BHP Billiton, Fly river, Ok Tedi river, copper mines, Irian Jaya, Barrow Island, deforestation Indonesia, environmental damage,
longwall mining, mining companies

Longwall Mining links

Georges River Macarthur

General longwall mining

• longwall mining process - damage, cause and effects
• backstow - mining subsidence - backstow reduces surface damage, our politicians don't legislate for it
• Cataract river - Cataract river during the seventies
• Georges river dieing - Georges river greatly reduced water levels
• Iluka Creek - Iluka Swamp - Iluka Creek, Iluka Swamp, Georges River catchment
• Macarthurs rivers - Bargo, Georges, Cataract rivers - Broughton Pass Dam, Marhnes Hole, Appin
• Mine subsidence - mine subsidence in the Upper Nepean river catchment
• Georges River photographs - photographs of 7 km downstream of Freres Crossing
• Stokes Creek Wedderburn - Stokes Creek, Wedderburn, Georges River, Campbelltown
• Wedderburn - Wedderburns rivers, creeks and properties
• Wedderburn gorge - Wedderburn gorge, Georges River catchment, environmental damage
• Woolwash - The Woolwash junction with O'Hares creek Wedderburn - Minto
• O'Hares - Iluka - Georges River, O'Hares Creek, Dharawal State Recreation Area, Iluka Creek, Iluka Swamp, Maddens Creek.
• O'Hares - Wedderburn - Georges River, O'Hares Creek, Campbelltown, Wedderburn.
• Dharawal State Recreation Area - Georges River, O'Hares Creek, Darkes Forest.

• gr_punchbowl_kentlyn - Punchbowl Creek at the Basin Georges River NSW
• broken promises - longwall mining - deceit, denial and broken promises
• Cost clean coal - Clean coal, is it too costly to consider
• Longwall Mining - Global Climate Change, letter to Kevin Rudd, Prime minister Australia
• The hidden costs of clean coal - The environmental and human disaster of longwall mining - Multimedia from The Center for Public Integrity Washington DC. Video filmed in the mine and the effects above ground.
• BHP Billiton environmental damage - BHP Billiton, Fly river, Ok Tedi river, copper mines, Irian Jaya, Barrow Island, deforestation Indonesia, environmental damage, longwall mining
• BHP Billiton misinformation - BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal - Rio Tinto misinformation and the publics wrong impression of mining
• Politicians and approvals - These politicians approve longwall mining licences which pollutes our atmosphere, damages our rivers, water catchments and your homes
• Mine subsidence - longwall mining and its impact on water resources
• When longwall mining comes to your town - When longwall mining comes to your town, your home is in the hands of the mining company- from the US and applies here in Australia

Significant and biological impacts that will last for decades, possibly even centuries

Australian mining giant leaves environmental disaster in Papua New Guinea

BHP dumped 80,000 tons of tailings (rock waste) containing copper, zinc, cadmium and lead directly into the Fly and Ok Tedi Rivers every day for two decades. This has ruined the lands of thousands of subsistence farmers, poisoned some 2,000 square kilometres of forest, polluted the Ok Tedi River and contaminated a section of the Fly River, PNG’s second biggest river system, severely depleting fishing stocks.
According to a number of experts, the damage will continue for lifetimes. Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Professor Doug Holdway said: “We’re going to see a lot more damage in the future, not less. If you put 400 million tonnes of tailings down a river system, there should be no surprises that you’re going to have significant and biological impacts that will last for decades, possibly even centuries” .

Open cast mines gut the surface, denude landscapes; chemicals poison the water

Undermining Orissa

Orissa faces a grave hazard that threatens to destroy its natural reserves and wildlife. Industrialisation has transformed the state, fragmented forests, intruded into corridors and interrupted traditional tribal life. Open cast mines gut the surface, denude landscapes; chemicals poison the water. The State Government and the Orissa Mining Corporation Limited seem to be working hand in hand to make Orissa the industrialist’s dream (the cost of aluminium production in Orissa is one of the lowest in the world). The effort is to attract conglomerates like the Aditya Birla group, Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), Tata Group, BHP-Billiton, Vedanta Resources, Rio Tinto mining and Alcan. The devastating combined environmental impact of most of these projects is totally ignored and without a change in policy, the ecological future of Orissa appears very bleak indeed.

You can't engineer your way out of something that is unpredictable and untested

Hurricane Rita - Oil Platform failure

Every resident of Malibu should be horrified about the BHP Billiton oil and gas rig in the Gulf of Mexico that was lost during Hurricane Rita," Malibu Mayor Andy Stern told The Malibu Times. "Not only did the supposed foolproof precautions taken by BHP Billiton fail, but according to their own spokesperson, they do not even know why they failed.

The problem of toxic mine waste disposal remains for future generations

Public outcry over mining threat to Indonesian protected forests

Indonesia's forests are under attack, as the mining industry contributes to rapid deforestation that threatens biodiversity, water catchment areas and the livelihoods of communities. Flooding and landslides kill hundreds and cost billions of Rupiah, and the problem of toxic mine waste disposal remains for future generations. Forestry Act 41/1999 bans open-pit mining in protected areas, precisely to preserve these hydrological and biodiversity functions.

Papua's Independance Struggle

In the eastern-most parts of Indonesia, an independence struggle has been rumbling on for decades, largely unnoticed by the rest of the world. Papua officially became part of Indonesia in 1969 after a controversial and very limited vote. Since then there have been calls for independence from the government in Jakarta. Newsnight has obtained rare footage of independence fighters based deep in the Papuan jungle. Rachel Harvey, the BBC's correspondent in Indonesia until 2006, reports - contains secretly filmed video.

Several hundred local indigenous people have died following protests mine's environmental and safety record

Irian Jaya/Papua New Guinea

Irian Jaya (Papua New Guinea), a province of Indonesia on the west; formerly known as Australian New Guinea on the east, is one of the most environmentally exploited large islands in the world. In West Papua, one of the world's largest gold and copper mines continues to grow, spewing waste that turns forests into moonscapes. Several hundred local indigenous people have died following protests of the mine's environmental and safety record during a quarter century of strenuous opposition to the destruction, by strip mining, of mountains they regard as sacred.

Barrow Island is such an important habitat for unique species that it is referred to as “Australia’s Ark”

Barrow Island, Australia - RACE

There are 24 known indigenous animal species or subspecies that exist only on Barrow Island. This exceptional assemblage includes five forms of mammals, two types of reptiles, one species of bird and sixteen species of invertebrates. The island is also a refuge for the magnificent Perentie that, at lengths of over six feet, is the world's second largest lizard.
Barrow Island is such an important habitat for unique species that it is referred to as “Australia’s Ark”. A large construction workforce will soon invade this important habitat in order to build the proposed facilities. The estimated 52,037 personnel movements per year that will be required to build the new facilities is a manifold increase in the level of human industrial activity presently occurring on Barrow Island. This activity is one of the central threats posed to the 24 known types of animals that live nowhere else but Barrow Island. Increased human activities on the island increase the risk of the introduction of weeds and diseases that could wipe out the island’s biological diversity forever.

Areas under threat of mining include 8.68 million hectares of protected forests and 2.8 million hectares of conservation areas

Prime Time Crime

Deforestation in Indonesia has reached 2.4 million hectares (1.2%) per year or approximately 10 acres of rainforest a minute. Currently, mining is encroaching on 11.4 million hectares of forest in Indonesia. These areas under threat of mining include 8.68 million hectares of protected forests and 2.8 million hectares of conservation areas.
They say mining multinational companies and foreign governments are lobbying the Indonesian government to sacrifice protected forest areas and national parks as a means to boost the countrys ravaged economy. They say if the plan goes ahead, the lungs of Asia will collapse.

BHP Billiton was attacked over its record in the Philippines, Indonesia, Guatemala and Colombia

BHP Billiton accused of half-truths and evasions

At its AGM (annual shareholders' meeting) in London on 23 October, BHP Billiton was attacked over its record in the Philippines, Indonesia, Guatemala and Colombia, its failure to endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and its role in worsening climate change and producing a radioactive legacy for future generations.

BHP - continues to dodge responsibility for the problems its mines create

BHP - A Responsible Exit

Today several activists and academics who work on behalf of indigenous people around the world say the company continues to dodge responsibility for the problems its mines create for communities in undeveloped parts of the world.

BHP - process to secure indigenous people’s consent required under Filipino law, was seriously flawed

BHP Billiton partner accused of bribery

CAFOD’s report, “Kept in the Dark”, launched today to coincide with BHP Billiton’s AGM in central London, reveals how the Macambol community has been kept in the dark about the proposed mine and how the process to secure indigenous people’s consent for it, as required under Filipino law, was seriously flawed.

It also highlights how the project - known as the Hallmark project - could lead to increased soil erosion, landslides and flash-floods and pollution from mine waste or chemicals could endanger the livelihoods of the 65,000 people living near Pujada Bay.

Aboriginal tribe defy BHP

Aboriginal tribe defy BHP Billiton
“What do these people expect after Maralinga and now three uranium mines operating near them”, Ms Dingaman said, Radon testing must be done.

“You ignore this poison being leached into the waterways because it’s invisible. You need to demand tests independently or you and your children will become sick as we did.”

“Your governments thirst for nuclear and power has stolen this country’s water.  They are out of control and you must speak up and demand that this madness stops.”

KOKATHA REFUSE BHP EXPANSION AND DENOUNCE NATIVE TITLE “MINING CO. AGENTS” «

Isabelle Dingaman (Executive Member) on behalf of Kokatha

Above the law? Roxby Downs and BHP Billiton’s Legal Privileges

Roxby Downs
Peter Burdon
Friends of the Earth, Adelaide
May 2006

What would you say if you were told that a large portion of South Australia is subject to an entirely different set of laws to the rest of the state? How would you feel if you knew that those legally responsible for this land consume more energy and water, create more waste and dangerous material and extract more resources than any other body in South Australia?
Over 20 years ago the South Australian Government enacted the Roxby-Downs (Indenture Ratification) Act 1982 (Indenture Act). In a single document the Government legislated that some 1.5 million hectares in central South Australia, including the Roxby Downs mine and surrounding areas, would be exempt from some of our most important environmental and indigenous rights legislation.

BHP plans to exploit mining rights across swathes of Borneo’s tropical forests

Timesonline

THE world’s biggest mining company, a supporter of the BBC’s Saving Planet Earth campaign to protect orang-utans, is planning to raze some of the great apes’ rainforest habitat.
Documents obtained by The Sunday Times reveal that the Anglo-Australian group BHP Billiton plans to exploit mining rights across swathes of Borneo’s tropical forests in southeast Asia. It has lobbied for the protected status of some of these areas to be lifted so it can clear the trees and dig for coal.

Sunday Times - Clare Rewcastle and Jon Ungoed-Thomas

Orangutan Foundation UK

CHILE: Aymaras Vow Mining Co. Will Restore Wetland

IPS News.net - By Daniela Estrada, Special to IPS

According to Mamani, CMCC approached the Aymaras with an offer of "mutual aid": the company would be the community's benefactor, and in return the community rented land at Huantija to the company in 1991 for a period of 30 years.
The rent agreed was 6,000 dollars a year, to be paid quarterly, which would amount to 180,000 dollars over the whole period. The Aymaras use this money for various development projects and cultural activities.
The community agreed to the CMCC carrying out "exploration aimed at finding underground water" and sinking the wells needed to bring it to the surface. The only restriction was that no such work could be carried out on the watersheds and in the enormous Huantija lake next to the bofedal.
CMCC, which produces 116,000 tons a year of copper cathodes from ore extracted from an open pit mine, began operations in 1994. The water taken from three wells which tap the Lagunillas aquifer is transported by an aqueduct to the mine in the neighbouring municipality of Pozo Almonte, 76 kilometres away.
In 2000, CMCC was bought by the Australian firm BHP, which then merged with Billiton, a British company, in 2003.
And in 2002, the community noticed that the water level of the lake had fallen, and that the five freshwater watersheds and the bofedal had dried up. "We felt tricked," Mamani exclaimed.
The DGA found in February 2005 that "clear environmental damage had been done to almost the whole of the Lagunillas bofedal."
"The ecosystem's plant species have died off in large sectors of the bofedal, and in others their condition extremely poor," a DGA report says.
"The state of degradation" was such that "self-recuperation or natural recuperation is no longer possible," said the DGA, and added that "there is sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the drying out of the wetland is due to underground water extraction carried out by CMCC in the basin," because the level of the acquifer has fallen by eight metres.
CMCC says it is pumping out 125 litres of water per second, and denies responsibility for the condition of the wetland.
A source within the company told IPS that it is due to floods caused by high rainfall in 2001, "a natural event which combined with an effect of the pumping, which mainly affected the natural flow of the watersheds."

Coal mining threatens the "Heart of Borneo" mongabay.com July 25, 2007

Barry Gardiner, the recently appointed special representative on forestry for British prime minister Gordon Brown, said in Parliamentary testimony that despite pro-conservation overtones, BHP Billiton has pressed hard for mining in the biologically rich areas.

"The new, democratic Indonesian Government took commendably swift action to protect their remaining forests following the overthrow of the Suharto regime. On 30 September 1999, the Government enacted laws giving protected forest status to many of the remaining highland and key watershed areas. Included in that protected forest status were five out of seven concessions that the giant Anglo-Australian company BHP Billiton had, shall we say, secured under the Suharto regime," Gardiner said.

Forestry law No. 41 of the statute book of the Republic of Indonesia in the year 1999 No. 167, addition to the national statute book No. 3888, clause 38, sub-clause 4 strictly states that open-cast coal mining is prohibited in protected forest areas. Having already invested approximately $40 million in exploring the potential of those concessions, BHP Billiton was not going to see them rendered effectively worthless without a fight. Along with a number of other companies, BHP Billiton lobbied to have the concessions reinstated. It did more than lobby: it threatened to bankrupt the fledgling democratic Government by launching legal proceedings to demand compensation. The new Parliament first refused to buckle, but that group of foreign companies applied significant international political pressure."