Uranium miner squanders Australia’s precious water – for FREE!
South Australia: Olympic Dam mine BHP Billiton 30 Oct 09 Watch Western Mining Corporation first developed the Olympic Dam (Roxby Downs) Uranium Mine in 1983, despite strong and sustained opposition from Kokatha and Arabunna Traditional Owners and environmentalists. BHP Billiton purchased the underground Olympic Dam mine in 2005.
In May 2009 BHP Billiton released an Environmental Impact Statement detailing plans to turn Olympic Dam into a massive open pit mine. With this expansion uranium production is expected to increase from 4,000 tonnes to 19,000 tonnes per year and copper production from 200,000 to 750,000 tonnes a year.
…“Enough damage has been done from the Olympic Dam uranium mine, they should not expand it,” protests Eileen Wani Wingfield, a Senior Kokatha Woman from Coober Pedy in South Australia. “Many of our food sources, traditional plants and trees are gone because of this mine. We worry for our water; it’s our main source of life…………….. BHP never consulted me or my families, they select who they consult with. Many of our people have not had a voice. We want the mine stopped now, because it’s not good for anything.”
The mine operates under the Roxby Downs Indenture Act, which provides overrides and exemptions from many environmental, Indigenous and occupational health and safety requirements, including the SA Aboriginal Heritage Act 1988. BHP Billiton is in a legal position to determine what consultation occurs with which Traditional Owners and the nature of any consultation………….
The Roxby Downs Indenture Act also allows wide-ranging exemptions from key environmental laws such as the SA Environmental Protection Act 1993, Freedom of Information Act 1991 and the Natural Resources Act 2004, including water management issues.
The mine expansion plan would see the production of radioactive tailings increase seven-fold to 68 million tonnes annually. These tailings are stored above ground and contain a toxic, acidic mix of radionuclides and heavy metals, effectively a source of permanent pollution. There have been many spills and leaks since the mine began. In the mid-1990s it was revealed that about three billion litres had seeped from the tailings dams over two years. These problems have yet to be resolved………
Alongside the mine expansion, BHP Billiton (2009) proposes an increase in water consumption from 35 million litres daily from the Great Artesian Basin (GAB) to over 260 million litres daily.
Yet another provision of the Indenture Act means that BHP Billiton pays nothing for its water take for the Olympic Dam Mine. Despite the company recording a $17.7 billion profit in 2007-08 precious Great Artesian Basin water is taken free of charge and the groundwater system is damaged, depleted and threatened with irreversible contamination in the process.
The proposed expansion of the Olympic Dam uranium mine highlights the fallacy that nuclear power is a ‘solution’ to climate change. If the mine expansion proceeds, it would generate 4.5−6.6 million tonnes of greenhouse emissions annually and make it all but impossible for South Australia to reach its target of 13 million tonnes…………..
BHP Billiton’s office in Johannesburg has become the site of frequent energized protests by labour, community, health and environmental rights activists. South African civil society groups have also nominated BHP Billiton as amongst the most consistent corporations committing environmental injustices in the country, particularly for a notorious record of neglecting the health and safety of workers…. http://bhpbillitonwatch.wordpress.com/
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