Metal mining companies dump 220 Million Tonnes of toxic mine waste into water bodies every year
The amount of WHY MINE WASTE mine waste dumped IS TOXIC into rivers, lakes, and oceans could fill Naturally occurring elements in crushed rock become toxic when 1.5 million exposed during mining: shipping containers every year. arsenic Harmful additives are lead used in processing: mercury petroleum byproducts sulfuric acid cyanide
WHAT’S AT STAKE
It’s cheap for companies to dump waste into oceans, rivers, and lakes but the human and environmental costs are high. Human health: Harmful metals and chemicals increase in concentration as they travel up the food chain.
Marine life: Mine Livestock: Contamination can waste contains Rivers, wetlands, spread from rivers to floodplains heavy metals and and forests: and affect grazing livestock. milling chemicals Rivers clogged that kill marine life with mine waste Drinking water: Mine waste and smother fragile change course, originally dumped into rivers ecosystems on the flooding vast has contaminated home ocean floor. areas of wetlands drinking water. and forests with polluted water.
7 HOT SPOTS FOR TAILINGS DUMPING
Norwegian fjords Alaska Lower Slate Lake Canadian lakes Frying Pan Lake Turkey Black Sea
WHO DUMPS INTO Papua New Guinea Indonesia Luise Harbor NATURAL WATER Senunu Bay Pigiput Bay BODIES? Chile Otomina and Ajkwa rivers Fly River Auga River Barrick Gold (Canada) Basamuk Bay Freeport McMoRan (USA) First Quantum Minerals (Canada) Highlands Pacific (Australia) Four projects account for 91 percent of the Newcrest Mining (Australia) waste dumped into water bodies each year: St Barbara Limited (Australia) 91% Ok Tedi Mining Ltd (Papua New Guinea) PT Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara (Indonesia) 1. Freeport McMoRan’s Grasberg mine in West Papua, Indonesia Coeur Mining (USA) 2. Ok Tedi Mining Ltd.’s Ok Tedi mine in Papua New Guinea Goldcorp (Canada) 3. PT Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara’s Batu Hijau mine in Indonesia (formerly owned by Newmont Mining) 4. Newcrest Mining’s Lihir mine in Papua New Guinea Earthworks.org 2018
Source: earthworks.org/campaigns/ditch-ocean-dumping