Mining Environmental, Water Shortage and Land Reclamation/Revegetation Issues – Page 9

Iron ore mining resumes in India’s Goa amid environmental concerns – by Murali Krishan (Deutsche Welle – September 15, 2016)

September 16, 2016

http://www.dw.com/en/

Mining in the western Indian state of Goa has restarted after a ban was lifted by the government. The tussle between the mining lobbies and environmental groups has also resumed. Murali Krishnan reports.

The western India state of Goa is famous for its stunning beaches. It is also India’s third-largest iron ore producer. Mining plays a vital role in contributing to the state’s economy. In fact, it is as important to Goa as its tourism industry. But years of unbridled development have led to massive land grabbing by the real estate lobbies and illegal miners.

Until the 2000s, Goa’s mining industry had been controlled by a few families. After that, the infrastructure boom in China triggered an unprecedented mining in the state. The mining mafia, in collusion with political groups, committed large-scale environmental and legal violations. The environmentalists estimate that the loss to the public exchequer owing to illegal mining amounted to a staggering 4.6 billion euros.

Peru to work with companies on environmental efforts: minister – by Mitra Taj (Reuters U.S. – September 14, 2016)

September 15, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

LIMA – Peru’s new environment minister said on Wednesday the government of President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski would focus on preventing pollution rather than fining companies after the fact, part of a more collaborative stance she described for the private sector.

Elsa Galarza, a U.S.-trained economist who previously headed the research unit at Lima’s University of the Pacific, said that previous administrations tended to mistrust companies instead of helping them navigate environmental rules.

“Since the regulations are so profuse, many companies don’t know they’re breaking them,” Galarza told Reuters in a brief interview. “There need to be mechanisms to help companies, to alert them. ‘Look, you need to comply with this and you’re not, what do you need? How can we help you?'”

Policy environment failing South African mining – professor – by Martin Creamer (MiningWeekly.com – September 15, 2016)

September 15, 2016

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa’s policy environment is failing its mining industry, which is suffering an inability to attract investment. In terms of the weighted average cost of capital (WACC), South Africa is trailing many other mining jurisdictions owing to its unstable political economy.

WACC, which is the most fundamental calculation of investment risk, is premised on stable political economy, which is a function of stable policy and clean leadership. Currently, WACC competitiveness in the context of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) sees South Africa below the Democratic Republic of Congo as a mining investment destination.

“Governments need to appreciate that the political economy is absolutely crucial to investments, and people do have a choice. They are able to go to Latin America and they are able to go to North America, and it’s astounding that with the cost structures in Canada, the US and Australia, that they are more competitive as an investment venue than we are, where our cost structures are supposedly lower.

Miners call for World Heritage Sites to be left untouched by all – by Barbara Lewis (Reuters U.S. – September 5, 2016)

September 6, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – The world’s biggest mining companies called on Monday for action to stop any firms, including the oil and gas industry, extracting resources from natural sites protected by the United Nations.

In 2003, the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), which groups 23 firms including BHP Billiton, Rio, Anglo American and Glencore, agreed to halt mining in World Heritage Sites as part of a remit to make mining more sustainable.

“Yet 13 years later, other companies and industries are still operating in these precious sites,” ICMM CEO Tom Butler told the Congress of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Hawaii. “The ecosystems that underpin our economies, well-being and survival are collapsing,” he wrote in a blog. “The message is clear: we need urgent and collaborative action.”

Canadian International Assistance Threatens Human Right To Water – by Maude Barlow and Meera Karunananthan (Huffington Post – August 11, 2016)

August 12, 2016

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

When Justin Trudeau came to power last fall, the mere fact that the Canadian prime minister called himself a feminist and acknowledged climate science was celebrated around the world.

Among other promises, Trudeau pledged to transform Canada’s role in the world. He recently told the Toronto Star that the UN’s expectation that wealthy states spend 0.7 per cent of GDP on foreign aid was “too ambitious” for Canada, but noted that he hopes to “invest smartly and responsibly in global issues.”

Global Affairs Canada is now reviewing its international assistance program and has been conducting consultations. Water is identified as a fundamental consideration as a key element in environmental sustainability and climate in the Global Affairs discussion paper regarding the review.

Millions of orchids grow on former mine site in upstate NY – by Mary Esch (Omaha World Herald – July 23, 2016)

July 25, 2016

http://www.omaha.com/news/

STAR LAKE, N.Y. (AP) — Millions of orchids are now growing in a hundred-acre wetland in the Adirondack Park that developed on waste from a vast open-pit iron mine, a transformation scientists say is most impressive because it happened naturally.

“It’s a testament to nature’s ability to heal itself,” said Grete Bader, a graduate student who recently wrote her master’s thesis about the plant life at the former Benson Mines, about 35 miles from the Canadian border.

The wetland, which remains privately owned and off limits to the public, formed on part of thousands of acres of coarse sand left over when granite ore was crushed to extract iron from 1900 until 1978. That bare sand eventually gave way to moss, lichen, grasses, sedges and trees, including willows, poplars and tamaracks.

Peru’s Kuczynski wants to relax air standards to spur refining – by Marco Aquino (Reuters U.S. – July 14, 2016)

July 14, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/

LIMA – Peru’s President-elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski called Peru’s air quality standards “unrealistic” on Wednesday and proposed lowering them to spur investments in smelters that would boost the country’s key mineral exports.

Kuczynski, a 77-year-old former investment banker who will take office on July 28, said the value of Peru’s mining exports could rise 25 percent solely through greater smelting and refining capacity.

In a speech to farmers in the town of Ica, he said “unrealistic” environmental rules were blocking needed investments.

AUDIO: Sudbury researcher John Gunn meets Sweden’s environmentally minded king – by Samantha Lui (CBC News Sudbury – July 13, 2016)

July 13, 2016

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

John Gunn shared the story of Sudbury’s regreening efforts with the king and other researchers

The regreening of Sudbury’s damaged landscapes is a story known across the world. In fact, it’s even caught the attention of Carl Gustaf, the king of Sweden. Sudbury’s John Gunn was recently invited to attend the king’s 12th Royal Colloquiam just outside of Stockholm.

The event’s been held since 1992 by Gustaf, and it invites leading scientists and researchers to take part in discussions about issues relating to environment and development. Gunn, who is the director of the Vale Living with Lakes Centre in the city, shared details about Sudbury’s progress over the years with the king and other researchers around the world.

“It was a great honour to participate in such a discussion group with the king of Sweden,” he said. “Sweden and the adjoining Norway are very supportive of international studies in the environment. I was pleased to be able to go and represent Sudbury and provide some information.”

Gorillas are being killed and eaten by miners in the Congo – by James Temperton (Wired Magazine – July 12, 2016)

July 12, 2016

http://www.wired.co.uk/

Fewer than 4,000 Grauer’s gorillas remain and the sub-species is being pushed to extinction by hungry miners

An endangered gorilla subspecies is being pushed towards extinction as mineral miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) hunt it for bushmeat. Concerns have now been raised that the global technology supply chain may be accelerating its demise.

The Grauer’s gorilla, the world’s largest primate, is only found in the eastern DRC, but decades of illegal hunting and mining, coupled with civil unrest and habitat loss, have pushed it to the brink.

Conservationists are now calling for ‘bushmeat free’ to be included alongside ‘conflict free’ as a way of ensuring minerals used in the global supply chain are sourced from mines that don’t kill endangered animals. According to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), its numbers have fallen 77 per cent in the last two decades, with fewer than 4,000 now remaining.

Copper’s $149bn mine pipeline stalls as deficit nears – by David Stringer (Mineweb.com/Bloomberg – July 7, 2016)

July 8, 2016

http://www.mineweb.com/

Lack of financing to scarcity of water delaying mine projects.

he $149 billion pipeline to expand the world’s copper supply is running into trouble.

Producers are counting on expansions and the development of new operations to meet supply shortages they forecast arriving toward the end of the decade. The plans are fraying as reluctant lenders, political wrangling, technical obstacles and a lack of water and electricity push back project deadlines from Papua New Guinea to Peru.

Only six major projects to build new mines or expand existing operations will be completed by 2020, with two of that total still at risk of potential delays, according to researcher CRU Group. That compares with a global slate of about 80 planned developments, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

Nunavut mine needs improved monitoring, public oversight: WWF – by Sarah Rogers (Nunasiaq News – July 6, 2016)

July 8, 2016

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/

“That very foundation is missing”

Nunavut’s Mary River iron mine could be a strong example of sustainable development in the Arctic, says World Wildlife Foundation-Canada, but it’s lacking the public oversight it needs to achieve that.

The Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. mine, which shipped its first load of iron ore to Europe in 2015, released its 2015 annual report this past spring, offering a 111-page breakdown of the mine’s performance and monitoring programs in 2015 and plans for 2016.

But years after the project’s approval, Baffinland has no formal guidelines to inform the level of data the company collects on its project, and how its analyses are reported, said WWF-Canada, which sits as an observing member on the mine’s Marine Environment Working Group.

Mining companies keep draining Arctic lakes and moving all of their fish – by Hilary Beaumont (Vice News – July 5, 2016)

July 6, 2016

https://news.vice.com/

In what’s being called a “fishout program,” Canada’s most remote northern territory has given the go-ahead for a mining company to drain an entire lake and relocate all of its fish. Once mining is done, the company plans to re-flood the lakebed and put the fish back.

Though the plan may seem absurd at first blush, it’s actually the second time the mining company has relocated fish from a lake in order to expand its open pit Meadowbank gold mine — a practice by mining companies that’s become surprisingly common in northern Canada.

It’s become so normal that the Canadian government drew up guidelines in 2011 for how mining companies should drain lakes and relocate fish. Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. wants to drain 500,000 cubic metres of water from Phaser Lake in Nunavut, one of Canada’s three arctic territories.

Green Cars Cause Damage of Their Own as Flamingo Flocks Shrink – by Laura Millan Lombrana (Bloomberg News – July 5, 2016)

July 5, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Tesla Motors Inc. and General Motors Corp.’s Chevrolet are preparing to bring out mass-market electric cars next year. If you plan to buy one and help save the planet, people who live near the Atacama salt-flat ask that you spare a thought for the flamingos.

The vehicles will be powered by rechargeable batteries containing lithium, a silver-white metal found in brine deposits under the world’s driest desert in northern Chile. The 1,200-square-foot Salar de Atacama is also known for wild flamingos, who feed and breed in its lagoons. Some locals say that miners sucking water out of the earth to get to the lithium are starving the long-legged birds in the process.

“They are pumping up an absurd amount of water,” says Rolando Humire Coca, a biochemist who heads the Naturalist Society of San Pedro de Atacama and is a member of Chile’s National Institute for Human Rights. “If they keep using the same methods to extract water, the consequences will be disastrous. All forms of life will be destroyed.”

Timmins land reclamation hailed as model – by Alan S. Hale (Timmins Daily Press – June 30, 2016)

June 30, 2016

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

More than 100 delegates attending the Canadian Land Reclamation Association’s (CLRA) conference being held in Timmins this week, ventured out of the meeting rooms at the McIntyre Arena to learn about the reclamation projects undertaken by Goldcorp and Glencore near the city.

The attendees at this year’s CLRA conference came from a variety of backgrounds. There were people from mining companies, government ministries, environment remediation consultants and more than a few university students and other academics. They came from all over the province and even from far away as Japan to learn what the mining industry in Timmins has done to try and clean up the environment

The conference is dedicated to discussing all the latest and greatest developments in the world of trying to return former mining facilities and tailings ponds to their natural state – or at least as close to it as possible.

[Timmins] Reclamation sites to be showcased for delegates – by Sarah Moore (Timmins Daily Press – June 21, 2016)

June 21, 2016

http://www.timminspress.com/

TIMMINS – The successful reclamation of old mine sites in Timmins will showcased to visiting delegates next week as the Canadian Land Reclamation Association (CLRA) hosts its annual meeting and conference in the city.

Delegates from across the country will meet in Timmins for a four-day conference beginning Sunday. The discussions will surround the impact of mining on the natural environment as well as new research and developments that have been made in reclamation efforts nationwide. This is the second time the city has hosted the conference — the first being in 2009.

Jennifer Hargreaves, the Ontario chapter president of the CLRA and quality assurance coordinator at the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, said she is looking forward to the annual event and is pleased with the decision to host the conference in Timmins.