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Denver-based Newmont Mining Co. fined millions for cyanide spill at Ghanaian mine
EARTHWORKS
Denver-based Newmont Mining Co. fined millions for cyanide spill at Ghanaian mine
Panel faults company for failing to prevent accident, delays in notifying authorities
Joint release: EARTHWORKS * WACAM
Accra and Washington, 01/21: Ghanaian authorities are fining Denver-based Newmont Mining millions of dollars for negligently spilling cyanide at its Ahafo gold mine in October 2009, resulting in water contamination and fish kills. A Ghanaian Ministerial Panel that evaluated the spill and its aftermath recommended that the company be fined US$ 4.9 million for failing to prevent the spill or to properly report on and investigate the spill.
Newmont Mining has been around a long time, they aren't a relative newbie like Taseko Mines, and still they show complete disregard for the environment. Should it matter that they are in a country without adequate environmental protection?
That must depend on the attitude of the mining company. BHP Billiton, for example, is working to extend the same level of environmental practices to all of its operations worldwide, kind like an ISO exersize. Taseko? Mines? they have certainly never shown this sort regard for the environment at its Gibraltar operation.
The most recent additions to that mine have seen their waste management grandfathered into the old permit, rather than raise the bar to modern standards. Farmers below the mine have spoken for years about hush money paid to those whose cattle drink downstream.
A report on AMD from Alaska states that:
Logarithmic increases in metal levels in waters from sulfide-rich mining environments are common where surface or groundwater pH is depressed by acid generation from sulfide minerals.Acid Mine Drainage and Effects on Fish Health and Ecology: A ReviewA logarithmic increase is the sort I showed in a graph the other day. In that case we were looking at surface area as a rock is broken into smaller and smaller pieces. The result of all that extra surface area is skyrocketing levels of metals reaching the groundwater.
Will Taseko build the 1 Billion dollar "pond" liner that the federal review panel suggests it will need to prevent groundwater?
How should we know, they won't say... the company line is, "let us build this mine and THEN we'll plan our mitigation strategy".
Meanwhile, publishers like the Williams Lake Tribune suggest that the mine is being held up by "professional environmentalists" and "obstructionist aboriginal groups", as if these two had nothing better to do than prevent "progress".
I see Taseko Mines is advertising in the Tribune, no doubt to ensure favourable coverage!
