|
In February 2000, tons of dead fish bobbed aimlessly down the Danube and Tisza rivers in Europe. Birds and other wildlife were also found dead and nearby towns were forced to close their water intake systems. The toxic bullet had been a cyanide spill from a gold mine in Baia Mare, northern Romania. To this day, it has left a legacy of dead rivers and polluted lands. And stands as a cruel testament to the dangers of using a lethal chemical in mining.
Unfortunately, the Romanian accident has not been an isolated incident. The practise of cyanide leach mining has been prolific around the world since the 1970's. It makes the mining of extremely low grade ores profitable while creating huge quantities of waste. But cyanide is highly toxic, and in recent years the dangers of using the chemical has become evident in a string of cyanide related mining accidents that have resulted in severe environmental damage and death of wildlife.
Australia has also been scarred by a number of spillages, but cyanide mines continue to be built in the face of public protest. In central NSW, a battle is underway between community and political factions to stop the Lake Cowal mining project, which proposes to use cyanide in a high conservation wetland area. And the current attempt by the Greens political party to pass a bill in the state of New South Wales (NSW) which would outlaw the use of cyanide in mining altogether.
But despite a history of international disasters, public outcry and political discussion it appears that the dangerous technique is set to continue in Australia. And this raises some serious questions about government policies and our relationship with the environment. Underlying the debate appears to be a lack of public awareness. 80% of gold salvaged by cyanide leach mining ends up as jewellery, which suggests that human consumption patterns are also to blame. But how many consumers are even aware that their fingers may be ringed with dirty gold? Perhaps if more consumers were aware of cyanide leaching techniques, they may well question the real price of gold jewellery and ask mining companies, why use cyanide at all? |
Cyanide is highly toxic to humans, animals and plant life. Only one teaspoon of a 2% cyanide solution is needed to kill a person.
However although highly toxic, cyanide solutions readily bond with gold, silver and metals. And it is this characteristic which makes it a viable and profitable chemical for gold extraction. Cyanide is now the chemical of choice in the gold mining industry, with more than 90% of the 2500 tons of the annual global gold extracted using cyanide leaching techniques.
Cyanide leaching allows mining companies to reopen and expand mines that contain small amounts of gold deposits that would have been previously unprofitable to mine using traditional techniques. This means that cyanide leaching can yield a profitable return of about one gram of gold for every ton of ore.
There are two types of cyanide leaching processes. Vat leaching, where extracted ore is combined with cyanide in vats; and heap leaching, where extracted ore is piled in open air heaps and sprayed with cyanide to extract the gold.
 |
Dirty dangers and mining disasters
During the process of cyanide leaching, spent ore (tailings) and cyanide are stored in ponds with liners that are intended to contain the contaminated waste. However, history can testify that many of these ponds can leak or break.
Ruth Rosenhek, co-director of the Rainforest Information Centre and avid campaigner against environmental destruction, maintains that "cyanide leaks, spills and the damage wrought by these accidents have previously been under-reported both in Australia and overseas."
"Since the year 2000, dozens of incidences involving cyanide leaks and spills have been reported worldwide, sometimes wiping out entire river systems as in the case of the Tisza and Danube Rivers in Romania and Hungary."
The Romanian incident has become the most infamous of cyanide spills because of the enormous scale of the disaster. It began when an unexpected heavy snowfall caused an overflow and break in a cyanide saturated tailings dam at the Aural Gold Plant on the 30 th of January 2000. Subsequently, 130 000 cubic metres of cyanide-tainted water flowed into the Lupes, Somes, and eventually the Tisza and Danube rivers. The environmental effects spanned three countries and infected over 400 kilometres of waterways. The legacy of the spill lives on in contaminated water, polluted land, and sick members of the local community.
And the long term legacy of cyanide accidents can be crippling for a local community. Although the mining industry has long argued that cyanide in water will break down under ultra-violet sunlight into largely harmless substances, Dr Mathew Jeffrey a chemical engineer at the Australian Monash University agrees that "cyanide itself isn't a problem long-term, because it does degrade reasonably quickly."
"But where the problem comes from is that cyanide is able to immobilise heavy metals, so that if the solution is let out into the aquatic environment then you have heavy metals which persist for a much longer period of time."
"So, a lot of the problem with the cyanide spills is the heavy metals which are spilt at the same time."
In the case of Romania these metals can build up along the riverbeds and banks, and cause severe long term environmental impacts on the aquatic life and water quality. This in turn can affect human health and economic stability as the agricultural, fishing and tourism opportunities disappear.
 |
Such long and short term effects have resonated worldwide, with a list of accidents ranging from countries such as Ghana, Nicaragua, China, Papua New Guinea, America and more. Living in a first world country does not render you safe from disaster, as Ms Rosenhek explains "these sorts of accidents are just as likely to happen in countries with strong environmental protection measures such as the USA and Australia."
And she cites the example that "despite government assurances that the Timbarra Gold Mine located in western NSW was a world best-practice mine, there were overflows from the toxic wastewater ponds into the surrounding creeks on a number of occasions in early 2001."
Further disasters in Australia occurred earlier in 1995, when a failure to monitor cyanide levels at the North Parkes copper-gold mine caused the death of over a thousand birds. Later in 2002, a cyanide spill near the Granite Gold Mine in the Northern Territory killed more than 400 birds and kangaroos.
And the fight to prevent another cyanide mining related disaster in Australia currently continues at Lake Cowal.
Located near West Wyalong in central NSW, Lake Cowal is a high conservation wetlands area and home to rare and endangered species of flora and fauna, such as the Black-Necked stalk and the Little Pied bat. Lake Cowal is also of Aboriginal significance as the heartland of the Wiradjuri Nation.
But the Lake Cowal Gold Project is scheduled to commence in March 2005 and will use 6000 tons of cyanide per year. The potential spillage of cyanide contaminated wastewater could severely damage the entire Cowal wetland, related waterways including the Murray river system and threaten endangered wildlife and vegetation.
The Coalition to protect Lake Cowal continues to campaign against the gold mine. But the project has survived two commissions of inquiry and construction is currently underway.
For the Greens political party, Lake Cowal is a loaded gun. The developer of the Lake Cowal gold mine, Barrick Gold , is already under scrutiny over a gold mine it half owns in Western Australia. A government report released in October 2004, has found that a large area around the Kalgoorlie Super Pit Fimiston tailings dam was hit by increased salinity, heavy metal contamination, cyanide contamination and elevated cyanide levels in the groundwater.
Member of NSW parliament, Lee Rhiannon of the Greens says that "recent events in West Australia are an ominous but timely warning for the communities and pristine environment of Lake Cowal."
"Barrick's WA problems are just the latest in a string of environmental mishaps around the world caused by cyanide-based gold mining. NSW should act now before we end up with a disaster in our own backyard."
The NSW Greens hope to prevent any future disasters altogether if they can pass a bill banning cyanide altogether.
In October 2004, Lee Rhiannon proposed to the NSW parliament to pass the Mining Amendment (Cyanide Leaching) Bill 2004 which would introduce a total ban on the chemical in leach mining activities.
However, the proposed bill is currently before parliament and Ms Rhiannon suspects that the outcome will not be successful but is pleased that the political discussion may have increased public awareness.
But why would a government allow the use of cyanide to continue despite historical testimonies of toxic accidents?
The NSW government and mining companies alike claim that gold mines will create employment opportunities for the nearby community, thereby injecting money into the local economy.
Of the Lake Cowal Gold Project, the Premier of NSW, Bob Carr says "this is good news for investors and good news for New South Wales families who will benefit from the 200 permanent jobs and the 350 construction jobs."
"This is a vote of confidence in the stable and supportive investment climate we have here in New South Wales. When it comes to sustainable mineral development, you'll find no stronger supporter than the government and state of New South Wales."
But his adversaries contest the truth of his political rhetoric. Ms Rosenhek maintains that "those jobs are completely overestimated because most of those are specialised or outsourced from a different area."
"The fact is that governments allow water, land, indigenous and community land rights to be stepped all over for the sake of votes or for deals they make with corporations for profit or greed, and it is not enough to show evidence that something is hazardous."
"The problem with it is that the jobs are short lived. As soon as the project is finished then the region gets deflated. This is more harmful than letting the region find a long-term sustainable solution to the problem."
So then what kinds of solutions or alternatives are there to the cyanide leach mining debate?
Dr Mathew Jeffrey has been researching a non-toxic chemical called Thiosulfate that would behave like cyanide in the gold leaching process. But the chemical is still in research stage and it could be some years before it is launched as a pilot scale operation, let alone at an industrial level.
"It is a lot more complicated than cyanide, that is one of the things that has held back the development at this stage because Thiosulfate is not actually that stable," Dr Jeffrey explains.
However, for campaigners like Ms Rhiannon and Ms Rosenhek, finding a chemical substitute is simply a band-aid solution for a much deeper wound. Our consumer driven society is at the core of this issue, because it is human consumption that demands that gold be retrieved from the earth in the first place. 80% of gold salvaged by cyanide leach mining will end up as jewellery, with much of the remaining gold used in cell phones and electronics.
Ms Rosenhek asks why no one looks at recylcing gold and other metals from our used consumable goods as opposed to throwing them away, "you can't just expect the earth to give an infinite supply of resources and then stick them back into landfill."
Several campaigns have emerged over the years, such as the No Dirty Gold campaign and Gold Busters to create a new vision for the future. But it is going to take an enormous public awareness program to change the worlds gold consumption. How many consumers are actually aware that their glittering accessories may be dirty gold?
Ms Rhiannon concurs with this new vision for the future, "what the Greens advocate is that we need to look at how we use resources in the world. If we changed our taste in jewellery, a lot of this cyanide leaching would not have to occur."