had been in South America, researching small scale gold mining operations in Ecuador and their use of mercury.

Mercury is widely used by the miners because it bonds with gold, allowing it be more easily separated from the ore hauled out of countless mines dotting the countryside.

The widespread use of the toxic liquid metal is creating a long lasting environmental hazard that starts with ore processing and travels all the way up the food chain.

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BHP Billiton and partner Vale to launch external investigation into a dam disaster in Brazil that left 17 dead – by Robb M. Stewart (The Australian – December 22, 2015)

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

BHP Billiton has pledged to release publicly the findings of a New York-based law firm hired to determine the cause of a catastrophic dam burst at a mine in Brazil last month.

The Australian mining company said it and venture partners Vale SA and Samarco Minerao SA had jointly hired US law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton to launch an external investigation into the cause of a breach of a mine-waste dam and a water dam at the iron-ore operation in Minas Gerais.

BHP said it planned to release the findings and also share the results with other resources companies.

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No charges to be laid in Mount Polley dam breach – by Les Leyne (Victoria Times Colonist – December 22, 2015)

http://www.timescolonist.com/

Part of the report by the chief inspector of mines on the Mount Polley tailings-dam failure was devoted to “root cause analysis,” an investigative process developed to look at all the factors that go into engineering failures.

The report cites the Challenger space-shuttle catastrophe and the Three Mile Island nuclear-plant crisis as examples of multiple points of weaknesses in systems, and failures all down the line to understand them.

“Another common trait in structural or system failures over time is the cascading nature of the failure itself,” said the report. “Rarely is there a single physical failure in isolation. One event or condition will trigger or enable another.”

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BHP awaits court freeze order on Brazil assets over mine disaster – by James Regan (Reuters U.S. – December 21, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

SYDNEY – BHP Billiton BLT.L – has not received formal notification that its assets in Brazil have been frozen, a company spokesman said Monday, three days after a court ruled to hold the assets as compensation for the Samarco mining disaster.

“We have yet to receive any formal notification,” BHP Billiton’s Paul Hutchins said by telephone from the company’s Melbourne headquarters. “We hope to have an update tomorrow.”

A judge in Brazil’s state of Minais Gerais on Friday froze the Brazilian assets of BHP and domestic miner Vale SA after ruling their Samarco joint venture was unable to pay for damages following a dam collapse last month at Samarco’s iron ore mine in the state. The disaster killed 16 people, left hundreds homeless, and polluted a nearby river.

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No charges under B.C.’s mining laws for failure of Mount Polley mine dam – by Gordon Hoekstra (Vancouver Sun – December 17, 2015)

http://www.vancouversun.com/

No charges are being issued under the province’s mining laws against Imperial Metals’ over the catastrophic failure of its Mount Polley mine dam.

Following a more than one-year investigation, B.C.’s chief inspector of mines has not recommended charges be forwarded to Crown counsel over the dam failure on Aug. 4, 2014. The failure of the rock-and-earth dam released 21 million cubic metres of water and finely-ground rock containing potentially toxic metals into the Quesnel Lake watershed.

“Although there was poor practices there was no non-compliances we could find,” B.C. chief inspector of mines Al Hoffman said Thursday in releasing the investigation report.

There will also be no fines or penalties issued either, as B.C.’s mining legislation and regulations do not allow for administrative actions.

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Samarco’s Bill for Brazil Dam Failure Could Grow – by Paul Kiernan (Wall Street Journal – December 8, 2015)

http://www.wsj.com/

RIO DE JANEIRO—Mining company Samarco Mineração SA’s bill for a catastrophic dam failure last month could be growing by the day, as it struggles to formulate an emergency plan demanded by local prosecutors in case of additional accidents.

On Nov. 28, a judge in Minas Gerais state gave Samarco, a joint venture between mining giants Vale SA and BHP Billiton Ltd., three days to fulfill the requirement or else pay a fine of 1 million Brazilian reais a day ($262,536).

Prosecutors asked the company to forecast potential scenarios of what could happen if the remaining dams at its mining complex were to break, and to provide “concrete emergency measures” to be adopted in each scenario.

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Task force commissioned by mining industry recommends tighter dam oversight – by Gordon Hoekstra (Vancouver Sun – December 8, 2015)

http://www.vancouversun.com/

The Mining Association of Canada says it will implement beefed up oversight of earth-and-rock dams that hold back mining waste as recommended in an independent report it commissioned after the Mount Polley mine dam failure last year.

That means its members — which include some of B.C.’s largest mining companies — will have to have independent reviews of all stages of dam development, from site investigation and selection to design, operation and closure.

The 29 recommendations released in the report on Tuesday also call for more transparency and communication with communities on safety risks and monitoring. It also calls for high-risk closed mine facilities to be part of the industry association’s oversight program.

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Brazil sues BHP, Vale for $5 billion in damages for mine disaster – by Anthony Boadle (Reuters U.S. – November 30, 2015)

http://www.reuters.com/

BRASILIA – Brazil filed a lawsuit on Monday against two of the world’s largest mining companies for 20 billion Brazilian reais ($5.2 billion) to clean up what it says was its worst environmental disaster, caused by the collapse of a tailings dam.

The governments of Brazil and those of two states hit by the damburst sued iron ore operator Samarco and its co-owners, the world’s largest miner BHP Billiton Ltd and the biggest iron ore miner Vale SA.

Earlier on Monday, President Dilma Rousseff blamed the disaster on the “irresponsible action of a company” in a speech to the COP21 climate change summit in Paris. “We are severely punishing those responsible for this tragedy,” she said.

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Brazil to File $5.3 Billion Suit Against Dam Owners – by Paul Kiernan (Wall Street Journal – November 27, 2015)

http://www.wsj.com/

RIO DE JANEIRO—Brazil’s government said it is preparing to sue mining giants Vale SA, BHP Billiton Ltd. and their joint venture Samarco Mineração SA in response to a catastrophic dam failure earlier this month, as Vale acknowledged the presence of toxic elements in a river downstream for the first time.

The civil suit demanding damages of 20 billion Brazilian reais ($5.3 billion) is expected to be filed on Monday, the Attorney General’s office said on Friday in a news release. The proceeds are intended to create a fund to help recovery efforts in the Rio Doce, a major river that was contaminated with mud and toxic mining waste in the wake of the Nov. 5 collapse of Samarco’s dam in Minas Gerais.

As many as 13 people were killed and hundreds displaced as the mud swallowed up entire villages below the dam. An additional 11 are missing.

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