Olympic Dam uranium/copper mine - Friends of the Earth Australia

BHP BILLITON & OLYMPIC DAMAnti-nuclear & Clean Energy CampaignFriends of the Earth, Australiawww.foe.org.au/anti-nuclearJanuary 2013BHP Billiton planned to supplement undergroundmining with a massive open-cut mine at OlympicDam (a.k.a. Roxby Downs). Export of uranium wasexpected to increase from an average of 4,000tonnes per year to 19,000 tonnes per year and theproduction of copper, gold and silver is alsoexpected to increase.The company was not required to study theviability of mining copper, gold and silver withoutalso extracting and selling uranium − an optionwhich would allow for ongoing, profitable miningwhile addressing at least some of the majorproblems.The planned expansion was cancelled in August2012 with BHP citing economic factors includingthe weak uranium price following the March 2011Fukushima disaster. Also in 2012, BHP Billitondisbanded its Uranium Division and it sold theYeelirrie lease in WA for just 7% of the nominalvalue of the uranium resource.The existing underground mine continues tooperate, producing 10 million tonnes of radioactivetailings waste annually, consuming 37 million litresof Great Artesian Basin water every day, andcontributing to global problems with nuclear wasteand weapons proliferation.Radioactive RacismThe Olympic Dam mine operates under the RoxbyDowns Indenture Act, which provides overrides andexemptions from the SA Aboriginal Heritage Act1988. BHP Billiton is in a legal position to determinewhat consultation occurs with Traditional Owners,who is consulted, and nature of any consultation. Thecompany decides the level of protection thatAboriginal heritage sites receive and which sites arerecognised. BHP Billiton claims that it fully complieswith Aboriginal heritage legislation – if so, why is itunwilling to relinquish the legal exemptions?It is ironic and hypocritical that BHP Billiton supportsReconciliation Australia's 'good governance' programand has provided over $2 million to ReconciliationAustralia, yet will not relinquish its exemptions fromthe Aboriginal Heritage Act 1988.The Roxby Downs Indenture Act was amended in2011. When asked why the amended legislationretains exemptions from the SA Aboriginal HeritageAct, the government spokesperson said: "BHP weresatisfied with the current arrangements andinsisted on the continuation of thesearrangements, and the government did not consultfurther than that."The Roxby Downs Indenture ActThe Roxby Downs Indenture Act allows widerangingand indefensible exemptions from keyenvironmental laws such as the SA EnvironmentalProtection Act 1993, Freedom of Information Act1991, Natural Resources Act 2004, and AboriginalHeritage Act 1988.In a scathing assessment of the royalties regimeenshrined in the amended Indenture Act in 2011,journalist Paul Clearly wrote in The Australian thatthe regime "has robbed the state's citizens and allAustralians of the opportunity to share in theprofits of what will become the world's biggestmine." He added that the agreement "willunfortunately stand as a sad and enduringindictment of the weakness of our stategovernments when it comes to negotiating withpowerful mining multinationals."WeaponsBHP Billiton sells uranium to nuclear weaponsstates, states refusing to ratify the ComprehensiveTest Ban Treaty, states blocking progress on aFissile Material Cut-Off Treaty, states with a historyof secret nuclear weapons research, and statesstockpiling 'civil' plutonium.A new low was set in 2006 when the federalgovernment, with BHP Billiton's support,

negotiated a uranium export agreement with thesecretive, repressive, militaristic, undemocraticregime in China. Then another new low was setwith the agreement to export to Russia with veryfew if any safeguards inspections.The former head of the International AtomicEnergy Agency, Dr. Mohamed El Baradei, hasacknowledged that the IAEA's basic rights ofinspection are "fairly limited", that the safeguardssystem "clearly needs reinforcement" and thatefforts to strengthen the system have been "halfhearted".Radioactive WasteOver 100 million tonnes of low-level radioactivetailings waste have been produced, increasing at 10million tonnes annually. Under the expansion plan,the production of tailings would have increased to68 million tonnes annually.The tailings contain a toxic, acidic soup ofradionuclides and heavy metals. There have beennumerous spills and leaks – e.g. in the mid-1990s itwas revealed that about three billion litres hadseeped from the tailings dams over two years.Mining consultants Advanced Geomechanics notedin a 2004 report that radioactive slurry wasdeposited "partially off" a lined area of a storagepond at Olympic Dam, contributing to greaterseepage and rising ground water levels; that thereis no agreed, accurate formula to determine therate of evaporation of tailings and how much leaksinto the ground; and that cells within a tailingspond covered an area more than three timesgreater than recommended, requiring "urgentremedial measures".Photos taken by an Olympic Dam mine worker inDecember 2008 show radioactive tailings liquidleaking from the so-called rock 'armoury' of the socalledtailings 'retention' system. BHP Billiton'sresponse was to threaten 'disciplinary action'against any mine worker caught taking photos ofthe mine site.Water consumptionThe mine uses about 37 million litres of GreatArtesian Basin water every day. The water takefrom the Great Artesian Basin has had adverseimpacts on the precious Mound Springs.Under the expansion plan, BHP Billiton proposed anincrease in water consumption from 37 millionlitres daily to over 250 million litres daily (up to 42million litres from the Great Artesian Basin, theremainder from a proposed desalination plant atPoint Lowly, near Whyalla).OH&SIn 2010, a worker was sufficiently concerned aboutoccupational health issues at Olympic Dam that heleaked information to the media. The leakeddocuments show that BHP uses manipulatedaverages and distorted sampling to ensure itsofficial figures of worker radiation exposure slipunder the maximum exposure levels set bygovernment.The risks would escalate if plans for a massiveexpansion of the mine are revived. The BHPwhistleblower said. "Assertions of safety of workersmade by BHP are not credible because they rely onassumptions rather than, for example, bloodsampling and, crucially, an assumption that allworkers wear a respirator when exposed to highlyradioactive polonium dust in the smelter."FukushimaBHP is partly responsible for the Fukushimadisaster, albeit the case that the greater share ofthe culpability obviously lies in Japan. BHP didnothing as TEPCO lurched from scandal to scandaland accident to accident over the past decade. BHPdid nothing in 2002 when it was revealed thatTEPCO had systematically and routinely falsifiedsafety data and breached safety regulations for 25years or more.BHP did nothing in 2007 when over 300 incidents of'malpractice' at Japan's nuclear plants wererevealed (104 of them at nuclear power plants).BHP did nothing even as the ability of Japan'snuclear plants to withstand earthquakes andtsunamis came under growing criticism fromindustry insiders and independent experts. BHP didnothing about the multiple conflicts of interestplaguing the Japanese nuclear 'regulator'.More information: foe.org.au/anti-nuclear/issues/oz/u/roxby lizardsrevenge.net