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Claudia and Raffael

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Journal of Environmental Quality Abstract - Environmental Impacts of Metal Ore Mining and Processing: A Review | Digital Library

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The impact of mining and smelting of metal ores on environmental quality is described. Mines produce large amounts of waste because the ore is only a small fraction of the total volume of the mined material. In the metal industry, production of Cu, Pb, and Zn causes the greatest degradation of the environment.

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Mass Black sand mining

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More Snails!!!

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A SECTION of Sugarloaf State Conservation Area is expected to be closed to the public for more than a decade as authorities struggle to deal with threats to safety posed by mine subsidence damage.

Expert reports reveal a series of possible safety risks to people using the public reserve including rockfalls, large-scale landslide and trees toppling.

Part of the reserve, around the largest subsidence damage, will be fenced off indefinitely following recommendations by the mine's consultants.

It is considered too dangerous to allow workers in to remediate because ''soil and toppling failure'' could occur quickly and people would ''not be able to evacuate''.

''The only way to ensure public safety is to prevent access to this area until the vertical block movement feature [three large subsidence-affected areas] and associated subsidence impacts are considered safe and stable by the relevant experts and authorities,'' the state government's Sugarloaf State Conservation Area safety and remediation committee report says.

It is estimated the area could be fenced off for more than a decade.

Miner Glencore Xstrata's West Wallsend Colliery has agreed to spend $100,000 on the reserve to make up for the loss of access.

The revelations have outraged bushwalking and environment groups, who are demanding a guarantee more of the reserve will not be lost to longwall mining under the range.

A National Parks Association Hunter spokesman said Glencore Xstrata must provide ''concrete evidence'' the public will not have more of its park ''fenced off due to damage caused by mining''.

''We are talking about a public conservation reserve that is meant to provide for public recreation,'' he said.

''Their subsidence risk analysis was flawed in the first place, so I have no idea how we are to trust that this will not happen again in other areas of the park.''

The Newcastle Herald revealed in August irreparable subsidence damage to part of the 3937-hectare reserve caused by West Wallsend Colliery and a botched remediation attempt that resulted in a 280-metre grout spill down a stream.

Subsidence cracks extend about 7.5kilometres across the reserve with a total surface area of 6651 square metres, not including the largest landslip area.

Cracks can extend up to two-metres wide, 18-metres deep or 250-metres long.

Green Corridor Coalition spokesman Brian Purdue said $100,000 in return for a section of the public reserve being indefinitely labelled ''off limits'' was outrageous.

He said many bushwalkers and mountain bike riders used the conservation area all the time.

Glencore Xstrata's consultant Douglas Partners carried out risk analysis to evaluate the possibility of death or injury due to the damage. It found that, based on observations by mine security guards who patrolled the affected site, a limited number of people used the area.

''Any talk that this happened in a remote area of the park that is not widely used is just not true,'' Mr Purdue said.

''Bushwalkers don't walk up roads or on tracks, we walk in the bush and most of the time those security guards would never see us.''

Glencore Xstrata's spokesman said the $100,000 offset would be used to improve the amenity of the reserve.

''Areas have been demarcated using signs, gates and other methods for approximately two years, with security guards in place to highlight possible risks and minimise the chances of people entering the areas signposted ...'' he said.

''All relevant safety measures will remain in place as long as there is a need. We are consulting with authorities on revised plans, as well as final fencing arrangements.''

The state government has not ruled out further action against the miner.

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Sugarloaf mine subsidence areas may be off limits for a decade: photos, video

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A SECTION of Sugarloaf State Conservation Area is expected to be closed to the public for more than a decade as authorities struggle to deal with threats to safety posed by mine subsidence damage. Expert reports reveal a series of possible safety risks to people using the public reserve including rockfalls, large-scale landslide and trees toppling.

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Turkey's coal mining releasing methane gas

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Two days after a coal mine fire killed at least 283 workers in western Turkey, mourning was mixed with angry protests sparked by the perception that the nation's increasing desire for coal energy had compromised mining safety. (See: "Pictures: Mine Blast in Turkey Kills More Than 200.")
Violent clashes between rioters and police in the capital city of Ankara signaled that some were using the mining deaths to revive long-held grievances against the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Other critics claimed that Tuesday's deadly blast symbolized how more aggressive drilling for coal-encouraged by Erdogan's government-had made mining more perilous for workers.

In particular, the deaths at the mine in Soma, a town about 300 miles (483 kilometers) southwest of Istanbul, raise questions about whether Turkey's government and its mining companies have done enough to limit extremely flammable methane gas and coal dust at a time when the nation is boosting its commitment to coal. (See: " Powering Our Urban Future: Spotlight on Turkey.")

The owner of the mine, Soma Komur Isletmeleri A.S., has said that it upheld the "highest safety measures and constant controls." Turkish officials said the mine had been inspected as recently as March, with no problems reported.

Officials blamed a transformer explosion for the blast and subsequent fire, which was still burning Thursday. However, an electrical glitch on its own would not necessarily cause an accident of the magnitude seen at the Soma mine, said an official with the Mining Safety and Health Administration in the United States, where regulators have managed to dramatically reduce-but not eliminate-worker casualties in mines.

Coal mine explosions and fires typically happen when either methane or coal dust present in the mine meets with a spark and ignites.

"There is probably more involved" in the Turkey explosion than just a blown transformer, said the U.S. official, who was not authorized to speak publicly. "They are electrical devices, and they can fail. But usually when they fail, it's a localized thing, within a few hundred feet in the worst case."
Turkey's Increasing Push for Coal
Yücel Demiral, an occupational health specialist based in western Turkey who co-authored a paper released last year about the country's coal mine safety, said that although there is no confirmation about the role of coal dust or methane in the Soma tragedy, the privatization of Turkey's coal industry in recent years has led to new safety questions.

During the past decade, ownership of mines in Soma has transitioned from the state to private companies, Demiral said. The private owners have been "more profit-oriented," he said, cutting worker salaries and digging deeper than before into the coal seams in Soma.

Turkey's energy ministry notes that coal prospecting has increased fivefold in the past nine years, resulting in the discovery of new lignite reserves that have boosted the country's total stores by more than 50 percent. (See related story: " Germany Plans to Raze Towns for Brown Coal and Cheap Energy.")

"Normally in this region, we don't expect methane gas" as part of the lignite mining that takes place in Soma, Demiral said. However, as companies dig deeper, there is a higher risk of meeting dangerous concentrations of methane. Even so, he said, "there is no knowledge or expertise" in Turkish mining operations "regarding the methane issues."

Demiral said that the same mines, under private ownership, have become four times more profitable than they were under the state, and that companies have taken "shortcuts" when it comes to workers' welfare.

His paper noted that there are only 1,000 government labor inspectors in a country of 81 million, and that supervisory authorities sometimes contradict each other. "This lack of cooperation may mean that some mines are audited a few days apart by the different institutions," the paper said, "while other mines are audited after a long time, or not audited at all."

Coal accounts for about 28 percent of Turkey's electricity generation, a figure the government is trying to increase. (The United States, by comparison, depends on coal for 37 percent of its electricity generation, but increasingly is moving toward natural gas.) Most of Turkey's coal reserves are lignite, or brown coal, the low-quality fuel used mainly to generate electricity. Estimates vary about the number of deaths attributed to coal mining in Turkey, but one state-run agency reported that 3,000 workers had died in mine accidents since 1941.

Despite the dangers and pollution associated with coal, there is pressure in Turkey to meet growing energy demand by producing more coal domestically to avoid pricier natural gas imports in the absence of its own shale resources.

"Coal is essential as an energy source," the Turkish energy ministry says in recently updated copy on its website. "In Turkey, coal is now referred to as the energy source of the future."
Dangers to Workers Worldwide
More than ten million people worldwide are employed producing coal, according to the International Labour Organization. Though fatalities largely have declined during the past decade, thousands of coal workers still die on the job every year.

China's coal industry, in particular, has an "unacceptably high" fatality rate, "particularly due to the number of unregulated small coal mines that have operated in recent years," according to the World Coal Association. Last year more than 1,000 workers died at Chinese coal mines, according to government figures-a rate exponentially higher than that of the United States, but still an improvement from the 7,000 coal worker deaths China saw in 2002.

"Fire and explosion have long been and remain the most common sources of mass fatality incidents in coal mines," noted an Australian report on coal mine worker safety this year. Other hazards include falling rock or earth, flooding, and toxic fumes. Of the ten most recent coal mine accidents listed on China's State Administration of Work Safety site, six involved explosions. (See related story: " Clean Coal Test: Power Plants Prepare to Capture Carbon.")
Lessons From West Virginia
The United States has been able to cut dramatically the number of fatal coal mining accidents in recent years. Deaths have fallen from an average of 150 per year in the 1970s to under 50 over the past decade. But deadly accidents are still happening: Just this week, two workers were killed at West Virginia's Brody No. 1 mine in a rock collapse.

Explosions, though rarer in the United States than they used to be, also remain a potent risk to workers. In 2010, a gas explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia killed 29 people and injured two others. In that accident, according to the state's investigative report, heat from a tool used to cut sandstone ignited methane in the mine, which then ignited coal dust. It was the worst U.S. mining disaster in 40 years.

"Coal dust by itself is just like gunpowder when it gets suspended in the air or when it's collected on the mine floors," says Greg Norman, administrator for the West Virginia Office of Miners' Health Safety and Training. "If you have a methane explosion [that] just kicks up more coal dust, it becomes like a huge bomb."

Norman said that among several measures that can be taken to prevent explosions, spreading rock dust is key. When distributed throughout the mine, rock dust acts as a fire retardant, keeping overall combustibility down. Adequate ventilation to avoid buildup of methane also is crucial.

The techniques are nothing new. "There is a lot of new technology out there now, but the two biggest things to prevent mine explosions are [still] rock dust and ventilation," Norman said, referring to measures that have been in place since the U.S. Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969. (See related story: " New Energy Frontier: Drilling Into Coal for Gas.")

There is little evidence that rock dusting is being used with any regularity in Turkey; a 2009 study of dust in Turkish coal mines makes no mention of the practice. Demiral's paper said of the mining industry, "There is a lack of supervision and auditing, and the conditions are primitive in both public and private enterprises."

In West Virginia, the Upper Big Branch mine's parent company failed to adequately deploy rock dusting and other preventive measures, such as water-spraying equipment and continuous monitoring for methane and coal dust. The company, Massey Energy, was fined more than $10 million for safety violations, and one of its top executives was sentenced to 42 months in prison last year.

It is possible that in Turkey, protests and public anger over the Soma mine tragedy might force leaders to explore regulatory changes. But as the case of Upper Big Branch shows, regulations do not always prevent disaster. (Vote and comment: " What Energy Solution Should We Be Developing Next?")

Demiral expressed little hope that the Soma incident would result in any real explanation of what caused the blast, or any change in regulations by the government. Prime Minister Erdogan's public comments have suggested that he sees such accidents as part of the risk of mining, and the general response from officials has been defensive.

"It's more blaming the victims," Demiral said. "They are ignoring the problem."
This story is part of a special series that explores energy issues. For more, visit The Great Energy Challenge.

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Turkey Tragedy Points to Enduring Coal Mining Risks

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Two days after a coal mine fire killed at least 283 workers in western Turkey, mourning was mixed with angry protests sparked by the perception that the nation's increasing desire for coal energy had compromised mining safety.

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Frac Sand Mining

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BHP wants to build world’s largest underground coal mine

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BHP wants to build world's largest underground coal mine

BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP), the world's largest diversified resources company, is getting its ducks in a row to build Caroona, a thermal coal mine that could become the world's biggest underground operation of its kind, The Australian reports.

The problem is BHP is planning to do so at the fertile Liverpool Plains, an extensive agricultural area covering about 1.2 million hectares of the northwestern slopes of New South Wales in Australia, which has predictably raised opposition from locals.

The mining giant has already submitted a licence request to the federal and state governments, saying the mine could produce 10 million tonnes of thermal coal a year, or more than 5% of Australia's current exports. It is also expected to employ over 400 workers over the 30 years of its mine life.

The news come on the heels of Rio Tinto's (LON:RIO) legal defeat over a proposed expansion of its Warkworth mine, in the Hunter Valley, on the grounds that the environmental impact would outweigh economic benefits.

Anticipating a similar reaction, BHP has claimed the proposed coal operation will not affect farmers, nor the underground aquifers, the main bone of contention with those opposed to Caroona.

Farmer and chairman of the Caroona Coal Action Group Tim Duddy told The Leader preliminary environmental studies undertaken by BHP Billiton and submitted alongside the permit request, show rather the opposite.

"It's showing an impact of 180m (of drawdown) on some of the aquifers farmers use for irrigation...What this application flags is the beginning of the end of agriculture on the Liverpool Plains," he was quoted as saying.

If the project gets the green light, construction could start by 2018.

Last week, the head of BHP's coal unit, Dean Dana Valle signalled confidence in the outlook for the strained global coal industry, forecasting increases in world demand for decades to come.

He said he expects most demand growth to come from outside China, which has been the primary driver of global commodity prices in recent years. China currently accounts for about 50% of the world's coal consumption.

"Over the next couple of decades we expect global growth in demand for both energy coal and metallurgical coal," he said in a speech in Brisbane Wednesday. Although "the likes of India, a country not overly endowed with metallurgical coal, [is] anticipated to be the most significant source of new demand" for coal used in steelmaking, he said.

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BHP wants to build world's largest underground coal mine | MINING.com

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BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP), the world's largest diversified resources company, is getting its ducks in a row to build Caroona, a thermal coal mine that could become the world's biggest underground operation of its kind, The Australian reports .

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Brazil's Vale under fire for deaths &

environmental damage

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Economy & Trade, Environment, Global, Global Governance, Headlines, Human Rights, Labour, Latin America & the Caribbean, Natural Resources

- Social movements from several countries accused Brazil's Vale, the world's second largest mining company, of causing serious environmental and social damage, as well as the deaths of 15 workers in labour accidents between 2010 and 2012.

The accusations are laid out in the 'Report on Vale's Unsustainability - 2012′, released Apr. 18 in Rio de Janeiro by the International Network of People Affected by Vale, which brings together 30 social movements from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile and Mozambique, some of the countries where the company operates.

According to estimates by the social organisations, the Brazilian company, which was privatised in 1997, caused damage in 2010 on a total of 742 square kilometres.

The international network, a United Steelworkers partner organisation, points out that the company emitted 89 million tons of carbon dioxide - one of the main greenhouse gases - in 2010, and 6,600 tons of particulate matter (such as smoke, soot or dust) - 29 percent more than in 2009.

In addition, nitrogen oxide emissions totaled 110,000 tons in 2010, 30 percent up from the year before, while sulphur dioxide emissions amounted to 403,000 tons, 25 percent more than in 2009.

The statistics on emissions were included by Vale in its latest Sustainability Report, from 2010.

The executive director of the Brazilian NGO Global Justice, Andressa Caldas, told IPS that the report by the international network is a "shadow" document that follows the mould of Vale's Sustainability Reports.

"Vale has a huge impact, and has violated human rights not only in Brazil but in 37 other countries where it operates," Caldas said.

With regard to the international network's report, she particularly mentioned the information on how working conditions have declined for Vale's workers.

"There are cases, like in Canada, where Vale has radically changed relations between workers and the unions, which prompted the longest strikes in the history of Canada," Caldas said.

The strikes she was referring to lasted 11 months in 2009 and 2010 in Sudbury and Port Colborne in the east-central province of Ontario, and 18 months in Voisey's Bay in the eastern province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

"The global crisis was used to justify wage cuts, longer workdays, massive layoffs and cuts in benefits and other acquired rights," the report says.

In 2012, four workers died in Vale's operations in Canada.

On Jan. 30, the unit in Sudbury suspended activity in five mines after the death of two workers who were buried in an avalanche of wet rocks, gravel and sand which occurred because there was too much water in the muck in the tunnel where they were working.

Trade unionist Myles Sullivan said the investigation carried out by the United Steelworkers union concluded that Vale had ignored safety issues that caused the workers' deaths.

Sullivan said in Rio de Janeiro that "unfortunately four workers have died, two of them in the same accident." He added that the company was aware that safety conditions were inadequate and did nothing to correct the situation. "We are pressing the Canadian government to take legal action against Vale for these accidents," he said.

The report by the international network also underscores the violation of environmental laws in Rio de Janeiro, by ThyssenKrupp Companhia Siderúrgica do Atlântico (TKCSA), a joint venture between Vale and ThyssenKrupp Steel, Germany's biggest steel-maker.

The people who live in the area around the TKCSA steel mill have suffered a 600 percent increase in iron ore particles in the air, according to the Rio de Janeiro prosecution service, which had already accused the company and two of the members of its board of directors of environmental crimes.

Vale is a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact, the International Council on Mining and Metals ICMM), and the São Paulo Stock Exchange Corporate Sustainability Index (ISE), all of which establish corporate social and environmental responsibility principles.

But in January 2012 it was named the "Worst Company in the World" by the Public Eye Awards, which every year name and shame the companies that have shown the worst social or environmental irresponsibility.

Vale even beat out Japan's Tepco, the firm that operates the nuclear reactors in Fukushima, which melted down after the March 2011 tsunami.

The International Network of People Affected by Vale plans to send its report to international bodies like the ICMM and the Global Reporting Initiative, to urge them to pressure the company to modify its conduct.

Vale posted earnings of 21.7 billion dollars in 2010 and 22.2 billion dollars in 2011.

The company declined to comment to IPS about the allegations. Its press office issued a communiqué stating that it "respectfully receives all suggestions and complaints referring to its operations."

In its statement, the company also said it was aware that mining activity had an impact, and that it was working in association with communities and governments to find solutions that guarantee people's safety, as well as harmonious and healthy coexistence.

With respect to the deaths in Canada, Vale said it made a huge effort to avoid such incidents, adopting measures that put top priority on the health and safety of workers.

In its latest Sustainability Report, the company acknowledged 11 accident-related fatalities in 2010, and said it would reinforce its strategy aimed at reaching the target of zero deaths.

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Brazilian Mining Giant under Fire for Deaths, Environmental Damage

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Social movements from several countries accused Brazil's Vale, the world's second largest mining company, of causing serious environmental and social damage, as well as the deaths of 15 workers in labour accidents between 2010 and 2012. The accusations are laid out in the 'Report on Vale's Unsustainability - 2012', released Apr.

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Councils should be able ban fracking

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Councils should be be able to ban fracking in their backyards, Parliament's environmental watchdog says, after a landmark report found New Zealand was unprepared for any expansion of the controversial form of mining.

Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright said in her long-awaited report that while current fracking in Taranaki was low-risk, onshore oil and gas drilling was poorly regulated and rules needed to be tightened if the industry grew beyond this region.

Green groups wanted New Zealand to follow the example of 17 other countries -- and the Australian state of Victoria -- in putting a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, which involved blasting water and chemicals through a deep well to loosen rock and extract trapped gas.

Dr Wright dismissed this suggestion, saying New Zealand had a chance to "get ahead of the game" because unlike other countries, fracking had not yet taken off here.

Government said it would consider her six recommendations, which included the development of a national set of standards, an industry fund to pay for clean-ups, and better designing and monitoring of wells.

The Labour Party wanted the recommendations to be implemented as soon as possible.

The oil and gas industry said it would work with Government to improve the developing sector, but it was uncertain about a "one-size-fits-all" national policy statement.

Dr Wright had few concerns about fracking in Taranaki, which had taken place in low-risk, deep "tightsands" for 20 years without incident.

But in The East Coast, where TAG Oil has drilled exploratory oil wells, the shale was looser and required more unconventional extraction methods and a larger number of drilling sites.

The conditions were similar to parts of the US and Australia where massive expansion of drilling had left the landscape pockmarked with wells.

She said oil and gas drilling should be made a "discretionary activity", which would give local authorities power to block applications to drill.

Hasting Mayor Lawrence Yule said there were mixed feelings in the community about the possibility that their land could be a new frontier for shale gas mining. He said the report made it clear that rules needed to be put in place as soon as possible, because overseas experience had showed that once a fracking boom started, "it goes very, very quickly".

The East Coast region was drier and more dependent on aquifers, which could be affected by fracking leaks or water use. It was also a seismically active region, which would increase the chance of wells being damaged.

The commissioner said the report should not be perceived as a "big tick" for industry expansion. She said the key issue was not local environmental effects, but climate change, and she would rather see a focus on green growth in New Zealand.

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Councils should be be able to ban fracking - environmental watchdog

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Councils should be be able to ban fracking in their backyards, Parliament's environmental watchdog says, after a landmark report found New Zealand was unprepared for any expansion of the controversial form of mining.

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Fishing industry giants Sanford and Talley's Group are among thousands of opponents to a company's bid to mine a large block of sea floor off the South Taranaki coast.

The companies, in a joint statement with other major industry bodies, said they were worried about the effects that Trans Tasman Resource's proposed iron sands mining project could have on the environment and their fishing operations.

Hearings on TTR's application to the Environmental Protection Authority began in Wellington this week and are scheduled to run through to early May.

The company is seeking consent from the Environmental Protection Authority to mine an area of exclusive economic zone seabed in the South Taranaki Bight for iron-rich sand particles.

The marine consent application is for a project area of 65.76 km2 in the exclusive economic zone, approximately 22.4 to 36 km off the coast of Patea, in water depths of 20-45 metres.

The mining would be done by remote-controlled 12m-long, 350-tonne "crawler" machines, travelling along the seafloor pumping sand to a processing ship above.
Once iron ore particles were separated magnetically, the sand would be deposited on areas already worked over.

Any life on the seafloor, such as tubeworms, would be destroyed as the mining progressed 300sqm block by block, but the company believed the areas would soon be repopulated.

The company proposes to extract up to 50 million tonnes of sediment per year and process it aboard an integrated mining vessel, with around five million tonnes of iron ore concentrate to be exported per year.

TTR had spent more than $50 million on the project, and estimated that the project would generate an extra $147 million in exports for New Zealand.

The remaining sediment would be re-deposited on the seafloor in a "controlled manner", usually backfilling previous mined areas, which will be typically five metres deep.

But fishing industry groups are worried about how the operation would affect fisheries in the area.

"Put simply, submitters are concerned about the potential for immediate and cumulative adverse effects caused by the mining and if consent is granted, the measures proposed by TTR to manage and mitigate these effects are too limited," representative Peter Dawson told the hearing committee.

He was speaking on behalf of the companies, Fisheries Inshore New Zealand, the New Zealand Federation of Commercial Fishermen, and others.

Sanford has said it could be potentially exposed to up to $10 million in risk, and the operation could affect its economic wellbeing, diminish the value of its quota assets and reduce its access to the public water space.

Coast off Patea were seabed iron sand mining may take place. Photo / APN

More than 2000 submitters - around half of the 99.5 per cent of submitters in opposition to the application - have asked for the hearings committee to hear their views.

Individual submitters have made up 99 per cent of the total 4,702 submissions, the others a mix of businesses, iwi and hapu groups, councils and Government organisations, and groups and societies.

Most of those in full opposition cited effects on the marine and coastal environment, local and regional businesses, recreation, marine mammals, water quality, health, New Zealand's "clean and green brand" and its tourism and the agriculture market.

There are also concerns over specific species - including the Maui's dolphin, killer whale, the blue whale and the southern right whale.

Contrary to the worries, TTR maintains that impacts on the environment would be minimal, with commissioned studies finding little impact on factors such as waves, surf breaks, fishing, fish life and marine mammals.

"TTR's submission is that all effects associated with the project are acceptable and not of such significance that the substantial benefits associated with this project should be rejected," company representative Hugh Rennie QC told the hearings.

The project had been modelled and assessed, and then reported in the evidence, on a worst case basis, he said.

Mr Rennie said no rare or vulnerable ecosystems or habitats of threatened species had been identified as being potentially affected by the TTR Project.

This was supported by consultants SKM in a peer review report noting the project area and adjacent habitats was not known to provide habitat for any threatened species of benthic fauna, nor contain threatened marine mammals.

The Ministry of Primary Industries has also submitted that effects on fishing would be "negligible or non-existent".

Of 22 submissions which didn't seek for the EPA to decline the proposal, one third sought for it to be granted - the rest largely agreed it should be approved, but with conditions.

The Herald looked at the key concerns throughout the submissions.

Environment and Conservation

The proposal's perceived impact on the environment was the common thread through nearly all submissions, according an EPA analysis.

Submitters claimed the proposal might affect non-renewable sand resources that supplied West Coast beaches up to Cape Reinga, and could also exacerbate coastal erosion both up and downstream from where any mining takes place.

They were concerned that modification of the seafloor could modify waves and currents.
Adverse impacts to migratory and resident mammal species - including blues whales, southern right whales, orca, plus endangered Maui and Hector's dolphins - resulting from subsurface noise, light from the operation and impacts on the food chain.

Submissions highlighted unnecessary pressure on marine and sought further information on existing foraging and migration patterns of marine mammals and the effects of the operation.

They cited threats to the seabed and reef ecology, including mussels, worms and crustaceans, which provided a healthy fishery resource.

Submitters feared the suction dredging crawler would remove the entire top surface of the seabed and sedimentation could affect reefs and banks, which would have a high potential for devastating impacts on reef and sediment surface feeding fauna, and animals that feed on them.

They said the North and South Traps, considered outstanding marine features, and Graham Banks together with other rocky outcrops with high benthic diversity would be within the influence of the sediment plume.

There were also concerns that inadequate information supports the assessment of cumulative and long term impact effects on benthic invertebrates, phytoplankton, fish stocks and cetaceans.

In 99 per cent of cases, submitters raised worries over the impact of fine sediment plumes, created by mining and dumping, on light penetration and phytoplankton and zooplankton, as well as smothering seabed and reef ecology, all affecting the food web.

There were fears the dispersal of discharged sediment would cover feeding grounds of crayfish and other fish species, along with concerns that long-term recovery of the seafloor could take decades.

On the sea surface, submitters were concerned about how noise and light from the operation would affect sea birds.

The Environment and Conservation Organisations of New Zealand (ECO) - an alliance of 53 groups - argued the activity was contrary to the purpose and principles of the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act 2012.

ECO said the company had "failed to give adequate considerations to the uncertainties in the impact of the operation, given its novel and untried nature".

The group claimed there was a range of threatened species that would likely be affected, including blue whales, right whales and Maui's dolphins.

The Environmental Defence Society submitted that the environmental effects of the sediment discharge plume, the effects on marine mammals and the monitoring regime was not "adequately defined or acceptable".

The society added there was no environmental compensation for unavoidable adverse effects, and the conditions that should be applied to any consent, if approved, was unacceptable.

The Sustainability Council advocated for "performance bonds" to save any costs falling on taxpayers and "incentivise" the company to meet consent conditions.

The company should also be liable for any damage to the environment beyond what was permitted under its consent, while the economic benefits directly to New Zealand should also be closely assessed, the council said.

Fishing

Major players in the fishing industry have come out alongside fishing groups against the proposal.

EPA analysts cited the impact on commercial, recreational and customary fisheries from noise, light and seafloor disturbance among the main reasons for objections.

Submitters were concerned that disturbance of the seafloor may mobilise previously settled pollutants, such as heavy metals that could bio-accumulate in fish species.

There was concern for fish stocks for both commercial and recreational fishing, with existing fishing rights needing to be taken into account.

The fears weren't limited to fish life in the ocean - submitters claimed there wasn't enough evidence about potential effects on freshwater fisheries such as tuna (eels) and whitebait that use the coastal environment for part of their lifecycle.

Sector group Fisheries Inshore New Zealand (FINZ) asked for more details on effects from the mining on local fish stocks, on the surrounding marine environment as it related to fishing.

FINZ said there was a "high probability" the proposed mining would adversely affect the existing fishing rights of the west coast inshore fishing fleet.

"Where vessels catch fish and how they transit through the area will more than likely have to change to the detriment of our members."

The New Zealand Federation of Commercial Fishermen opposed the application for similar reasons, and also asked for more analysis to allay fears of rights holders.

"There is too much uncertainty yet about adverse effects and they come in the form of potential decreases in catch rights, exclusion zones and down-stream environmental impacts."

Talley's Group, the country's largest privately owned fishing company, said the EPA "must reject" the application.

Talley's said there was "major uncertainty" about the effect of sedimentation on the benthic habitat - and no conclusion drawn as to what impact that might have on productive food sources for local fish stocks.

Fishing giant Sanford was meanwhile concerned about negative effects on its wild harvest fishing grounds and aquaculture farms due to changes in sediment levels in the water column.

The company did not consider that TTR had had "sufficient regard to the environmental consequences that could result as a consequence of their proposed activity on our fishing and aquaculture businesses".

Sanford said it could be potentially exposed to major risk - between $1 million and $10 million - and that the operation could affect its economic wellbeing, diminish the value of its quota assets and reduce its access to the public water space.

The New Zealand Sport Fishing Council raised concerns with the "enormous scale" of the proposal for a process that had "not been used or understood in the context of the New Zealand continental shelf".

The council was worried about the precedent that would be set with any granting of a licence to mine the seabed, particularly in respect of environmental standards that applied.

The New Zealand Recreational Fishing Council meanwhile said it did not see seabed mining being compatible with the ongoing health of a snapper fishery it had "worked hard" to rebuild.

Recreation issues

Submitters voiced concerns over the potential effects in commercially and recreationally valuable marine areas, surf breaks, and fishing.

They were worried there the operation would also pose problems with diving, whitebaiting, food gathering and kite surfing, and flow-on "social effects" on coastal residents had not been addressed.

Surfing Taranaki said there should be "zero tolerance" to effects on coastal erosion, or that which modified the sea floor and altered the height, energy, direction of swell and waves that headed into the Taranaki Bight.

The group further said there should be no tolerance to any plumes that may affect water quality along the coast.

"We are also concerned that the communities and settlements which are most exposed to any risks associated with the mining, however slight these risks may be deemed to be, will not receive any direct economic benefits or employment opportunities from this project."

The New Plymouth Sportfishing and Underwater Club also opposed the application on the grounds TTR had not provided enough information, and described the scale of the proposal as "staggering".

"Removing 50 million cubic metres of seabed and bringing it to the surface, screening and washing and then dumping the overburden in a highly mobile state close to the sea floor is an enormous engineering challenge."

The Patea and District Boating Club said fishermen's GPS finders had shown there were many great fishing spots within the mining area, and believed any mining would have a "major impact" on its ecosystem and environment.

Iwi and Maori concerns

The four iwi based near the mining area - Taranaki, Nga Ruahine, Ngati Ruanui and Nga Rauru - have voiced opposition to the application.

A key concern was that the proposal did not protect Maori interests, such as fisheries or other taonga, and would affect rights to exercise manaakitanga, or customary practices.

A key concern was that the proposal did not protect Maori interests, such as fisheries or other taonga, and would affect rights to exercise manaakitanga, or customary practices.
Ngaruahine submitted that the proposal was too high a risk and "totally untried".

"On a scale of one to ten, the very real threat to our fisheries, ocean floor, coastal marine area, sits at ten. This is totally unacceptable."

Nga Rauru Kiitahi was concerned the operation would, among other impacts, threaten customary fishing areas and kai moana while increasing the risk to at-risk stocks of customary foods whitebait and lamprey.

"Given that this type of activity has never been conducted in New Zealand waters before and the impacts and effects are fundamentally unknown, we intensely object to being guinea pigs in an experiment that puts our food sources and food chain at risk."

Ngati Ruanui had also submitted in opposition to the application, citing too many questions left unanswered, a "heavy reliance" on theoretical modelling, potential risks to the environment and "minimal benefits that this activity will provide to iwi".

What Government and local authorities said

The Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) expected that impacts on primary industries would be limited to fishing, and based on its analysis these were likely to be "negligible or non-existent".

MPI said that in the past five years, commercial fishing activity within the application area had been low, and less than a quarter of it would be inaccessible to commercial fishing at any one time.

Based on the plume modelling, MPI said the impacts of the plume on fishing were likely to be "no more than minor" and despite limited information, the area did not "appear to be of particular importance for spawning or as a habitat for juvenile fish".

MPI however called for an independent review of the company's plume modelling and encouraged the company to engage with iwi and recommended "robust" monitoring of impacts from the operation.

MPI took a neutral stance on the proposal, however the Department of Conservation opposed it in part, asking for further information around the operation's effects, including those on threatened species.

Taranaki Regional Council had also adopted a neutral stance, stating that while the mining was anticipated to bring economic benefit, the application at the time its submission was lodged did "not sufficiently address" actual and potential negative effects.

The council's key areas of concern were the ecological effects of reduced visibility and reduced light penetration as a result of the sediment plume, and those on sensitive rocky outcrop communities including the North and South Traps.

South Taranaki Mayor Ross Dunlop asked for the company to provide a range of assurances and conditions, including that environmental effects were no more than those already flagged, and that the company create a community trust and outline how it would provide employment and other benefits to South Taranaki residents.

"Our community believes it is the owner of these resources and the most at risk from any potential environmental degradation," Mr Dunlop said.

"Any approval of this development must include tangible benefits for our district and we must be satisfied that any risk to the coastal marine environment are minimal at best."

By the numbers

* 4,702 submissions received, of which 99.5 per cent opposed the application either fully or in part.
* 48% of submitters wished to be heard at the hearings.
* 23% of submitters were from the Auckland region, with 18 per cent from Waikato.
* 65.76km2 - the project area for Trans-Tasman Resources iron sands mining application off the South Taranaki coast.
* 50 million - the tonnes of sediment extracted from the seabed each year, with five million tonnes of iron ore concentrate to be exported per year.
* $147 million - the value in extra exports for New Zealand annually, as estimated by TTR.

See a company-written document outlining the plan here:

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Iron sands mining hearing: a quick glance at the concerns

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Fishing industry giants Sanford and Talley's Group are among thousands of opponents to a company's bid to mine a large block of sea floor off the South Taranaki coast. The companies, in a joint statement with other major industry bodies, said they were worried about the effects that Trans Tasman Resource's proposed iron sands mining project could have on the environment and their fishing operations.

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Dirty Gold Illegal Mining in

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Despite a ban on illegal gold mining in Peru, vast tracts of the Peruvian Amazon are being destroyed and polluted as desperate migrants scrape out a living

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Rare earth mining in China: the bleak social and environmental costs

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Although Wang Jianguo knows little about rare earths mining, he is an accidental expert on its consequences.

A short walk from the 43-year-old former farmer's dilapidated brick home in Xinguang Number One Village, is the world's largest rare earths mine tailings pond - an endless expanse of viscous grey sludge built in the 1950s under Mao Zedong. The pond, owned by the Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Hi-Tech Company, or Baotou Steel, lacks a proper lining and for the past 20 years its toxic contents have been seeping into groundwater, according to villagers and state media reports. It is trickling towards the nearby Yellow River, a major drinking water source for much of northern China, at a rate of 20 to 30 metres a year, a local expert told the influential Chinese magazine Caixin.

"In the beginning, there was no tap water here, so we all drank from wells," Wang said. "The water looked fine, but it smelled really bad." In the 1990s, when China's rare earths production kicked into full gear, his sheep died and his cabbage crops withered. Most of his neighbours have moved away. Seven have died of cancer. His teeth have grown yellow and crooked; they jut out at strange angles from blackened gums.

Rare earths are a group of 17 elements: "iron grey to silvery lustrous metals" that are "typically soft, malleable, and ductile; and usually reactive", according to the US Geological Survey. They're crucial in manufacturing a broad array of high-tech products, such as smartphones, wind turbines, camera lenses, magnets and missile defence systems. China produces more than 85% of the world's supply, about half of which comes from Baotou, a city of 2.5 million in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, 650km northwest of Beijing.

Processing rare earths is a dirty business. Their ore is often laced with radioactive materials such as thorium, and separating the wheat from the chaff requires huge amounts of carcinogenic toxins - sulphates, ammonia and hydrochloric acid. Processing one ton of rare earths produces 2,000 tons of toxic waste; Baotou's rare earths enterprises produce 10m tons of wastewater per year. They're pumped into tailings dams, like the one by Wang's village, 12km west of the city centre.

China began mining the minerals on a mass scale in the mid 1980s, and after nearly two decades of lax environmental regulation has only recently begun to address their noxious legacy. Seven years ago, China began restricting and taxing its rare earths exports, ostensibly to improve its environmental record. In 2010, the US, European Union and Japan - long accustomed to China's inexpensive supply - lodged a complaint with the World Trade Organisation. China, they argued, was simply encouraging domestic consumers to pick up the slack. In late October, the organisation ruled that China's export restrictions violated its regulations. China is expected to appeal.

In 2009, Baotou Steel began relocating farmers from villages around the tailings pond to resettlement sites on the city's outskirts; it has set up a waste managing warehouse staffed by 400 employees. Yet the pond is still a reminder of how far China's cleanup effort has to go. Surrounding villages are decimated. Stray dogs amble through dessicated corn and wheat fields, the rusted frames of dismantled greenhouses arching above tangles of discarded plastic bags.

"In China, the cost of environmental violations and damage is still way too low," said Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs. "Rare earths is such a classic case of this - we basically export the resources at a rather cheap price, and much of the environmental cost is externalised to local communities."

Most of the rare earths processed by Baotou are extracted in Bayan Obo, a mining district in the Gobi desert 120km north of the city. Its largest open-pit mine is 1,000 metres deep and spans 48 sq km; in satellite images by Nasa released in 2012, it appears as one of many massive black craters dwarfing a sprawl of apartment blocks directly to their south.

In 2009, the Beijing Science and Technology News reported that the area is struggling with its own pollution problems. A villager near its eastern mine told the newspaper that while visiting a nearby sheep market the year prior, he found that many of the animals had two rows of teeth, some so long that they couldn't close their mouths.

Other countries have become less dependent on China's rare earths supply since 2010, when export quotas caused global prices to spike. The US and Australia are developing their own, more environmentally friendly mines. Rare earths-dependent industries are learning to recycle.

A hard hat-wearing mechanic outside a tightly-guarded refinery near Baotou's tailings pond said the declining demand has hurt his job prospects. The man, surnamed Li, said a few hundred of his colleagues had been laid off over the past few months. When asked about the plant's environmental impact, he shrugged his shoulders. "We don't understand these things," he said. "We're just here to make a living."
* This article was amended on 23 March to add "mass scale" to the sentence 'China began mining the minerals on a mass scale in the mid 1980s'

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Rare earth mining in China: the bleak social and environmental costs

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Although Wang Jianguo knows little about rare earths mining, he is an accidental expert on its consequences. A short walk from the 43-year-old former farmer's dilapidated brick home in Xinguang Number One Village, is the world's largest rare earths mine tailings pond - an endless expanse of viscous grey sludge built in the 1950s under Mao Zedong.

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Mining Vibration Warnings. Locals aren't happy...

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There was a small turnout for the Newmont Waihi Gold consultation meeting last Wednesday morning.

The second meeting in the series had about 18 members of the public present and dealt with noise, vibration and a presentation by the consultancy company responsible for preparing the Social Impact study and subsequent reports.

Newmont Waihi Gold environment manager, Kerry Watson gave an update/overview of the Correnso Project as way of introduction to the meeting before handing over to NWG external affairs manager Andrea Durie who dealt with noise management and vibration compliance for the past three months.

The development drive (underground road) was completed April 22 and had 163 blast events with the average vibration .60mm/s and the maximum 2.9mm/s.

The mine company has carried out six weeks of noise monitoring and is now doing periodic re-testing.

The dewatering and piezometer installations in Barry Rd (90m depth) and Gladstone Rd (78m) were spoken about along with the 50 extra settlement markers which have been installed and will be part of a six-monthly survey.

Ms Durie spoke about the blast notification trial where 22 homes had devices installed.
These devices, which operate on radio frequency, alerted home owners that a blast was about to happen and were supposed to alleviate the stress of a blast.

Ms Durie said the trial had mixed results with some people saying the monitor and warning was more intrusive than the actual blast.

Some had returned the device and there were presently 16 monitoring devices in homes.
An audience member said she had found it [blast notification device] distressing. She said when it went off when she was asleep it was like an alarm clock, jolting her awake.

Ms Durie said Gold FM was a partner with Newmont in the device monitoring system - as it used Gold FM's radio frequency.

Another audience member said he found it quite useful and a talking point with visitors.
AEP was spoken about.

There has been a total of $136,000 paid out to 335 recipients. Ms Durie explained the criteria for payment was solely worked out on the amount of vibration (as recorded by monitors) and was an automated result and not linked to how often people phoned Newmont to complain.

The Property Programme was outlined - stage two with 23 east Waihi properties given ex-gratis payments (five percent of their market value).

The next stage is for the start of the exploration drilling to ascertain the mine plan which will then give Newmont more definitive information about where the Correnso ore body lies and from this they can produce a mine plan and it will be clearer just which properties are eligible to be purchased by the company.

Ms Durie said there will be specific houses which will have a range of options given to the owners - purchase outright and owner leaves, purchase outright and owner stays and rents the property back from the company or top up, or AEP.

"The owners need to have all the dollar scenario to be able to make informed decisions."

She said the Property Group representatives along with Newmont will meet personally with the home owners and the Property Group will be responsible for managing the home owners decision and NWG's subsequent payout.

It is envisaged this could take three months and the final mine plan should be ready by August 4.

The consultants - Banarra - spoke about the social impact overview and that as a consent condition they would be trying to talk with a wide range of people from the Waihi community over the next six weeks.

The social impact assessment report would become public - after it was approved by Newmont and Hauraki District Council and the Banarra representative invited audience members to be part of it.

Ms Durie said the Iwi Advisory Group had been established and cultural awareness training for Newmont staff would also take place.

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Blast warning proves more intrusive than blast

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There was a small turnout for the Newmont Waihi Gold consultation meeting last Wednesday morning. The second meeting in the series had about 18 members of the public present and dealt with noise, vibration and a presentation by the consultancy company responsible for preparing the Social Impact study and subsequent reports.

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Tribal opposition at Khandadhar hills

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Taking a cue from their counterparts at the Niyamgiri hill range, local tribals have vowed not to surrender the Khandadhar hill, known for its prized deposits of high grade iron ore, for mining operations.

The Dongaria Kondhs dependent on the Niyamgiri hills had unanimously trumped the bauxite mining plan in a referendum last year and a similar stand has been echoed by the Pauri Bhuyan tribes of Sundargarh district, home to the picturesque Khandadhar hills.

It may be noted that the state government had recommended prospecting license (PL) over Khandadhar iron ore deposits in favour of Posco India.

Tribals on the occasion of the World Environment day on last Thursday congregated at Budhabhin village under the banner of Khandadhar Surakhya Sangram Samiti (KKSS). Before the public meeting, the local tribals took an oath at the foothills of the Khandadhar waterfall to protect the hill from any destruction till their last breath.

The meeting was presided by KSSS president Jhara Naik.

Addressing the meeting, Prafulla Samantra, president of Lokshakti Abhijan, called upon all the locals to get united to save the Khandadhar from any destruction in the coming future.

Congratulating the newly appointed Union tribal affairs minister Jual Oram, Samantra said, "Jual Oram and Laxman Munda (local MLA) have been part of the Khandadhar struggle and are also the main anti- Posco political leaders of the state. We hope that both the leaders will continue their support to the struggle to save Khandadhar."

"For the last eight years, the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) has successfully restricted Posco to start any work at the proposed site and now, the protest of the local people of Khandadhar area against mining would strengthen our struggle against Posco," said PPSS leader Abhay Sahu.

Sahu promised to extend all support to the tribals in their ongoing struggle to save the Khandadhar hills from mining exploitation. Tribal leaders of KKSS vented their anger against the proposed iron ore mining plan by Posco at Khandadhar. They also resented the ongoing mining operations at Khandadhar hills by state run Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC), alleging destruction of forests and ecosystem.

They argued that since Khandadhar is the habitat of the Pauri Bhuyan tribals, a Primitive Tribal Group (PTG), both the central and state governments should follow the provisions of Forest Right Act (FRA), 2006 and go by the Supreme Court judgement in the historic Niyamgiri case.

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Tribals oppose mining at Khandadhar hills

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Read more about Tribals oppose mining at Khandadhar hills on Business Standard.

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Snails...

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MOJAVE, Calif. (AP) - An environmental group says a mining company's plan to extract more than a billion dollars' worth of gold and silver from a mountain near the desert town of Mojave threatens a snail's existence and must be halted.

The Center For Biological Diversity says the proposed operation by the Canadian-based Golden Queen Mining Company would threaten as much as 40 percent of the habitat available to the Mohave shoulderband snail, The Bakersfield Californian (https://bit.ly/1oXScKQ) reported Saturday.

Lutz Klingmann of Golden Queen Mining said that the project has already undergone two environmental reviews.

He noted the environmental group never expressed any concern until January, when it filed an emergency request seeking endangered species status for the snail.

"Unfortunately, the snail - no one knew about the snail," said Noah Greenwald, the group's endangered species director.

Federal officials concluded in April that the project created "no imminent threat" to the snail.

The environmental group says it may continue to press its claim, however, after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acknowledged it didn't have the funds to conduct a full review. The group may also raise the issue that the project could endanger the Townsend big-eared bat, also known as Corynorhinus townsendii.

"We think there's a need for additional environmental analysis," Greenwald said.

Golden Queen said it expects to spend $141 million to extract at least 31 tons of gold and 375 tons of silver over 15 years beginning next year. At today's precious metal prices, that would amount to about $1.5 billion.

The company would crush ore taken from an open pit mine in the mountain, then use a cyanide solution to extract gold and silver.

Company officials say leftover rock would be used for local infrastructure projects and that at the conclusion of the operation the mountain would be returned to its original state.

The project won approval 17 years ago, but Golden Queen put it on hold because of low gold prices at the time. It underwent a second environmental review in 2010 and was approved again.

Kern County officials support the project, which is projected to create as many as 200 local jobs.

Copyright © 2018 The Washington Times, LLC.

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Group says Calif. mining operation threatens snail

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MOJAVE, Calif. (AP) - An environmental group says a mining company's plan to extract more than a billion dollars' worth of gold and silver from a mountain near the desert town of Mojave threatens a snail's existence and must be halted.

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CISITU, Indonesia - In the remote mountains of West Java, workers like 15-year-old David Mario Chandra are an integral part of Indonesia's gold industry.

A workshop next to his family's house in Cisitu, in Banten Province, contains machinery that turns gold ore into usable nuggets. The procedure seems simple enough: The crushed ore is tumbled with other ingredients in cylinders called balls until the valuable stuff is amalgamated. But there is a crucial material - and a final step - that alarms environmental and health experts around the world.

"We put 15 kilograms of gold ore and water into each ball, and we use 100 grams of mercury per ball," or 3.5 ounces for 33 pounds of ore, said David, who runs the family's workshop. Workers then purify the nuggets using an open flame, burning off the mercury in sites among residential areas throughout the village.

Yuyun Ismawati, an environmental campaigner based in Britain, says the scope of the problem is evident in the amount of mercury being exported from around the world to Indonesia, her home country. Most of it, she says, is brought in illegally.

According to the Indonesian Ministry of Trade, the country imported slightly less than one metric ton of mercury in 2012 through two local companies, primarily for commercial manufacturing, including the production of light bulbs and batteries, and for use in hospital equipment. According to United Nations trade statistics, however, 368 metric tons of mercury, about 810,000 pounds, were legally exported to Indonesia in 2012 from countries that included Singapore, the United States, Japan and Thailand.

The yawning gap between what Indonesia officially reported as receiving and what was actually exported to it is not an anomaly. In 2011, the country officially imported 7.8 metric tons of mercury, while the United Nations reported that 286 metric tons was exported to Indonesia. The same disparity is evident for numerous other recent years.

In fact, the only data that added up for Ms. Yuyun, 49, a graduate school alumna of Oxford, was not about mercury but global gold prices, which nearly doubled from an average of $872 an ounce in 2008 to $1,669 in 2012. Gold ended 2013 at just over $1,200 an ounce.

To Ms. Yuyun, the conclusion was obvious: Hundreds of tons of mercury had been smuggled into Indonesia for illegal, small-scale miners in a modern gold rush that analysts and activists say is causing major environmental and health crises.

"It's quick cash," she said. "You dig, you get money - and you get poisoned."

The quick and dirty production process emits mercury into the atmosphere. The metal has also seeped into soil, rivers, fish ponds and rice fields. Mercury is known to cause health problems, which may not appear for years, that include brain damage; kidney, skin and eye problems; miscarriages; and dysfunctional neurological development in infants and children.

Then there are the environmental impacts. According to the United Nations Environment Program, small-scale gold mining is responsible for 37 percent of global mercury emissions and is the largest source of air and water mercury pollution.

According to a study by the Blacksmith Institute, a nonprofit research organization in New York that focuses on pollution, one-tenth of global mercury emissions from such mining originate in Indonesia. Those emissions can spread from country to country and continent to continent.

Parts of Indonesia, including the resort island of Lombok, where illegal gold mining is rampant, have the highest mercury contamination readings on earth, according to studies by Blacksmith and other groups.

Industrial gold mining companies in Indonesia are forbidden to use mercury during processing, government officials said. They would not anyway, as they can afford safer, more effective alternatives. But the country does not ban mercury use outright in small-scale gold mining operations.

The Ministry of Environment is drafting a regulation that it hopes will go into effect in 2014, said Rasio Ridho Sani, the deputy minister of environment for hazardous substances, who is responsible for authorizing official import requests for mercury.

But Lana Saria, head of environmental protection in the minerals and coal directorate at Indonesia's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, said, "We can't track illegally imported mercury because it can enter so many ports around the country." She added: "We're going to create a database because we don't have real data on mercury imports. The data being publicized is from outside sources," like the United Nations and environmental groups.

More than 15 million people, including approximately three million women and children, are involved in small-scale gold mining and production in 70 countries around the world, according to the United Nations Environment Program.

"Indonesia has the worst problem with illegal use of mercury in gold mining on earth," Ms. Yuyun said. "Second is Colombia, then maybe Brazil. It's a ticking time bomb."

BaliFokus, an Indonesian environmental organization of which Ms. Yuyun is a co-founder, estimates that illegal gold mining and production areas across the sprawling Indonesian archipelago ballooned to as many as 850 in 2013 from 576 in 2006, while the number of miners rose to one million from 50,000 during the same period.

Indonesia is one of the world's biggest gold-producing countries. The Grasberg gold mine in Indonesia's easternmost province, Papua, is the largest anywhere. The country produced 60 metric tons of gold in 2012, said Ms. Saria of the energy ministry. She estimated, however, that 65 to 100 metric tons of gold were illegally produced in 2012 by small-scale gold miners who use mercury, costing Indonesia billions of dollars in royalties and taxes. Officials and environmental observers say it is nearly impossible to track the illegal gold; it can be easily traded or sold.

Many illegal mining operations are funded by businessmen based in the capital, Jakarta, and protected by corrupt local government officials, soldiers and police officers, according to environmental groups and researchers. In some areas, local environmental groups say, the Indonesian military and police are directly involved in gold mining.

"It's a health problem, a criminal problem, an environmental problem," Ms. Saria said.

In May, Indonesia's Constitutional Court issued a landmark ruling giving indigenous ethnic groups the right to manage forests where they have traditionally lived. According to activists, the ruling will increase small-scale gold mining.

One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit was Okri, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, the clan leader of Cisitu, a remote village in the mountains of West Java that dates back to 1625. Cisitu, along with several surrounding villages, is the traditional land of the Kasepuhan clan, and its elders have spent more than a decade fighting to stop illegal gold mining - they claim the miners are backed by corrupt local police officials - in Mount Halimun Salak National Park, which lies just to the north of Cisitu.

Most days, trucks hurtle down treacherous mountain roads to reach Cisitu, carrying sacks of gold ore weighing 50 kilograms that was mined from sites one to five hours away. There the ore is sold to local shops. The village has 1,621 households, and Yoyo Yohenda, Mr. Okri's son and a village leader, estimated that one-third of them have backyard gold production workshops known as "ball mills."

Uun Adang, 32, with her husband, runs a gold burning workshop, attached to her home in Cisitu. "My husband used to do mining and then we had a ball mill, but now we just purify gold and sell it," she said, adding that they use nitric acid and other chemicals to burn off the mercury.

The economics of such small-scale operations can be a gamble; mill operators pay about 150,000 rupiah, or $12.45, for a sack of ore and sell the resulting gold amalgam to burning workshops for roughly half the current market price for pure gold.

Mrs. Uun, who is four and a half months pregnant, agreed to give a hair sample to BaliFokus researchers in November to test for mercury. The World Health Organization defines a normal level at one part per million, and the United States Food and Drug Administration defines it as two p.p.m. Mrs. Uun had a reading of 25.3 p.p.m.

Several male residents of Cisitu who also gave hair samples had readings of up to nine p.p.m.

Studies done in other regions of Indonesia, including work by the University of Mataram on Lombok Island, showed elevated mercury levels in people processing gold, and dysfunctional motor skills among local children.

"The youngest victims were children between 10 to 12 years old," said Baiq Dewi Krisnayanti, a lecturer and researcher in soil science at the university. "The way they were affected by mercury was through mining it from tailing ponds in their area, and also inhaling it during the mercury burning process to get gold."

Outdoor air samples taken by BaliFokus in various parts of Cisitu showed mercury readings of 5,000 to 50,000 nanograms per cubic meter. According to United States Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization guidelines, communities should be prepared to evacuate based on indoor air readings of 1,000 to 10,000 nanograms per cubic meter.

"They are playing with dangerous chemicals like they're water," said Ms. Yuyun, the BaliFokus co-founder.

In 2009, Blacksmith carried out a toxic site evaluation program that included rivers in the Kalimantan region, which lies on the Indonesian side of Borneo. Water testing on three primary rivers found mercury levels 14.5 to 140 times as high as the E.P.A. safety standard.

Blacksmith is working with the Ministry of Environment on mitigating health and environmental problems caused by mercury use in gold production.

Budi Susilorini, the Indonesia country director for Blacksmith, said the Indonesian government was trying to cut the supply of mercury - quietly sold through distributors across the country - to small-scale gold mining operations. As a result, the price of a kilogram of mercury recently tripled to about $148, she said.

David Mario Chandra, the 15-year-old ore processor, said a 100-gram bag of mercury cost about 160,000 rupiah.

The Indonesian government hopes that with a new regulation on the books, mercury use in small-scale mining will be phased out by 2019. Until then, Ms. Budi said, "For some miners, mercury is still the quickest way" to process gold.

"If it's available on the market," she said, "they'll buy it and use it."

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Small-Scale Gold Mining Pollutes Indonesian Lands

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CISITU, Indonesia - In the remote mountains of West Java, workers like 15-year-old David Mario Chandra are an integral part of Indonesia's gold industry. A workshop next to his family's house in Cisitu, in Banten Province, contains machinery that turns gold ore into usable nuggets.

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Canadian mining doing serious environmental harm

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The growing role of Canadian mining companies across Latin America has been put under the spotlight at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington following the presentation of a damning report.

Mining operations by Canadian firms across nine Latin American countries are causing "serious environmental impacts" by destroying glaciers, contaminating water and rivers, and cutting down forest, according to the report, as well as forcibly displacing people, dividing and impoverishing communities, making false promises about economic benefits, endangering people's health, and fraudulently acquiring property. Some who protest such projects have been killed or seriously wounded, it states, and others persecuted, threatened or accused of being terrorists.

"Criminal charges such as "sabotage", "terrorism", "rebellion", "conspiracy" and "incitement to commit crime" have been made against social leaders and human rights defenders who oppose and resist the development of industry," it states.

The report, titled The Impact of Canadian Mining in Latin America and Canada's responsibility, states that Canadian firms are exploiting weak legal systems in Latin American countries and Canada itself, as well as failing to respect indigenous peoples' rights, international human rights and social responsibility principles, and supposedly "protected" areas.

A summary of the report describes the growth of Canada's mining in Latin America as an integral part of its current foreign policy, and refers to a "new policy of using international cooperation mechanisms as a method of promoting Canadian mining companies in developing countries." It states:

The organizations [co-authoring the report] have been emphatic that the Canadian authorities are aware of the difficulties regarding each one of the [22] case-studies [cited in the report] and that, despite that, Canada continues to provide political, legal and financial support to companies which commit or tolerate human rights abuses. Canada's government has advised various governments in countries where its companies operate about changing the law, citizen participation, and areas to be mined. . . Canadian ambassadors have played a commercial relations management role between the companies, the respective state, and Canada itself.

In total, 22 large-scale projects operated by 20 companies across Argentina, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama and Peru are considered in the report, which was written by the "Work Group on Mining and Human Rights in Latin America" formed four years ago by six civil society organizations from Latin America and one in the USA, and with whom 28 more Latin American organizations collaborated. It concludes with a series of recommendations to the IACHR, Latin American host countries, and Canada itself - including one that Canada abandons providing any kind of support aimed at making legal systems more flexible in order to promote mining investments to the detriment of human rights, and that it implements measures to ensure that Canadian mining firms comply with the international human rights treaties binding on both Canada and countries where such firms operate.

"The financial and political support that Canadian mining companies receive from the authorities of their home state, along with the absence of solid institutions and adequate regulatory systems in the host states, are key elements of the current pattern of human rights violations derived from this extractive industry in Latin America," says Daniel Cerqueira, from the Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF), one of the Work Group members.

"Canada has been able to influence a weak Peruvian state which, ever since the Fujimori government in the 1990s, has loosened all the legal frameworks in order to attract investment," says Javier Jahncke from the Peru-based Red Muqui, also in the Work Group. According to Jahncke:

We now have a Peruvian state that has abandoned its role protecting and guaranteeing peoples' rights and has instead assumed a role guaranteeing investment - which should benefit all Peruvians and not just the groups in power. I think it's arrogant of a state like Canada's to exploit Peru's weakness by acting in a way that favours its own companies at the expense of Peruvians, who can't obtain justice in this country because the justice system puts the companies first and the people second, and who can't obtain justice in Canada either because it has no mechanisms to monitor how its companies act.

Asked by The Guardian to respond to the report's main accusations, a spokesperson for Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) - cited in the report - said that "Canada's mining sector leads the world in responsible mining practices." According to DFATD's Claude Rochon:

Canada seeks to establish a well-regarded and globally competitive extractive sector, and works proactively with host governments to enhance their capacity to manage their own natural resources for economic, social and environmental sustainability. The Government of Canada strongly believes that Canadians should do business around the world in a manner that reflects Canadian values and creates opportunities that raise standards of living in the countries they operate in. The Government of Canada expects and encourages Canadian companies working overseas to abide by the laws of those countries, and to act in accordance with applicable Canadian laws, ethical standards and corporate social responsibility practices.

"I ask you how they can say that given the report we've now made public," says Red Muqui's Jahncke.

"Canada's mining sector advancements on corporate social responsibility don't exempt the Canadian state's duty to prevent and redress human rights violations committed by or with the tolerance of Canadian mining companies that receive financial and diplomatic support from Canadian authorities," says DPLF's Cerqueira. "We're not talking just about the role of private corporations, but the international obligations binding their state of origin."

One of the projects considered in the report is Lagunas Norte, run by Barrick Gold, in northern Peru. Mining operations have caused "serious contamination problems" in the headwaters of the Perejil, Chuyuhual and Caballo Moro rivers, it states, and are affecting harvests and small-scale ranching.

"The response of the company's functionaries is to reject the quality of our studies and carry on, according to them, with respect for the law," says Walter Pereda Ruiz, from the Marianist Social Action Association (AMAS), one of the Work Group members, which has been conducting tests since 2005.

Barrick Gold's Andy Lloyd rejects the company's responsibility, saying of one AMAS report that its methodology and conclusions were "fundamentally flawed" and that it attributed "pollution to Barrick in rivers that do not share the same watershed as the mine." According to Lloyd:

Naturally occurring mineralization in the area is the main reason for higher than normal acidity and the presence of metals in some streams and lagoons. This is not a result of Barrick's activities. There is also significant artisanal coal mining in the area. These small-scale mines are often a source of contamination, they are not monitored and typically have no environmental controls in place.

The Impact of Canadian Mining in Latin America and Canada's responsibility was submitted to the Inter-American Commission during a recent meeting with representatives from two of the Work Group members - the DPLF and the Jose Alvear Restrepo Lawyers' Collective (CAJAR), from Colombia - following a formal hearing at the Commission last October on mining and human rights in the Americas.

Between 50% and 70% of all mining in Latin America is now done by Canadian firms, the report states, and as of 2012 70% of shares issued by the mining industry worldwide went through the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Topics

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Canadian mining doing serious environmental harm, the IACHR is told | David Hill

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The growing role of Canadian mining companies across Latin America has been put under the spotlight at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington following the presentation of a damning report.

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Closing submissions on a company's controversial application to 65 sq km of seabed off the South Taranaki coast are drawing to a close this week, following a lengthy round of hearings.

Submitters including iwi, fishing companies, Government departments and environmental and recreational groups have raised their concerns about Trans-Tasman Resources bid, which is being called a "test case" that could open the door to future iron sand mining ventures in New Zealand.

The company, proposes to extract up to 50 million tonnes of sediment per year and process it aboard an integrated mining vessel, with around five million tonnes of iron ore concentrate to be exported per year.

TTR, which has spent more than $50 million on the project, estimates that the project would generate an extra $147 million in exports for New Zealand if it is granted a marine resource consent under new regulations governing the EEZ.

It was recently awarded a mining permit for the operation by the New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals arm of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

But environmental group Kiwis Against Seabed Mining (KASM), which is delivering its closing submission tomorrow, held hopes the Environmental Protection Authority-appointed committee would refuse the consent.

KASM chairman Phil McCabe cited a recent EPA staff report, which highlighted shortcomings with TTR's evidence - particularly expected adverse effects on the mining site's benthic habitat.

"The EPA staff themselves have validated the position we have held from day one: that the company doesn't know enough what's in the environment to start with, let alone the impact, and therefore we can neither predict - nor monitor - the environmental effects," he said.

"The staff report shows that mining 50 million tonnes of seabed a year for 20 years is a very complex proposition and that Trans Tasman Resources, after two months of hearings, have not been able to prove that they can do it in an environmentally safe way."

He claimed the company was "asking the EPA to grant them a license to find out".

"That's why so many people from so many sectors of society are concerned and have opposed this application."

New Zealand's seafood industry has also raised concern over the effects of the proposed mining.

"The potential damage from this seabed mining proposal should be of grave concern to any kiwi that values the marine ecosystem; including recreational and customary fishers and anyone else who finds intrinsic value in a functional marine ecosystem," Fisheries Inshore New Zealand chief executive Dr Jeremy Helson said.

"The marine environment is complex and marine life in it can be disrupted by even small changes."

The applicants have submitted otherwise, stating that no rare or vulnerable ecosystems or habitats of threatened species had been identified as being potentially affected.

This was supported by consultants SKM in a peer review report noting the project area and adjacent habitats was not known to provide habitat for any threatened species of benthic fauna, nor contain threatened marine mammals.

The Ministry of Primary Industries has also submitted that effects on fishing would be "negligible or non-existent".

The mining would be done by remote-controlled 12m-long, 350-tonne "crawler" machines, travelling along the seafloor pumping sand to a processing ship above.

Once iron ore particles were separated magnetically, the sand would be deposited on areas already worked over.

Any life on the seafloor, such as tubeworms, would be destroyed as the mining progressed 300sqm block by block, but the company believed the areas would soon be repopulated.

The company proposes to extract up to 50 million tonnes of sediment per year and process it aboard an integrated mining vessel, with around five million tonnes of iron ore concentrate to be exported per year.

TTR had spent more than $50 million on the project, and estimated that the project would generate an extra $147 million in exports for New Zealand.

The remaining sediment would be re-deposited on the seafloor in a "controlled manner", usually backfilling previous mined areas, which will be typically five metres deep.

Read a summary of the main concerns around the proposal here.

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Iron sands mining hearings to wrap up this week

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Closing submissions on a company's controversial application to 65 sq km of seabed off the South Taranaki coast are drawing to a close this week, following a lengthy round of hearings.

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Social Impact Assessment for the operations of Newmont Waihi Gold

Waihi, New Zealand

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Seabed Mining

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A controversial bid to mine an area of seabed off the North Island's west coast has met a backlash, with only a handful of several thousand submissions in support of the plan.

Of just over 4700 submissions received by the Environment Protection Authority (EPA), which is considering Trans-Tasman Resources' application, 99.5 per cent were either fully or partly against the plan.

TTR is seeking a consent to mine 65sq km of exclusive economic zone seabed in the South Taranaki Bight for iron-rich sand particles, using large remote-controlled machines that would travel along the seafloor pumping sand to a processing ship.

The EPA said a wide range of concerns were raised in the submissions, with the majority of issues relating to effects on marine and coastal ecology, erosion and waves, and consequential effects on local communities, recreation, businesses, Maori interests and economy.

Nearly half of the submitters want to speak at next months' hearings.

Submitters cited concerns about the potential impact on recreational activities such as fishing, diving and surfing, reef habitats, sediment deposition and plumes, the disturbance of the seabed and the ability of benthic communities to recover.

They questioned whether the economic benefits of the project, touted to generate $147 million in exports, would outweigh ecological and economic losses - and worried local communities would not benefit.

Kiwis Against Seabed Mining chairman Phil McCabe said the feedback showed "overwhelming public consensus" opposing the plans.

"The geographical spread and sheer volume of submissions show that this application is certainly one of national significance and of high concern to the people of New Zealand," he said.

Haimona Maruera, chairman of Hawera-based Te Runanga o Ngati Ruanui, said despite studying the proposal in great detail, his iwi were left with too many concerns.

TTR chief executive Tim Crossley said the company was reading and considering all of the submissions.

"Although we are still analysing submissions, we note that submitters want to see a project that will bring benefits to the Taranaki community, and that their ability to enjoy the South Taranaki natural features will not be diminished."

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A controversial bid to mine an area of seabed off the North Island's west coast has met a backlash, with only a handful of several thousand submissions in support of the plan. Of just over 4700 submissions received by the Environment Protection Authority (EPA), which is considering Trans-Tasman Resources' application, 99.5 per cent were either fully or partly against the plan.