BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal - Rio Tinto
Misinformation and the wrong impression of mining

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
• Georges River catchment - Georges River, O'Hares Creek, Iluka Creek, Iluka Swamp, Maddens Creek, Dharawal State Recreation Area, Dharawal Nature Reserve, Campbelltown, Wedderburn.
• 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

Misinformation, wrong impressions, environmental responsibility, mining company decisions - BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal

Misinformation and the Macarthur Bushwalkers

On Wednesday March 3 2010 Michelle Taverniti of the Macarthur Chronicle published an article "Dry Creeks Distress Hikers" about our findings in the Woronora Catchment. This was followed by Ben Pike of the Macarthur Advertiser on Tuesday 23 march 2010 with his article "Water Levels Alarms Bushwalkers." Many thanks to both Ben and Michelle.

Both journalists reported our finding of no water flow in O'Hares Creek, the last surviving tributary of Georges River.

We had monitored O'Hares from Maddons Plains to Kentlyn producing many photographs from the total catchment over a period of 15 months. We were also monitoring the flow from both tributaries which includes Georges River Upper Catchment and O'Hares Creek with the same findings.

BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal responded by stating that:

1. "Illawarra Coal has never mined beneath O'Hares Creek. To our knowledge there has never been any longwall mining beneath O'Hares Creek" and "It has been independently determined that longwall mining does not cause loss of water from the catchment nor threaten Sydney's drinking water supplies". (We ask - Who is your source? - We said we were monitoring the water flow in the catchment and there was no water flow in O'Hares Creek)
2. Macarthur Advertiser March 3 you stated that "the company had not mined directly beneath a river since 2002" you also said that "the company's existing West Cliff operation mined near, but not under, a section of the Georges River near Appin".
3. In your submission re the Bulli Coal Seam it is stated that a number of swamps may be damaged. (We say - Without swamps there are no rivers yet you intend to mine under the swamps at the headwaters of the Woronora River where the Waratah Rivulet is badly cracked and water has ceased to flow.)
4. BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal said that they had not mined under Maddens Plane. (We didn't say you had.)
5. Mention has been made of regular monitoring by BHP Billiton. (If that is correct why hasn't the issues we have found been reported.)

We have also monitored the Upper Georges River catchment from south of Appin road near the Cataract Scout Camp, we were there three weekends in March including 27 March. There is no water flow there either, a situation which was also caused by longwall mining.

We also noted that the grouting on the rock shelf at Marhnyes Hole in the Upper Georges River Catchment is cracking and appears to be failing.

The Macarthur Bushwalkers has spent a minimum of 26 week ends in the Georges River catchment. In addition members have also been in the catchment during thew working week. We have amassed a considerable amount of information and photographs from all areas of the catchment.

This information is being published on both this website and the Macarthur Bushwalkers website found at http://www.bushwalking-cycling.com is now being expanded and changed to publicise this new information as it comes in on a weekly basis.

Our photographs prove beyond doubt that the Georges River and its catchment are very sick indeed. All we receive from BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal is the same tired old excuses that are generated by the mining industry world wide.

The task of this lack lustre state labour government is to protect the people of NSW against predatory multi-national organisations which include the mining industry. In this Kristina Keneally and her colleagues both past and present haver failed miserably. They have allowed BHP Billiton to destroy our rivers and water supplies to save their asses.

BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal

John Brannon - general manager of sustainable development and external affairs - ABC Illawarra.

BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal says a balanced argument should be presented when analysing the effects of long-wall mining on local water catchment areas.
The general manager of sustainable development and external affairs, John Brannon, says facts presented by environmental groups such as Rivers SOS do not always tell all the details and that people should be wary of misinformation.
Rivers SOS presented the movie Rivers Of Shame 2 in the New South Wales Parliament yesterday, which it says highlights the effects of long-wall mining on rivers and creek beds that are part of the drinking water catchment areas for Sydney Water.
Mr Brannon says a lot of misinformation is being presented giving people the wrong impression of mining.
"here's a lot of misinformation being put out in the community, which is giving people, potentially, the wrong impression," he said.
"People aren't getting a balanced view. They're not understanding what decisions are being made by mining companies around their environmental responsibilities."

Mining under freeway okay: Macarthur Federal Liberal MP Pat Farmer

Pat Farmer

Tuesday, 31 March 2009

Source: Macarthur Chronicle by David Campbell

BHP BILLITON’S proposed mining under the Hume Highway and the main southern railway was under control, Macarthur Federal Liberal MP Pat Farmer said.
Mr Farmer made the announcement at a press conference at Menangle last Tuesday following concerns over the State Government’s approval of the project.
Illawarra Coal, a subsidiary of BHP Billiton, will use longwall mining methods under the highway and rail line.
Mr Farmer said he met BHP Billiton officials and was satisfied with their response.
“A number of people had contacted me in my office about longwall mining,” he said.
“We met the mining companies and put the questions our constituents had asked us to them.”
Mr Farmer said he was told a 3m-tall mine shaft about 500m below the ground would only turn into a couple of inches of subsidence at the surface if the shaft collapsed.
“That alleviated our fear in relation to that, so we asked about the bridges,” he said.
“They said they weren’t mining near any bridges but if there were any movements then upgrades to the bridges would protect them against the effects of subsidence.”
Illawarra Coal sustainable development general manager John Brannon said years of preparation had gone into protecting the major infrastructure from subsidence.
“The works on the highway and railway line are being conducted to address all possible risks and have been co-ordinated by the infrastructure owners in consultation with Illawarra Coal, engineering consultants, geotechnical experts, police, the NSW Department of Primary Industries, and other relevant government agencies,” Mr Brannon said.
“While total subsidence in the order of one metre is anticipated, this subsidence is expected to occur over a broad area, and over a period of time, such that the changes will probably be imperceptible to motorists.”
Work on Illawarra Coal’s Appin Mine Longwall 703 is scheduled to begin at the end of this year.

Help us halt the Great Artesian water grab!

Australian Conservation Foundation

BHP Billitons water grab

BHP Billiton has put a proposal to the Governments that would see the company extract an additional 120 million litres of publicly-owned artesian water per day, every day, for the next 70 years. Help us prevent an environmental disaster...

ACF is deeply concerned that drawing this much water would damage the Great Artesian Basin, cause a significant reduction in groundwater pressure and cut off the natural flows to the unique and fragile mound springs.

The water extraction is part of BHP Billion's proposed expansion of the Olympic Dam mine. The company, which announced a record annual profit of $8.5 billion in August, plans to double copper production, quadruple uranium output and convert the mine from a network of underground tunnels to a massive open pit, a kilometre deep and three kilometres wide. The crater would be visible from space.

The expanded mine would produce enough waste rock rubble to cover the CBD of any Australian capital city and enough radioactive waste to cover the MCG to the depth of the goalposts every two-and-a-half days. The mine is a large consumer of electricity and a major contributor to South Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. A 2003 Senate Inquiry into the regulation of uranium mining reported "a pattern of under performance and non-compliance" in the industry. It concluded that changes were necessary "in order to protect the environment and its inhabitants from serious or irreversible damage".

Yet due to an outdated legal arrangement, the current mining operation does not come under the watch of vital South Australian environment laws. With BHP Billiton able to act outside the laws of South Australia, how can the changes recommended by the Senate inquiry be enforced?

BHP AGM (Shareholders Meeting)

Mining Advocacy Network

SUMMARY: 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.

The company’s responses were characterised by

• failure to listen to complaints
• failure to answer many detailed questions with anything more than vague generalities
• failure to admit that consultation processes in many countries are affected by corruption and intimidation
• and blank denial, without evidence, of informed and well-documented criticism.

Company Chair Don Argus repeatedly told critics to read the company’s ‘Sustainability Report’ without dealing adequately with examples showing that the company is not living up to it.

Argus and company CEO Marius Kloppers both asserted that ‘We won’t mine in World Heritage Sites’ – but would not commit to ditching prospective mining projects in UNESCO’s proposed World Heritage Site at Gag Island in Papua. So what’s going on behind the scenes? Lobbying to ensure that Gag Island is excluded from UNESCO’s proposed site?

BHP Billiton caught in US climate change scandal

BHP Billiton Scandal - SMH Marian Wilkinson Environment Editor August 13, 2009

BHP BILLITON and two other leading US energy companies operating in Australia have been caught up in a lobbying scandal that was aimed at defeating the landmark US climate change bill but is now under investigation by a congressional committee.

The scandal involves 12 forged letters sent to members of Congress urging them to vote against the US climate change bill. The bill, which was passed by the US House of Representatives in June, is designed to cut America's greenhouse gas pollution and promote clean energy.

The forged letters were purportedly sent by grassroots groups in coalmining districts to three Democratic members. But a Washington lobby firm working on behalf of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity admitted that an employee forged the letters and faxed them.

BHP Billiton is a prominent member of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity along with Peabody Energy, America's biggest coal company which owns mines in NSW and Queensland, and Chevron Mining which has two major gas projects in north west Australia.

Environmental damage - Changes in the land worry Damien Arabagali, a community leader in Toroba, West Papua

Freeport McMoRan's Grasberg Mine - Rio Tinto

I think nature will pay back the disrespect shown to her. Look around you! It's becoming hotter, drier, more eroded. Here, in Huli country, people are hiding from the sun. They never used to do that before. The land is more barren than ever before. That's why people have to work much harder than ever before. Look at how skinny they are! And because of all this clearing of our forests we have floods, which we never had before. We can see it here. Our fertile swamps, where we plant kaukau and our sweet potatoes are drying out. Soon there will be no more swamps. What then? What's the cause of all this? I think it's greed. Something in humanity must be evil in itself. The big companies have become dehumanized. Profits at all costs, no matter what that leaves behind." (Interpress Service, 1993, 89)

An estimated 3 billion tons of rock will have been processed by the time the mine is exhausted about 2040. According to the Mineral Policy Institute, "This waste is acidic and contains heavy metals. The water from Lake Wanagon flows into the Ajkwa River system that flows down to the Arafura Sea. In addition the mine dumps 300,000 tons of waste tailings into the Ajkwa River every day." (Rio Tinto's Shame, 2000)

In 1977, local indigenous peoples affiliated with the Free Papua Movement issued their own critique of its environmental record by blowing up one of its ore pipelines.

According to Al Gedicks, writing in Resource Rebels (2001), reaction of the Indonesian military was swift and emphatic: The Indonesian military responded by sending United States-supplied OV-10 Bronco attack jets to strafe and bomb villagers. The retaliation was code-named Operation Tumpas ("annihilation"). Papuans claim that thousands of men, women, and children were killed in this action; the government admits to 900. Reports of the use of these counter insurgency aircraft did not appear in the world press until a year later. (Gedicks, 2001, 95)

Indigenous Peoples and Environmental Issues: An Encyclopedia

Indigenous Peoples and Environmental Issues: An Encyclopedia Irian Jaya/Papua New Guinea
Bruce E. Johansen Professor of Communication and Native American Studies
University of Nebraska at Omaha