MAC: Mines and Communities

Rio gets a drubbing down-under

Published by MAC on 2008-05-11


Rio Tinto head claims tailings are not toxic Mineral Policy Institute (MPI) Media Release, Australia

28th April 2008

Shareholder's queries were met with inadequate responses from the Rio Tinto Ltd board at their annual general meeting held in Brisbane on 24th April 2008, including the outlandish claim by Paul Skinner that mine tailings dumping into the river from the notorious Freeport mine are not toxic.

"Mr Skinner's response indicates that the board of Rio Tinto have some drastically inaccurate information on the nature and extent of the impacts of the Freeport mine, and that the company really isn't taking the destructive impacts of their operations seriously," stated Techa Beaumont, Executive Director of MPI who attended the meeting as a proxy for a Rio Tinto shareholder.

"It's time for Rio Tinto to take responsiblity for its role in what is arguably the most destructive mining operation on the planet; to be honest about the severe impacts at this operation and do something meaningful to stop the unsustainable practices. It is ridiculous and completely untenable for Rio Tinto to defend the mine's waste impacts as harmless," continued Ms Beaumont.

The company's toxicology testings and CSIRO studies confirmed the toxicity of the tailings to aquatic life in the downstream environment beyond any doubt (see below *) and the Norwegian Government Pension fund- an investor in the company operating the mine divested from the company based on finding of 'severe environmental damage' caused by the practice of riverine tailings disposal.

Rio Tinto is viewed as directly responsible for the problems at this operation in as far as they provided the funding and profit from a massive expansion in rates of production at the operations - a change at the mine that lead to the enormous environmental destruction downstream of the operation and have make it impossible to responsibly manage the mine's enormous volumes of waste.

The chair refused to rule out the dumping of mine waste in rivers or oceans at the company's existing or new operations - practices know in the industry as 'riverine and submarine tailings disposal'despite industry trends towards outlawing these practices. Companies such as BHP Billiton have developed policies that indicate they will not utilise waterways as a dumping ground for mine waste and groups ranging from World Vision and Oxfam to the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union have supported a call for a ban on these practices.

media enquires: Techa Beaumont 0409 318 406

FUTHER INFORMATION:

As a proxy on behalf of shareholders from the Rio Tinto Ethical Shareholders group, MPI raised issues relating to Freeport and also queried the company's ongoing majority stake in Bougainville Copper Limited, that operated the Panguna mine that lead to civil war on the small Pacific island.

The Panguna Landowner Association - Women landowners from the mine site who carry the traditional authority over land which is passed matrilineal in Bougainville - have called upon Rio Tinto to ensure that they be consulted at the earliest opportunity regarding future plans for the site- as currently no information is reaching them regarding the company's plans. Discussions over the mine's future have proceeded between the Bougainville autonomous government and Rio Tinto's subsiduary Bougainville Copper LImited (BCL) without any efforts to get the views or include the appropriate and rightful customary owners of the land. MPI conveyed their message directly to BCL's chair following the formal proceedings of the meeting.

The company's financial reports did not include any estimation of liability for or future value of the Panguna operation, and states "the directors do not have reliable, accurate or objective information on BCL" despite a majority ownership of the company. (p52 Rio Tinto Full Financial Statements 2007)

Other shareholder questions on the company's Hope Down operations in the Pilbara region of Western Australia expressed concerns regarding the threats posed to important cultural heritage sites of the local Indigenous traditional owners whose archeological significance has not yet been fully investigated. Initial research conducted rated the site as one of the most significant archeological finds in Australia.

Shareholder John Poppins requested information on the buffer zones that would be developed around the site, and also regarding the impacts caused by the dumping of potable groundwater from mine site dewatering processes into a creek system, leading to a loss of important cultural sites, natural ecosystems as well as the depletion of important water resources.




The following excerpts are taken from an independent report by WALHI - Friends of the Earth Indonesia- on the Environmental Impacts of the Freeport Operation, available at:

http://www.eng.walhi.or.id/kampanye/tambang/frpt-report-may-06/

Tailings toxicity and aquatic impacts:

Freshwater aquatic life has been largely destroyed through pollution and habitat destruction in the watercourses which receive tailings. The suspended solids from tailings (TSS) are directly harmful to fish gills, eggs, and organisms which are photosynthetic, predatory or filter feeding. Copper inhibits respiration in fish gills. Bioavailability and toxicity investigations have shown that much of the dissolved copper in river water affected by Freeport-Rio Tinto’s operations is indeed bioavailable and present at toxic levels. Dissolved copper at the range of concentrations found in the lower Ajkwa River is of chronic toxicity to most (30% to 75%) fresh water organisms. Actual toxicology testing by CSIRO and Freeport’s analysts shows tailings water and sediment are toxic to shrimp larvae (Caridina sp), adult river prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii), minnow larvae (Cyprinodon variegatus and Pimephales promelas), river algae(Chlorella), rainbowfish embryos and larvae (Melanotaenia spledida), and invertebrate animals Gammarus and Nassarius sp.

Heavy metals in plants and wildlife: Levels of toxic heavy metals selenium (Se), lead (Pb), arsenic (As), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn) and copper (Cu) are significantly elevated in Freeport's tailings compared to natural jungle soil. The concentrations of several of those metals in the tailings exceed US EPA and Australian sediment guidelines, and scientific phytotoxicity thresholds, indicating that toxic effects on plant growth are expected. Controlled tests and field sampling show that plants grown in tailings accumulate these heavy metals in their tissues, posing risks to wildlife that feed on them. At risk through exposure to metals from tailings in the food chain are:

• kingfishers and other fish-eating birds
• brush turkey, fantail and other birds that eat invertebrates in foliage or soil
• cassowaries and other large fruit-eating birds

At high risk through exposure to metals from tailings in the food chain are:

• mammals such as flying fox or similar-sized animals that feed wholly or partially on fruit
• mammals such as bats which feed on invertebrates in foliage
• mammals such as cuscus which feed on vegetation
• large mammalian omnivores such as pigs

Contamination of estuary food chain:

Metals from tailings are contaminating the Ajkwa Estuary food chain. Areas which have received Freeport's tailings have significantly higher concentrations of toxic metals copper, arsenic, manganese, lead, silver, and zinc than nearby unaffected reference estuaries. Wildlife in the mangrove area is exposed through eating plants and invertebrates, which take up heavy metals from tailings sediment, particularly copper. Fish caught in the Ajkwa Estuary have higher minimum levels of copper in flesh than fish from nearby reference sites, and non-mobile aquatic animals living in the Ajkwa Estuary are contaminated with copper in their bodies at levels 100 times higher than normal, up to an extraordinary level of one gram per kilo. The ERA study predicts that small birds and mammals which feed exclusively on estuarine invertebrates may suffer reproductive impairment and reduced fitness, and larger predators (such as raptors) in turn will have less food available as these small birds and mammals become less abundant in the Ajkwa Estuary area.

Ecological disruption:

Freeport states that “The estuary downstream of our tailings deposition area is a functioning, bio-diverse ecosystem with abundant species of fish and shrimp.” However, the presence of mobile species such as fish and shrimp in the Ajkwa Estuary is not proof that the estuary is healthy, nor that it is safe in the future. Dissolved copper is present in mangrove waters at levels which are of chronic toxicity to 30% - 90% of saltwater organisms. There are currently around 35% fewer species of fish, shellfish, crabs and polychaetes present in Ajkwa Estuary compared to the reference sites. The ERA predicts that up to 68% of aquatic species are at risk in the upper estuary.

The outer Ajkwa estuary, which includes the nearshore Arafura Sea, has between 40% to 70% fewer families of bottom-dwelling animals, and their biomass per area is half that of nearby reference estuaries. Besides these figures, calculation of technical indices of biodiversity confirms that there has been significant disruption to the ecology of the Ajkwa Estuary.

Impacts in Lorenz National Park:

The World Heritage-listed Lorentz National Park wraps around the Freeport concession area, its area having been reduced to accommodate the mine. The Lorentz World Heritage Area is one of Indonesia’s conservation jewels. The alpine portion of the World Heritage site is affected by polluted groundwater from Freeport-Rio Tinto’s acid and copper producing waste rock dumps. Meanwhile, the coastal portion of the World Heritage site is affected by deposition of tailings. Around 250 million tons of tailings will be carried out of the Ajkwa Estuary and into the offshore Arafura Sea, and measurements show a plume of dissolved copper from Freeport's tailings already reaching 5 to 10 km offshore. Tailings are carried by the monsoon current along the coastline, and may come to form up to 20% of the future sedimentation in Lorenz National Park mangrove areas. The ERA found that mangroves and bottom-dwelling organisms in Lorenz National Park have elevated copper levels, with tailings the likely source, since upstream sites within the Park are unaffected.

Regeneration in the Ajkwa Deposition Area: Mine tailings, which will eventually comprise most of the 230 km2 ADA area, at depths of up to 17 meters, lack organic carbon and other key nutrients, and have very poor water holding capacity. Tests have shown pure tailings cannot support adequate germination or growth of most native or garden plants without intensive fertilisers, compost and/or the import of topsoil. Company efforts to rehabilitate a small and relatively shallow area of tailings have involved unsustainably high inputs and elaborate irrigation systems.

The large ADA area which has experienced dieback from tailings will not return to its original species composition after tailings deposition ceases. Native species which regenerate in tailings are neither especially useful to local communities nor representative of the diverse species which comprised the native jungle and riverine rainforest destroyed within the ADA.

Transparency: Freeport-Rio Tinto operates without transparency or sufficient regulatory oversight. There is no information and public discussion of the current management and future for the mine, including alternatives for waste management, and mine closure planning. Despite legal requirement for public access to environmental information, the company has not made key documents public, including the ERA, nor has it made public any independent external audits since 1999, breaching its environmental permitting requirements. The ERA underestimates key environmental risks, does not look at options for reducing waste disposal impacts, and the independence of the ERA peer reviewers is questionable.




MPI media: Calls for preservation of country and a halt to Rio Tinto's proposed Hope Downs Iron Ore mine

A day before their London based Annual General Meeting, Senior Elder of the traditional owners of the country impacted by the Hope Downs mine site has requested Rio Tinto to halt operations and reconsider its proposed mining activities on site. Slim Parker urged the company: "In light of what they have done in the past destroying important sites in the area, they have the opportunity to make amends - they have the capacity today to make the decision not to mine this area at all. Our wish is to protect the scientific, historical cultural and spiritual heritage values of the area, and that they be preserved so everyone can share the significance. I have always maintained that this area should not be mined at all, that it should be preserved. Rio Tinto should halt their operations. The traditional owners, the Fortescue Martidja Banyjima people and the Nyarparli people are united in our desire to preserve this area. "

Results of testing of some of the sensitive sites for which protection is sought has had archaeologists identifying the site as one of the most significant archeological finds in Australia, with initial discovery of artefacts dating back at least 35,000 and further investigations scheduled.

"This is a litmus test for the value of Rio Tinto's commitments to the environment and to indigenous people. Their own policies require them to respect the wishes of the traditional owners of the area and minimise their impact on the environment. If they won't meet their own standards here in Australia where they are subject to scrutiny, then we have a dismal indication of what they are doing everywhere else in the world" stated Techa Beaumont, Executive Director of the Mineral Policy Institute.

The Mineral Policy Institute is supporting the efforts to protect the area and calling on Rio Tinto for:

* An immediate and ongoing halting of any ground work on site to ensure the stringent protection of all potential sites of significance in the area. This including a guarantee to the senior custodians and other Aboriginal traditional owners that their express wishes that certain sites -including some of the most significant archeological discoveries ever found in Australia and areas of cultural importance and that mining does not take place on any sites without free and prior informed consent of traditional owners responsible for the country

* Commission and make public an independent study on the options for re-injection of freshwater into the aquifers in the region from mine dewatering that will avoid freshwater depletion, ecosystem and cultural heritage destruction and address the serious cumulative impacts of water from mining in the region

"The government of Western Australia has failed to take measures to adequately protect these important cutural sites and natural values. The government should be undertaking strategic regional reviews of cumulative impacts of mining in regions such as the Pilbara. Numerous significant mines in this area are all in the perched aquifer system posing huge cumulative threats to the Fortescue system (change from event focused to perennial river system) and huge expansions to the current activities are on the cards." stated Ms Beaumont




FURTHER DETAILS

Traditional owners, environmental and heritage experts have a number of concerns over the proposed operation:

CULTURAL HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE

Senior Elder Slim Parker reiterated the spiritual significance of the area for his people: "The archaeological finds are in accordance with the dreamtime stories and songs and customs and beliefs that we have and what we practice today. It is what we talk about in terms of spiritual beliefs of mother earth as our provider, as our mother it provides for us, and in accordance with our customs and beliefs this is of real cultural significance. It is what we call in our law, Jibalba. It is a ritual place where ceremonies are performed to allow the totem there to provide the honey for us, that whole area is significant, not just the finds - the whole valley is important to us."

In other operations in particular the Rio Tinto owned Marandoo project, which was gazetted out of national park to pave the way for mining, the company drilled through and destroyed other rock shelters before there could be proper investigations, disturbing the site and making it unsafe for the archaeologists to work there. The true significance of what is destroyed in these other areas will now never be known.

Rio Tinto's policies state that it "recognises and respects the significance of the cultural heritage of Indigenous people who have traditional ownership of, or historical connections to, the land on which Rio Tinto businesses operate"

IMPACTS ON WEELI WOLLI CREEK

Rio Tinto's Iron Ore (RTIO) operations at Hope Downs are proposing to discharge 110ML per day (40.15 GL a year) of potable water from its mine dewatering processes into the Weeli Wolli Creek in the Pilbara for the life of mine of 15-20 years. It will further impact cultural heritage sites and natural vegetation, and is depleting groundwater resources, which have accumulated over thousands of years. Much of this water will be lost through evaporation.

Rio Tinto's David Richards has publicly stated, "New mining projects, particularly those in areas already suffering water stress, should be designed to be at worst, neutral in their effect on water resources." (per David Richard, Rio Tinto p6, Business Perspectives on the Findings of the MA (2006)

Rio Tinto has failed to adequately investigation or develop techniques to implement the best available technology at Weeli Wolli that would have progressively recharged the watertable rather than depleting it are impacting an already stressed water system and a broader bioregion. Their approach has caused distress to the traditional owners of the region, where a number of cultural heritage sites are located in and along the river are impacted by existing dewatering and further threatened by the Hope Downs proposal.

The potable water that is proposed to be dumped down the creek is an important resource available for future use that will, according to current understandings may take thousands of years to recharge.

The cumulative impact of dewatering by iron ore projects in the region is likely to have massive regional impacts that extend to downstream environments and long term impacts on the whole Fortescue catchment. According to MPI's Robin Chapple who has monitored the developments in the region for decades, arrangements to recharge the aquifer rather than discharge the water in a delicate creek system were outlined by the corporation as the approach that would be taken by previous operators of the Hope Downs iron ore project to the government for the mine's development. The company can minimise its impact both its short and long term impacts on water resource and associated ecosystems as well as avoid impacts on important cultural heritage sites of concern to the areas traditional owners if it implements the proposal of the original owners.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF CULTURAL SITES

Ancient tools found in a prehistoric dwelling place on the Hope Downs site have been confirmed as one of the most significant archaeological finds in Australia. The find in archaeological terms is globally significant, with the tools dated as 35,000 years old, being compared by scientists to the finds in Lake Mungo in NSW, which warranted the inclusion of the cultural values of the area in a World Heritage nomination. Dr Draper, who has been involved in recent investigations of the sites explained to the Western Australian newspaper: "The cave is a rock shelter measuring 10 by eight metres, with a roof 1.5 metres high. The 1.5-metre excavation pit goes down 2.2 metres to the bedrock below, and there is evidence of Aboriginal occupation down to two metres deep, he said. The tools, along with seeds, bark and other plant material, were found nearly 6 1/2 feet beneath the floor of the shelter _ a slight crevice in the hillside protected by an overhang of rock _ on the edges of an iron ore mine site about 590 miles northeast of Perth, the capital of Western Australia. Twelve other sites in the area have also yielded archaeological evidence such as stone tools, fireplaces and dateable charcoal as well as plant remains such as seeds and bark. Another 20 have still to be excavated. Further sealed off caves are thought to be ancient burial tombs and are yet to be investigated." There is the possibility that once excavation work is carried out that materials could be even older and that sites not yet investigated could hold even more significant finds.

Quoted in the Age newspaper Slim Parker, a senior elder of the Fortescue Martidja Banyjima people said, "We have always known this is an important part of our history, that our ancestors live here. Our stories and songs tell us this. It is a good feeling to know archaeologists have proved what we say is true. It makes us feel strong. Now we want this place preserved. It is part of our heritage and our culture. This area of land, in regard to our culture and customs and beliefs, is of great significance to us," Parker said. "We have songs and stories relating to that area as a sustaining resource that has provided for and cared for our people for thousands of years." An archeological study shows Mr. Parker's ancestors lived in the area for more than 1000 generations.

Melbourne University's Professor Jim Bowler, who discovered bones on the shores of Lake Mungo in the late 1960s - later estimated to be 40,000 years old, making them the oldest human remains found in Australia - said: "This appears to be a very, very important find. It seems likely to write a new chapter in the history of Aboriginal Australia."

Since these artifacts refitted together, it showed that the site had not been previously disturbed. "We now hope Rio will redesign the mine to protect this site, so that we can begin a major salvage operation," said Dr Draper, the consultant who headed the team investigating the sites. It is reported that discussions are now under way between the company and the traditional owners, who want the sensitive areas protected from mining.

Rio Tinto, which had been expanding its Hope Downs mine, halted all work when the rock shelter was discovered and will amend its expansion plans to preserve the shelter company spokesman Gervase Greene was reported as saying. http://www.townhall.com/news/world/2008/04/07/ancient_tools_unearthed_in_australia?page=1

The above information is based on reports by Jan Maymen in the Western Australian, April 7 2008

Interviews with Slim Parket, and online news sources referenced in text.

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