Umweltverbrechen multinationaler Konzerne - Greenpeace

BERGBAU
Boliden Apirsa, S.L. (Aznalcollar, Sevilla, Spain)
Company details Bolidén Apirsa, S.L the Spanish subsidiary of Boliden Limited. ,
Director: Anders Bülow
Address in Spain:
Crta. De Gerena s/n. Aznalcóllar (Sevilla),
Boliden Limited
145 King Street West
Suite 1000
Toronto, Ontario
M5H 1J8 Canada
Location of damage Boliden’s Los Frailes mine, Aznalcóllar (Sevilla), 50 km from the
Doñana National Park
Company activity Mining:
Los Frailes mine had a design capacity of 125,000 tonnes/year of
zinc, 48,000 tonnes/year of lead, 4700 tonnes/year of copper and
90.8 tonnes/year of silver.
Type of incident Accident.
On 25 April,1998, a failure of the tailings dam wall released an
estimated 5.5 million m³ of tailings water and about 1.3 million m³ of
tailings. Approximately 2,600 hectares of land were covered with
tailings along a 40 km stretch of river channels.
Type of damage The failure released 4-5 million cubic meters of toxic tailings slurries
and liquid into nearby Río Agrio, a tributary to Río Guadiamar. The
slurry wave covered around several thousand hectares of farmland,
and threatened the Doñana National Park, a UN World Heritage
Area.
Range of damage,
amount of loss
The contents of the tailings sludge was: zinc 8,000g, lead 8,000g,
arsenic 5,000g, copper 2,000g, cobalt 90g, talium 55g, bismuth 70g,
cadmium 28g
mercury 15g, pyrite content 68-78% 208 .
The direct impact of the disaster included:
- The death of 37.4 Tn of fish, 96 bodies of ground vertebrate 209 .
- High contamination of soils and water.
- Impact on the food chain (high levels of heavy metals in bird
tissues)
- Threat of contamination of the Doñana National Park.
- Economic impact on the agriculture industry, the fishing industry,
the mining community in Aznalcóllar and the tourist industry in the
region.
208 3º Report of „Grupo de Expertos del CSIC (Comité Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spanish Scientific Research
Institute (CSIC) y otros Organismos Colaboradores sobre la Emergencia Ecológica de Aznalcollar del Río Guadiamar” May,
1998.
209 Report of Departamento de Conservación de la Naturaleza de la Consejería de Medioambiente de la Junta de Andalucía
en relación a la fauna afectada. 5 June 1998.
100