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Ruined Lands, Poisoned Waters

Ruined Lands, Poisoned Waters

Dirty Metals Ruined

Photo: Steve D’Esposito/ Earthworks Lands, Poisoned Waters Copper smelter site near Butte, Montana

he first step in is to locate a subterranean ore deposit and bring it to the surface. Increasingly, Tmining operations find that it’s cheaper to do this by blasting away the soil and surface rock, called “overburden,” rather than by digging underground shafts. The resulting open-pit mines essentially obliter- ate the surrounding landscape and open up vast craters. The world’s largest open pit, the Bingham Canyon mine in Utah, measures 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) deep and 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) wide. Open-pit mines produce 8 to 10 times as much rubble as underground mines. This rubble is generally piled into enormous mounds, some of them reaching heights of 100 meters, which is nearly as tall as a 30-story building. In the United States, 97 percent of all metals are now mined in open pits. Globally, that figure is two-thirds and it’s rising.3

Once the ore is brought to the surface it must be processed year, mines in the United States generate an amount of to extract the mineral. The processing varies depending on solid waste equivalent in weight to nearly nine times the the metal being mined, but it too generates immense quan- trash produced by all US cities and towns combined. The tities of waste. That’s because the amount of recoverable total amount of waste ore (not including overburden) that metal in even high grade ores is generally just a small frac- has been generated to date by the US metals mining indus- tion of their total mass. The amount of waste created per try probably exceeds 90 billion tons.5 unit of recovered metal has tended to increase as more and But to understand why the waste is so dangerous, you more high-grade deposits are exhausted and the industry have to look at more than just the amount of it. You have turns increasingly to lower grade ores. In the United States, to look at what the waste contains—and a lot of the con- for example, the copper ore mined at the beginning of the tents are toxic. When it comes to toxic emissions, metals 20th century consisted of about 2.5 percent usable metal by mining is one of the leading industries. In the United weight; today that proportion has dropped to 0.51 percent. States, where companies are required to report such emis- In , it is estimated that only 0.00001 percent sions, the industry’s own data have earned it the dubious (that’s one-hundred thousandth of 1 percent) of the ore is distinction of being the country’s top polluter. In 2001, actually refined into gold. Everything else is waste.4 the most recent year for which data were available, metals The cumulative amounts of solid waste produced by these mines produced 1,300 tons of toxic waste—46 percent of processes are so large as to be almost incomprehensible. As the total for all US industry combined—including 96 per- a global average, the production of 1 ton of copper results cent of all reported emissions, and 76 percent of in 110 tons of waste ore and 200 tons of overburden. Every all emissions.6

4 Ruined Lands, Poisoned Waters

Some of these toxics are contaminants of the ore itself—for laden with toxics. On-site disposal generally consists example, such as , arsenic, selenium, of bulldozing some of the dried tailings into a dam which and lead often drain out of the piles of waste rock. But can then retain the more fluid material. The dam is periodi- other toxics are introduced intentionally during the extrac- cally enlarged as the level of the tailings reservoir rises. tion process. Gold, for instance, is commonly extracted through a technique called “heap leaching.” The ore con- Despite its name, a tailings dam bears little structural simi- taining the gold is crushed, piled into heaps, and sprayed larity to an ordinary river dam. A conventional dam is gen- with , which trickles down through the ore, bond- erally constructed as a single project, to a single set of pre- ing with the gold. The resulting gold-cyanide solution is determined standards. On the other hand, the “construc- collected at the base of the heap and pumped to a mill, tion” of a tailings dam usually occurs over the life of the where the gold and cyanide are chemically separated. The mine, which makes it much more difficult to maintain cyanide is then stored in artificial ponds for . Each structural integrity. Over the past quarter century or so, bout of leaching takes a few months, after which the heaps tailings dam failures have accounted for three-quarters of 8 receive a layer of fresh ore. Given the scale and duration of all major mining accidents. these operations (usually decades), contamination of the Consider, for example, the failure at the Omai gold mine in surrounding environment with cyanide is almost Guyana. A project of the Canadian mining corporation inevitable. A rice-grain sized dose of cyanide can be fatal to Cambior, the Omai is one of the largest open-pit mines in humans; cyanide concentrations of 1 microgram (one-mil- the world. Its tailings dam failed in 1995, releasing some 3 7 lionth of a gram) per liter of water can be fatal to fish. billion cubic liters of cyanide-laden tailings into the Omai River, a tributary of Guyana’s largest river, the Essequibo. Following the spill, the President of Guyana declared all 51 Wasting Rivers and Seas kilometers (32 miles) of river drainage from the mine to oxic emissions can be insidious—largely invisible until the Atlantic Ocean—home to 23,000 people—an official Ttheir effects are widespread. But there’s another kind of “Environmental Disaster Zone.” Initial government reports mining that’s impossible to miss: tailings dam fail- estimated the cyanide concentration in the Omai to be 28 ures. A by-product of extraction, tailings are usually a soupy parts per million, which is 140 times the level that the US Kocsis Photo: Tibor to semi-solid suspension of pulverized rock in water, generally Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers lethal.9

Fish kill at Baia Mare, Romania

5 Dirty Metals

To get around the problems of managing tailings on site, It’s especially unfortunate that coastal dumping is practiced some mines pump them directly into nearby bodies of in parts of the Pacific that are home to some of the world’s water. “Riverine tailings disposal”—a euphemism for richest coral reef communities—places like the coastal dumping mine waste into rivers— aquatic ecosys- waters of Marinduque island in the Philippines. Those are tems, clogs rivers, and can disrupt the hydrology of entire the waters where the Marcopper copper mine pumped 200 watersheds. Once a common practice around the world, it million tons of toxic waste rock over a period of 16 years, has now been effectively banned by most developed coun- carpeting 80 square kilometers of seabed, suffocating coral tries, including the United States and Canada. Elsewhere, reefs, and poisoning reef fish. In the island’s fishing com- the practice is not common, at least officially. Today, only munities, children have tested dangerously high for lead three mines in the world, all located on the giant Pacific and cyanide.13 island of New Guinea, openly use this disposal method: the In response to and ecological concerns over Ok Tedi, Grasberg, and Porgera mines. (For more on Ok shallow sea disposal, the industry is turning increasingly to Tedi, see page 7; for Grasberg, see pages 14, 19, and 24. deep-water disposal, a practice in which a pipe conducts the Porgera is a gold mine run by Placer Dome, a Canadian tailings to a depth of at least 100 meters before releasing corporation; it has been dumping all its tailings directly them into waters considerably deeper than 500 meters. The into the Porgera River since 1992.) To date, only three com- industry argues that this is a “best practice” because deep panies (the Canadian firm Falconbridge and Australian seawater has low levels of dissolved oxygen—a necessary firms Western Mining Corporation and BHP Billiton) have ingredient for the chemical reactions that release heavy met- publicly pledged not to dump waste into rivers.10 als from the rock. (See page 9.) But deep-water disposal Riverine disposal is, however, practiced illegally at many remains highly controversial because so little is known about other mines. In Ilo, Peru, for example, two mines and a the ecology of the ocean floors, and because of the possibili- ty that broken pipes, deep-water currents, or geologic activi- smelter operated by the Southern Peru Copper ty could disperse the waste into shallower waters.14 Corporation (controlled by the Mexican firm Grupo Mexico) have caused severe environmental degradation A growing awareness of the risks of marine tailings dispos- through this kind of dumping, which the company prac- al has led the United States and Canada to effectively ban ticed for decades, in violation of Peruvian law. Between the practice. And in December 2003, the World Bank’s 1960 and 1992, the company dumped an average of 2,100 Extractive Industries Review recommended that the Bank tons of smelter slag per day onto beaches north of Ilo; until not finance mines that dump their tailings at sea. But it 1995, it pumped an average of 107,000 tons of tailings per remains to be seen whether such moves are the beginnings day into nearby Ite Bay. Between 8 and 9 million tons of of a broader ban, since other mines that use marine dispos- accumulated slag now form artificial beaches along the al continue to be developed. For example, BHP-Billiton has coast. The mine tailings are now pumped into inland tail- proposed a nickel mine on Indonesia’s Gag Island, which ings ponds, but these are still contaminating the Locumba contains the third-largest nickel deposit in the world. If the River, which flows into the bay.11 project is approved in its present form, all waste would be dumped at sea—even though the coral reefs off the island Ocean dumping is a form of water disposal that is less con- are among the most biologically diverse in the world.15 spicuous than the river option, and the Ilo mines are hard- ly the only coastal mines to have used the sea as a waste disposal site. Coastal dumping is a grave ecological concern Metal Smoke, Acid Air because coastal waters are biologically the richest parts of the oceans, and because they support ocean life elsewhere he ore processing at the mine does not yield a metal as well: many open-ocean species depend on coastal habitat Tthat is pure enough to use. Further refining is neces- for part of their life cycle. Coastal dumping is a menace to sary. For some metals, such as aluminum, nickel, and cop- public health as well. For example, in Northern Sulawesi, per, this takes place at a smelter, a kind of furnace in which Indonesia, the Minahasa Raya gold mine, operated by the very high temperatures release the metal from other mate- US-based Newmont Corporation, dumped over 4 million rials in the ore. Smelting technology has improved consid- tons of tailings into Buyat Bay during the mine’s seven-year erably over the past half century, but smelters still produce a great deal of , especially oxides of nitrogen life, from 1996 to 2003. Local people have reported skin and sulfur, components of and . rashes after contact with seawater, and a toxicologist has found heavy metals in fish and plankton.12 Continued on page 8

6 Ruined Lands, Poisoned Waters

Facts on the Ground: The Ok Tedi Mine

he Ok Tedi mine, on the banks have been drowned. A 1999 esti- that the mine be closed. In 2002, Tof the Ok Tedi river in western mate put the amount of forest the CEO of BHP Billiton (the suc- Papua New Guinea, began produc- damaged in that year alone at 176 cessor company to BHP) called the ing copper and gold for the giant square kilometers, an area nearly project “an environmental abyss” Australian mining corporation three times the size of Manhattan. and said it should never have been BHP (Broken Hill Properties Ltd.) Most of the wildlife has disap- built. in 1984. Because the mine’s tailing peared from the region. Plantings In the same year, BHP Billiton dam was destroyed during con- of sago palm and other staple handed over its 52 percent share struction by a massive landslide, crops have died, and some 30,000 of the project to a government- the company convinced the gov- to 50,000 people have been dis- controlled local corporation, in ernment to allow it to dump waste placed. One anthropologist study- exchange for indemnity from directly into the river. ing the situation coined a new future legal claims. In an effort at term to describe it: “ecocide.” Currently the mine discharges, on remediation, the government has a daily basis, 80,000 tons of ore The people affected were unable to begun dredging the river to and 120,000 tons of waste rock negotiate a settlement with BHP remove about 20 million tons of into the Ok Tedi river. One indus- directly, so a delegation of them sediment per year. The dredging try-funded study predicts that if addressed their concerns to the has begun to reverse the flooding, the dumping continues at that rate International Water Tribunal in and vegetation is slowly returning until the mine is scheduled to The Hague. Although the tribunal to some areas. Ultimately, how- close in 2010, the total amount of had little power to enforce change, ever, up to 6,600 square kilometers sediment in the river would be its involvement drew international of vegetation may be destroyed 1.72 billion tons, or the weight of attention. In 1996, an out-of-court during the life of the mine.19 4,712 Empire State Buildings. settlement was reached: BHP was required to pay compensation and The dumping has contaminated reform its waste disposal practices. the river with toxic metals and But even the industry and its fun- caused an enormous, permanent ders were beginning to wonder flood. Nearly all the fish in the Discharge from the whether the mine was worth the river have been poisoned, and Ok Tedi mine, Papua damage it was doing. In 2000, the some fish species appear to have New Guinea World Bank publicly suggested gone extinct. Vast tracts of forest Photo: Steve D’Esposito/ Earthworks

7 Dirty Metals

Close-Up: Your Computer

our personal computer con- has been shown to cause a range of one such operation, in Guiyu, a Ytains a medley of metals, of injuries, including abnormal village in China’s Guangdong including gold, silver, aluminum, brain development in children, Province, found workers disman- lead, copper, iron, zinc, and tin. nerve damage, disruption of the tling computer equipment with Many of these materials could be endocrine system, and damage to hammers, chisels, screw drivers, salvaged at the end of the comput- various organs. and their bare hands. Only the er’s life and recycled. But currently, most readily extracted metal com- most discarded computers are Because it contains substantial ponents were recovered. For dumped in or incinerated. quantities of valuable metals, e- example, workers would crack of , or waste is an internationally traded open monitors, extract the copper e-waste, releases heavy metals and commodity. Many junked com- dioxin into the atmosphere. The puters make their way to develop- “yoke,” then dump the smashed option is also polluting. In ing countries, mostly in Asia, equipment in a field or push it the United States, about 70 per- where some of the metal is sal- into a river. Area residents say the vaged. These salvaging operations local water is now too foul-tasting cent of the heavy metals in land- Sketch: Chris Engnoth fills come from e-waste. These are usually very crude and operate to drink; drinking water is now metals can leach into the soil and outside any environmental or trucked into the area from 30 kilo- . Exposure to them labor regulations. An investigation meters away.20

Some of the larger and older smelters have done extensive year-old lead smelter operated by the Doe Run lead compa- ecological damage, primarily from heavy sulfur dioxide emis- ny have caused in 30 percent of the town’s sions. For example, nickel and copper smelters near Sudbury children. In the Peruvian town of La Oroya, where another in Ontario, Canada, rendered the soil practically lifeless with- Doe Run smelter operates, a study by the Peruvian Ministry in 3 kilometers and badly damaged forests, lakes, and wet- of Health revealed that 99 percent of the children have lands up to 30 kilometers away. Although the original severe lead poisoning, and 20 percent of these children Sudbury operation shut down in the 1970s, other smelters in needed hospitalization. Yet another type of detect- the region continue to number among the top air polluters in ed in the emissions of some smelters, such as Noranda’s Canada. Close by Sudbury, for example, is Inco’s Central Horne copper smelter in Quebec, Canada, is “persistent Mills smelter. By far the worst air polluter in the Canadian organic ,” or POPs. These compounds do not metals mining sector, Central Mills released nearly 622 tons break down readily and they tend to bioaccumulate—that of sulfur dioxide and other toxic pollutants in 2001. A more is, they build up in the fat of animals in increasing concen- extreme but less studied case involves the nickel smelters at trations at higher links of the food chain. (“Organic” means Norilsk, in northeastern Russia. Acid emissions from these they’re carbon-based.) POPs can disrupt a broad range of smelters, which are still operating, have destroyed an estimat- physiological processes in animals and people.17 ed 3,500 square kilometers of forest and injured the respira- And since smelters burn huge amounts of fuel (see page tory health of thousands of people. Worldwide, smelting adds 12), they also release substantial quantities of greenhouse about 142 million tons of sulfur dioxide to the atmosphere gases, such as carbon dioxide and perfluorocarbons every year. That’s 13 percent of total global emissions.16 (PFCs). Aluminum smelters, for example, release 2 tons of Smelting releases a range of other pollutants as well. carbon dioxide and 1.4 kilos of PFCs for every ton of alu- Emissions of metals such as lead, arsenic, , and minum produced. PFCs have up to 9,200 times the heat- zinc are common and can pose serious health risks. In the trapping potential of carbon and will linger in the atmos- town of Herculaneum, Missouri, emissions from the 110- phere for tens of thousands of years.18 ■

8 Ruined Lands, Poisoned Waters

Acid Mine Drainage: Pollution on a Millennial Scale

old, copper, silver, and other As they flow downstream, the acid Groundwater near the mine has Gvaluable metals are often and toxic metals can kill virtually registered pH levels as low as found in rocks rich in sulfide min- all aquatic life for several kilome- minus 3, which is 10,000 times erals, such as pyrite, or “fool’s ters and badly degrade down- more acidic than battery acid. And gold,” and pyrrhotite. Mining stream environments many times experts predict that Iron Mountain often exposes these rocks to the farther than that. will continue to its water- elements for the first time since shed for at least 3,000 years. This process, known as acid mine the rocks were formed. Once they drainage, or AMD, is the most Treatment procedures for AMD do are dumped as heaps of waste rock widespread and persistent form of exist, but they are costly and diffi- or pumped into impoundments as caused by mining. cult to implement. There are basi- crushed tailings, their sulfides are The signature of AMD is a slimy, cally two options: either prevent- exposed to oxygen and water. The orange coating that builds up in ing water and oxygen from reach- result is a chemical reaction that the beds of affected rivers and ing the sulfide-laden waste rock, produces , a compo- streams. This is caused by metals, or applying alkaline materials such nent of acid rain. But in compari- especially iron, settling out of the as limestone to the leaching runoff son to acid rain, the acid in mine water column. For all practical to counteract the acidity. The first waste is 20 to 300 times more con- purposes, AMD is irreversible. option generally requires a massive centrated. There is evidence, for example, and very difficult revegetation As it leaches through the mine that some AMD in the Rio Tinto effort; building soil on barren, waste, the acid liberates various mining district of southern Spain poisonous rock and then getting metals from the rock—for exam- is coming from ancient Roman or plants to grow in that soil is not a ple, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, even Phoenician mines. simple matter. Treating the acid and lead. These metals are not runoff might seem more feasible, But ancient mines are small com- dangerous when embedded in the but to produce a stable result, the pared to those of our own day. rock, but once they are freed, they treatment would have to be main- Take the 17.8 square kilometer are highly toxic to a broad range tained as a matter of routine Iron Mountain mine in northern of living things. In humans, indefinitely—that is, for thousands California. During nearly a century chronic exposure to arsenic, for of years. And the limestone treat- of operation, the mine produced example, is associated with skin ments produce a metal-contami- iron, silver, gold, copper, and zinc. cancer and tumors. Cadmium has nated, toxic sludge that presents Iron Mountain was closed in 1963, been linked to liver disease, mer- additional remediation problems. but 40 years later, AMD continues cury to nerve damage, and lead to In many developing countries, a to poison fish and other aquatic growth retardation in children. lack of resources and political life in the Sacramento River, which interest makes treatment through Eventually, this toxic, acid drains the region. The Sacramento either option an unlikely finds its way into streams and flows into the immense San prospect.21 rivers, where the acid releases still Francisco Bay and there too, the more metals from exposed rock. AMD is endangering aquatic life. Photo: Steve D’Esposito/ Earthworks

Porgera gold mine, Papua New Guinea

9 Dirty Metals

Facts on the Ground: The Yanacocha Mine

n June 2, 2000, a truck from problems and some have attempt- tests done by both the government Othe Yanacocha gold mine in ed to press their case against and the mine, many local river and northern Peru spilled 150 kilo- Newmont in US courts. stream sites exceed the World grams of mercury out of some Health Organization (WHO) limits Yanacocha, located high in the poorly sealed containers and onto for acidity and concentrations of Andes, is the most profitable gold a 43-kilometer stretch of road various metals, such as mercury mine in South America and the running through the towns of and arsenic. One site had an alu- second largest gold mine in the Choropampa, Magdalena, and San minum concentration 20 times the world (after the Grasberg mine in Juan. (Mercury is a secondary WHO limit. (Free aluminum is Indonesia). Newmont insists that it product of the mine.) Many local toxic to a wide range of plants and has been a good corporate citizen people, not knowing what the animals, including people.) The of the Yanacocha region. The com- material was or that it was toxic, tailings dust is also contaminated munities affected by the mine, the collected it in the hope that it with toxic metals. And a study company argues, receive a share of might be valuable. Other villagers recently commissioned by the IFC the mining wealth. The company were hired by the mine to clean up found that acid leaching from the also claims that it has created over the spill—but were not provided mine could further degrade local 1,600 jobs in the area, and helped with any protective gear. Mercury waters. build schools and clinics. can damage the lungs, kidneys, Since the mercury spill, Newmont and nervous system. It can also But many area residents worry has proposed expanding the mine cause birth defects. about the mine. Some argue that to Quilish Mountain, the sixth by causing local inflation and The spill affected an estimated 925 mountain in the area the company driving people off their land, it has people; 400 of them were treated would be leveling for gold. Quilish deepened their poverty. They also for and over is a critical source of water for over worry about the condition of their 130 were hospitalized. The 100,000 people in and around the streams. “The water that comes Newmont Mining Company, the nearby city of Cajamarca. Many down from the mountains is now US-based corporation that co- local residents, concerned about brown, full of sediments,” says one owns the mine with Buenaventura the risks of water pollution, oppose resident. “The trout are dying.” Mining of Peru and the World the plan. There have been mass They worry about the cyanide Bank’s International Finance protests, including one in April used to leach the gold out of the Corporation (IFC), spent $12 to 2003 that drew thousands of peo- ore; they fear it has contaminated 14 million on the clean-up, but ple to Cajamarca’s main square. the water and is sickening their was unable to account for nearly “I’m aware that Peru is a country livestock. And they worry about 15 percent of the spilled mercury. that relies on mining,” Jorge Hoyos, what’s in the dust that blows In exchange for agreeing not to the Mayor of Cajamarca, told a off the tailing piles and sue the mine, some of the spill vic- Reuters reporter in 2002. “But we into their homes. tims were offered small cash settle- can’t sit by and wait for our ments and medical care. But many They have reason to water supply to be ruined. We residents continue to report health worry. According to can’t swap gold for lives.”22 Photo: Payal Sampat/Earthworks

10 Ruined Lands, Poisoned Waters

Protest in Esquel, Argentina Tambogrande and Esquel: Two Communities Stand Up to the Companies wo rural Latin American com- the Peruvian government not the the mine for 8 or 9 years, but it Tmunities, each faced with a local community—but the vote does not propose to guarantee the large-scale mining project, are attracted considerable internation- remediation costs up front. demonstrating the power of direct, al attention. It was followed by fre- Esquel is an ecotourist destination; peaceful opposition. quent protests against the mine, it is located near the Los Alerces and a peaceful, three-day general The small farming community of National Park, home to gigantic, strike in November 2002. Local Tambogrande, located in Peru’s 2,000-year-old alerce trees, a kind activists also began working with sub-tropical San Lorenzo Valley, is of conifer that grows only in that their counterparts in other coun- sitting on deposits of gold and cop- region. Esquel is also a farming tries to keep Tambogrande in the per worth millions of dollars. It’s and fishing community. So it’s not public eye. Finally, in December also sitting in the midst of prime surprising that when the town 2003, the Peruvian government orchard country: the San Lorenzo held its own mining referendum, turned down Manhattan’s pro- Valley is Peru’s top fruit-growing in March 2003, the response was posal. The official reasons for the region. Tambogrande produces similar to what it had been in rejection included an inadequately close to half of Peru’s citrus crop. Tambogrande: an overwhelming researched environmental impact No.Eighty-one percent of the vot- In 1999, the Canadian mining assessment, as well as insufficient ers opposed the mine. (Seventy- company Manhattan Minerals pro- proof of assets and processing five percent of Esquel’s residents posed to relocate half of the town’s capacity. Citizen activism, howev- voted.) Esquel’s referendum isn’t 16,000 residents, demolish most of er, had created a political context legally binding either—although it the town itself, and create an open- in which the proposal’s social and was called by the provincial gov- pit mine in its place. The proposal environmental deficiencies could ernment—but the project has included a promise of new jobs count against it.23 been stalled since the vote.24 and housing. But the people of A similar scenario has emerged in Tambogrande, fearing that the In both Esquel and Tambogrande, Esquel, a town of about 30,000 in mine would poison streams and the message to the mining industry the still largely unspoiled farmland, said no deal. is essentially the same. Increasingly, Patagonian region of Argentina. the communities directly affected by That message was delivered in a Meridian Gold, a mining company

mining proposals are demanding a Photo: Juan Miguel Santino referendum held in June 2002, in based in the United States and say in decision-making about their which 93 percent of the voters Canada, is proposing to mine a sil- future. That right imposes a basic opposed the mine. (About 75 per- ver and gold deposit about 7 kilo- obligation upon any form of extrac- cent of the town’s residents partic- meters outside the town. The mine tive project: the obligation to obtain ipated in the referendum.) The would be an open-pit operation the free, prior, informed consent of referendum was not legally bind- using 2.7 tons of cyanide per day. the communities concerned. ing—the mine proposal was put to The company proposes to operate

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