Title: Democrat-controlled Congress will alter U.S. public land mining policy in ‘07
Source: Mineweb
Posted: 13 Mar 2007
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News This page contains news items on mineral issues related to the North American region. To post a news item to this page please email the Details to: minerals.forum@unctad.org. Please include the news title, sender name and email, date, and a description. Additional information may also be forwarded, preferably in MS Word, Adobe PDF or text formats. Recent News Title: Democrat-controlled Congress will alter U.S. public land mining policy in ‘07Source: Mineweb Posted: 13 Mar 2007 Title: Framework for Metals Risk Assessment Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Posted: 12 Mar 2007 Title: Canadian Mining Perspectives: Manitoba policy most encouraging for mining investment Source: Canadian Mining Journal Posted: 12 Mar 2007 Title: PDAC '07 – Latest diamond mine has Yellows at heart Source: MiningNews.Net Posted: 09 Mar 2007 Title: Canadian Mining Perspectives: The motherlode of all PDAC conventions Source: Canadian Mining Journal Posted: 09 mar 2007 Title: Newmont Announces Fourth Quarter and 2006 Results Source: Resource Investor Express Posted: 28 Feb 2007 Source: Minister of Finance, Canada Posted: 20 Feb 2007 Title: Nevada program to secure abandoned mines is model for other states Source: Nevada Mining Association Posted: 15 Jan 2007
News 2001-2003 Title: Minister
says Kyoto won't kill Canada oil projects Details Implementation of the Kyoto climate accord will not kill investment in Canada's burgeoning oil sands industry even though one project has been put on hold, the country's energy minister said. "Although Kyoto has some impact, it does not have an impact that will cause projects to be canceled," Herb Dhaliwal, minister of natural resources, told reporters. "In fact, if you look at the announcements, projects are going ahead and I'm confident that more will be announced." Before Canada ratified the international treaty on cutting greenhouse gas emissions late last year, the oil industry had complained that uncertainty of the costs threatened oil sands development.
Title: U.S.
Senate rejects delay of Bush pollution rules Details The U.S. Senate has rejected a Democratic attempt to delay a Bush administration plan to relax costly air pollution rules that apply when utilities, refineries and other industrial plants are repaired or expanded.
Title: Accident
Prompts Stricter Mine Enforcement Details The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is taking steps to strengthen enforcement of regulations covering mine waste impoundments, following an accident that sent millions of gallons of liquefied coal waste into Kentucky's Big Sandy River in 2000. The MSHA said it is "correcting weaknesses in enforcement procedures" following an internal review into the agency's actions prior to the October 2000 slurry spill at Martin County Coal Corporation's Big Branch impoundment. "The purpose of the internal review was to conduct a critical self-examination to determine how MSHA management practices could be improved," said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health Dave Lauriski. "By strengthening MSHA's internal management process, we can make more effective use of all the tools provided in the law - enforcement, education and training, and technical assistance - all aimed at increasing safety for miners."
Title: Peruvians
pan proposal for mining Details Taking a break from running his parents' restaurant, Javier Palacios strolls across the sleepy main square — the spot that will become a huge mining pit if a Canadian company gets its way. Lime and mango orchards sprawl in the hazy lowlands below the town. Mr. Palacios, 33, an engineer, nods toward them: "We've been tied to agriculture for generations. We simply don't want the mine and the change that it would bring." The farming community has been steadfast in fighting to keep the mineral treasure beneath its land where it is, and away from the mining company. In the process, Tambogrande has become a case study in the conflicts that can arise from globalization, one in which powerful financial interests seeking profit collided with the will of a town determined to maintain its way of life.  Title: U.S.
Is Pressuring Industries to Cut Greenhouse Gases Details White House officials are collecting written promises from industries to curb emissions of gases linked to global warming. Title: Placer
Dome test first Fuel Cell powered underground mining vehicle Placer Domerecently tested the world's first fuel cell-powered underground mining vehicle at the Campbell mine in Ontario, Canada. A video clip is available on the Placer Dome website.
Title: Two
New Clean Coal Projects Funded The US Department of Energy has awarded $132 million to two power companies to develop new technologies for cleaner burning coal powered electric plants. Western Greenbrier Co-Generation, LLC (WBC), located in Rainelle, West Virginia, will receive a $107 million grant to develop a clean coal co-production power plant. Wisconsin Electric Power Company, located in Milwaukee, will receive a $25 million grant to develop an integrated mercury and particulate matter emissions control system at the Presque Isle Power Plant in Marquette, Michigan.
Title: Air
pollution may alter genes Six years ago, scientists found that herring gulls living near steel mills around the harbour in Hamilton, Ontario, tended to have high DNA mutation rates. These mutations were then transferred to the next generation of gulls, increasing the offspring's chances of developing genetic diseases like cancer and birth defects. Researchers suspected at the time that air pollution was causing the mutations, but they couldn't eliminate other factors, such as polluted water or contaminated fish, that also could have been responsible. Now other scientists have published a paper indicating that air pollution is indeed the likely culprit behind the mutations. What's more, there's no reason why human DNA should be immune from the same pollution. So our genes may also be damaged and inherited by our children. It's sobering to think that chemicals in our air affect us at a genetic level. Few studies have been done on this topic outside examinations of animals exposed to radioactive dust from nuclear accidents.
Title: Nine
states sue Bush administration on clean-air rules Nine Northeastern U.S. states sued the Bush administration over its decision to relax clean-air rules to help coal-fired power plants and other industrial facilities avoid costly pollution controls. The consortium of states - Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont - filed the lawsuit with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, according to a news release. Existing rules require U.S. utilities and refineries to invest in state-of-the-art
pollution controls if a plant undergoes a major expansion or modification. This week the EPA published the so-called "new source review" rules in the Federal Register, formalizing some rules and starting a time clock toward finalizing others. But the nine states accused the administration of gutting the Clean Air Act.
Title: EPA
mulling reduction in off-road diesel emissions The Bush administration is drafting new rules to drastically reduce noxious emissions from off-road diesel equipment like tractors and bulldozers starting in 2008, but environmentalists this week warned that industry-friendly loopholes could weaken them. The Environmental Protection Agency has spent months briefing industry groups and environmentalists about the new rules - expected to be released in the spring - requiring refiners to produce low-sulfur fuel and engine makers to build more sophisticated engines to burn it. The EPA this year rolled out new rules to cut on-road diesel emissions by over 90 percent by 2007. The off-road rules, drafted jointly by the EPA and the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), will slash off-road emissions by similar levels, according to an EPA presentation given in May. Studies show that the new rules could prevent about 8,500 premature deaths a year and reduce asthma and other respiratory ailments linked with human exposure to air particles. See related article: U.S. drafting new rules for diesel emissions
Title: Save South Chilcotin in Canada Details The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society is concerned about the future
of South Chilcotin Mountains Provincial Park. The B.C. mining industry
is leading a campaign to reduce one of British Columbia's newest provincial
parks from 71,000 hectares to 3,000 and open up the area for mineral exploration. Title: Coalbed
methane reserves increase in Rocky Mountains The U.S. Geological Survey said on Monday the Rocky Mountains contain significantly more coalbed methane reserves than forecast a decade ago. The agency said while five geologic basins surveyed in the Rocky Mountains contain 183 trillion cubic feet (TCF) in technically recoverable oil and gas, unchanged from 1995, two of the regions have more coalbed methane. In the San Juan Basin of Mexico and Colorado, coalbed methane reserves soared to 24 TCF from 7 TCF. Scientists said the Powder River Basin in Wyoming also contained about 14.3 TCF of coalbed methane gas, an increase of 1.1 TCF from the 1995 assessment. The increase in reserves is based upon new data from exploration and drilling operations. The lucrative Power River has been subject to a series of lawsuits in recent months by environmental groups. They argue that at least three leases and potentially thousands of others are illegal because the government failed to thoroughly analyze the environmental impact of drilling.
Title: Canadian
mine gets OK, despite Alaska worries Provincial officials have given the green light to development of a metals mine in northern British Columbia that has been bitterly opposed by environmentalists, native groups and the state of Alaska. A plan by Redfern Resources to reopen the Tulsequah Chief mine near the U.S. border, about 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Juneau, Alaska, would provide a major economic boost to the area and show that British Columbia supports the mining industry, the officials said on Friday. "This decision is about achieving balance and moving toward resolution and increased certainty for all concerned," said Stan Hagen, the provincial resources minister. Redfern is a unit of Redcorp Ventures (RDV.TO). The news boosted Redcorp stock 11 Canadian cents, or nearly 46 percent, to 35 Canadian cents on Friday. The mine's approval is still subject to several conditions, but a Redcorp official said they "were not onerous." Critics say the project is a threat to the Taku River, the source of a commercial salmon fishery worth $2.7 million a year to Alaskans. It is also an important habitat for salmon caught by sport fishermen and for three types of trout. Provincial officials approved the mine's development once before, but the permit was quashed when a court ruled they had failed to adequately consult with the Taku River Tlingit First Nation, which says the site is on its historic territory. Redfern's plan calls for a 2,500-tonne per day underground mine producing copper, lead, zinc, gold and silver. The mine site on the glacier-fed Taku River was originally staked in 1923. It operated for seven years before closing in 1957 because of low ore prices. See also a related report: Mining and Sustainability: The case of the Tulsequah Chief Mine - Tom L. Green, Environmental Mining Council of British Columbia, July 2001.
Title: Red
Mine Waste Fouls Pristine Greek Bay Deep red mine wastes from a lead and zinc mine owned by a subsidiary
of the Toronto based TVX
Gold, Inc., are discoloring the Bay of Ierissos in northeastern Greece.
More than half a mile of the bay, known for its large sandy beaches, clear
waters, and abundant fishing, is now streaked with pollution. On December 6, the Greek Supreme Court ordered TVX to close down the mine beneath Stratoniki because TVX’s environmental assessments were found inadequate to ensure the safety of the village and its 800 people. The mine still continues to operate. Red mine wastes contaminate the Bay of Ierissos. Local villagers and fishermen have observed the red wastes entering the bay since December 7. Tolis Papageorgiou, a local civil engineer, says, “Commercial fishing could be seriously affected by this spill, because of the risk of heavy metal contamination. The bay of Ierissos is one of the major fisheries of Greece.” The wastes flowing into the bay of Ierissos are likely to contain traces of lead, zinc, silver, and other toxic metals, as well as cyanide and other chemicals which are used to process metals from TVX’s mine.
Title: U.S.
Issues Rule to Govern Mine Emergencies Details
The Bush administration yesterday published a proposed rule
to help prevent coal-mining disasters like the explosions that killed
13 miners in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Sept. 23, 2001. The rule takes effect
immediately as a temporary emergency standard. It requires mine operators
to designate a responsible person who would take charge in an emergency
and evacuate mines if danger is imminent. It permits only properly trained
and equipped people who are essential to the emergency response to remain
underground.
Title: New
mayor stands firm against Peru Tambogrande mine The mayor-elect of the northern Peruvian town of Tambogrande said
Title: Manhattan
CEO sees Tambogrande mine on line in 2004 The fears of farmers that a gold and copper mine would ruin their livelihoods in the northern Peruvian town of Tambogrande should fade - once they get more facts from an environmental impact study presented this week, the head of Canada's Manhattan Minerals Corp. (MAN.TO) said. The planned $405 million mine, which has drawn stiff opposition from the area's farmers, will not rob the fertile mango-and lime-growing fields of water nor will it dump waste water on to farm land, said Larry Glaser, chairman and chief executive of Manhattan Minerals. Instead, the mine will bring desperately needed jobs and investment to the region, he said. Glaser told Reuters this week during a visit to Lima that the Tambogrande mine, to be located about 1,050 kilometers north of Lima in a valley that produces 40 percent of Peru's mangoes and limes, could be up and running by late 2004, provided the people back the plan. In June, Tambogrande residents turned out in force for an informal vote on the project in which 99 percent of voters gave it the "thumbs down." But 27 percent of eligible voters did not take part in the vote, which Manhattan Minerals denounced as flawed.
Title: Agency
Faults Mine Company in 13 Deaths The government faulted a mining company today for safety violations that contributed to an accident last year that killed 13 coal miners, the worst mine accident in the nation since 1984. The assistant labor secretary in charge of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, David D. Lauriski, said the company, Jim Walter Resources of Brookwood, a unit of Walter Industries was cited for 27 violations, eight of which contributed to the accident and the deaths. A main violation, regulators said, was a failure to start evacuating the mine after an explosion had injured four men. One of the four, as well as 12 miners sent in to help, were killed by a second, larger explosion in the deep-shaft mine. Mr. Lauriski said miners were sent in when they should have been removed. Jim Walter Resources executives declined to comment. The stock closed at $9.60, down 18 cents. Executives have denied that any safety flaws were involved in the blast.
Title: Bush
Aide Calls for `Sustainable Mining' The mining industry must shed its connection with pollution and scarred hillsides, and instead leave a legacy of helping rural communities thrive, a Bush administration official said Wednesday. Rebecca Watson, Interior Department assistant secretary for land and minerals management, told delegates to the Northwest Mining Association they need to upgrade the industry's tarnished public image. "Mining is important, but it has lost the connection with the public," she told reporters. "Sustainable mining might be a way to develop a new social contract. That means going beyond what the law requires." About 1,000 miners, geologists, machinery suppliers and speculators are attending the annual convention, which attracts delegates from around the world. Traditionally, miners leave an area after the mineral lode plays out, leaving only tailings and pollution behind, Watson said. Some mining companies are no better, declaring bankruptcy and leaving the government and taxpayers with the cleanup costs, she said. "Companies need to look at sustainable mining as leaving infrastructure,
knowledge and skills behind," she said. "Mining can play a role
in economic sustainability." Title: Mexico's
Amber Miners Find Risk, Not Riches Few people on earth work harder for less than the miners of Simojovel, a town blessed with one of the world's few known mother lodes of amber. Deep in the earth, surrounded by the pale light of a single candle, Juan Gutiérrez Guzmán is laboring with a sledgehammer and a spike, looking for the ancient sparkle of amber. Buried in darkness, bathed in sweat and dust, he searches through the
rubble for a tiny nugget that might bring him a dollar or two. Few people on earth, or under it, work harder for less than the miners of Simojovel, a town in northern Chiapas blessed — or cursed — with one of the world's few known mother lodes of amber. Other important deposits are found on the Baltic Sea and in the Dominican Republic, but by reputation Simojovel's amber is the best. Polished amber usually has the hue of honey, but Simojovel's miners occasionally unearth rare pieces the color of rubies or jade. The Spanish conquerors were dazzled by the amber ornaments worn by the people of Chiapas when they arrived nearly 500 years ago, and they commissioned rosaries and crucifixes that have not lost their glow today. Mystical and medicinal properties have been attributed to amber, which is the petrified resin of trees from primeval forests felled by natural disasters 40 million years ago. But no such magic has transformed the lives of the miners of Simojovel,
who work under conditions essentially unchanged from the 19th century.
Title: Nothing
must harm oil sands plans-Canada minister A senior Canadian minister added to the turmoil inside Ottawa over the Kyoto climate change protocol this week by saying nothing should be done to harm projects to extract synthetic crude from oil sands, which critics say would escalate carbon dioxide emissions. The comments by Health Minister Anne McLellan are significant because she is also responsible for the western energy-rich province of Alberta - home to the oil sands and a provincial government which hates Kyoto. Prime Minister Jean Chretien has vowed to ratify Kyoto by the end of the year but a plan on implementing the accord will take much longer to finalize. Last week Canada softened its implementation plan in a bid to placate provinces and industry groups that fear cutting greenhouse gases would cause serious economic damage. McLellan's comments will do nothing to heal a divide within cabinet over Kyoto, which pits enthusiasts like Environment Minister David Anderson against Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal and others who are far more uncertain. Alberta's vast oil sands are widely seen as a crucial part of the future of Canada's oil industry as it boosts output to quench North America's thirst for secure supplies.
Title: Honduran
villagers battle over Canada-owned mine Under a harsh sun, elderly Honduran peasant farmer Guillermo Velasquez looks with dismay across his dry lands to an open-pit gold and silver mine run by a unit of Canada's Glamis Gold. Velasquez, 80, owns around 12 acres (5 hectares) in the municipality of El Porvenir in central Honduras and has not left his lands since he was born. For decades, he has devoted his life to farming grain, vegetables and livestock. Nearby in San Ignacio municipality, Minerales Entre Mares, a unit of Glamis Gold, has run the San Martin gold and silver mine since 1999. Velasquez and others like him contend mining has devastated the forests and dried up water sources in their poor valley. Faced with the possibility mining could start in their areas, they are locked into conflict with their neighbors in San Ignacio, who largely support the existing project and the money it has brought. "They are totally destroying our forest. I am ready to fight against that company. We want it to leave. We will give our lives for that if we have to," said Velasquez, pointing to a huge gash in the hillside under a cloud of dust where mining was under way. See Also: Glamis Gold unit hit by Honduras protest
Title: Asarco
hit by $29.4 million lawsuit, battles debt U.S. copper producer Asarco Inc., already under a $1 billion mountain of debt, faces a $29.4 million creditor lawsuit filed this month by Swiss-based metals trader Glencore Ltd, according to a complaint lodged in U.S. federal court in New York. Arizona-based Asarco, a subsidiary of Grupo Mexico , told Reuters the
company hopes the dispute with Glencore, stemming from missed debt payments
on physical copper trades since 2001, can still be negotiated out of court. He added, "We're still negotiating with the U.S. (Justice Department) despite their court injunction to block our internal restructure plans, so we can deal with Glencore in the same way." Glencore declined to comment. "In a legal situation, it is a matter of policy that we do not comment," a spokeswoman told Reuters. Title: Shell
green record holds lessons for Big Oil All big oil companies have their share of environmental record blemishes, but examining the way Royal Dutch Shell has dealt with its problems may lead the industry to a greener future, according to a new book. In "Riding The Dragon: Royal Dutch Shell and the Fossil Fire," Jack Doyle chronicles a sampling of 300 incidents of fires, leaks and explosions throughout the petroleum infrastructure of the world's second-largest oil firm, including in the United States, Nigeria and South Africa. The message of the book, published by The Environmental Health Fund in Boston, "is not to suggest that Shell is any worse a performer than any other major oil company," wrote Doyle, head of Washington-based business investigative firm J.D. Associates. The book aims to "put the record of a good oil company squarely in the public light to generate debate for public purposes and hoped-for change," wrote Doyle, who plans to write about other energy companies.
Title: Knowles
Takes Red Dog Mine to U.S. Supreme Court Saying a recent Ninth Circuit Court decision undercuts
the very core of a state's authority, the state of Alaska has filed an
appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court of a ruling regarding the air quality
permit at the world's largest zinc mine, Governor Tony Knowles announced
Friday. Title: Mine
cleanup may cost $4 million - Cleveland Cliffs Mining company Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. said Thursday the Environmental Protection Agency had informed the firm it would pay as much $4 million as part of an alleged asbestos and structures clean-up at one of its plant sites. The mining company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing it had already set aside the money for the clean-up, which it previously estimated at $2 million. "The extent of any liability related to other potentially responsible parties has not been determined," the company added. The firm had already disclosed the EPA's investigation of a Milwaukee, Wisconsin plant site that was last operated by a predecessor to Cleveland Cliffs in 1983. The EPA told the firm last month it had decided certain above-ground storage tanks should be removed, along with "various sections of alleged asbestos-containing materials on pipes and other parts of structures located on the property." Cleveland Cliff stock traded down about 4 percent or 90 cents to $19.52 in late afternoon trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
Title: Canada
needs billions to clean toxic sites, says report The Canadian government has bungled the clean-up of thousands of toxic sites and abandoned mines across the country and needs to spend billions of dollars to deal with the mess, according to a damning report released by the country's environmental watchdog Tuesday. Environment and sustainable development commissioner Johanne Gelinas also said Ottawa was not doing enough to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, regulate the use of pesticides, and deal with the spread of species alien to Canada. "Overall, our findings leave me more concerned that ever about the inadequacy of the federal government's investment to protect the environment and meet its sustainable development commitments," she wrote in the six-volume report. "The federal government has failed to clean up its own backyard," said Gelinas, who reports directly to parliament. Her insistence on more money comes at a time when Finance Minister John Manley — who will deliver a budget next February — is facing a shrinking surplus and demands for a multibillion-dollar investment in the health care system. Gelinas said Ottawa knew it had about 3,600 contaminated sites on its hands and another 1,500 where contamination was suspected. These include harbors, ports, military bases, government laboratories, and abandoned mines. "We estimate that the cost of dealing with known sites under federal responsibility is in the billions of dollars," she said.
Title: Trapped
Coal Miner and Company Differ The Quecreek Mine, where nine men were trapped for 77 hours in July, was wet and growing wetter before it flooded, and the coal company knew it, a survivor testified today at a Senate hearing. A company representative disputed that before the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education. The men were trapped when they drilled into an adjacent abandoned mine at Somerset, sending millions of gallons of water into their shaft.
Title: US
coal miners, greens slam pollution proposals An Interior Department proposal to require U.S. coal mining companies to pay for unanticipated clean-up costs is too costly and could put some firms out of business, a mining trade group said. Environmental groups also are unhappy with the proposal, contending the federal government should instead adopt stricter rules that would force miners to prevent the pollution. Two dozen industry and green groups submitted their suggestions on the proposal to the Interior Department before this week's deadline for public comments. The department's Office of Surface Mining proposed in May that mining companies - which now are responsible for short-term clean-up costs - should also pay for unexpected "long-term" acid or toxic mine drainage that can seep into area water supplies. Title: Barge
aground near Arctic Alaska mine port A barge headed to pick up ore concentrate at Teck-Cominco Ltd.'s Red Dog zinc mine ran aground on Tuesday on a beach in northwest Alaska, government and industry officials said. No fuel spills or injuries were reported from the grounded barge, the Kivalina, operated by Seattle-based Foss Maritime Co. But the vessel was carrying 22,000 gallons of diesel fuel and posed an environmental risk, officials said. "It's grounded and it's being battered by a sizable swell," said U.S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Roger Wetherell. Conditions at the site were poor, with seas up to 20 feet and winds up to 60 knots, Wetherell said. "There's thick fog, snow, it's just really bad weather at this time,"
he said. "That's the concern, that the vessel could be damaged and
fuel could leak." Steve Scalzo, Foss Maritime's president and chief executive officer, said the company was taking full responsibility for the salvage and any necessary cleanup. Title: Canyon
Resources to push Montana mining law changes Canyon Resources Corp. will ask the Montana Legislature in January to overturn a law that prevents development of the largest untapped gold deposit in the United States, the company's president said. Canyon's efforts to develop the 10-million ounce McDonald project stalled in November of 1998 when Montana voters narrowly approved Initiative 137. The measure prohibits any new gold or silver mines that rely on heap leach mining technology using cyanide solutions to extract metal from ores. Canyon President Richard DeVoto said recent polls in Montana suggest residents there are moving away from a strong environmental ethic to place more emphasis on creating jobs. The state of one million people ranks 50th in the U.S. in terms of per capita income, he said. "We have decided to appeal directly to the legislators to make a
change in this initiative," DeVoto told the Denver Gold Group's Mining
Investment Forum. Title: Death
Toll Rises but Money in Mine Fund Goes Unspent This spring, an 8-year-old boy in western Pennsylvania died when he tumbled down a 60-foot sheer rock embankment, a dangerous vestige of an abandoned coal mine. Dozens of people die at abandoned mines each year in accidents that are supposed to be prevented by a government program intended to clean up such dangerous sites, subsidized by a tax that coal companies have paid since 1977. These tax revenues have collected in a government trust fund that now holds $1.54 billion. But the federal government refuses to spend most of the money, holding it back to help offset the budget deficit, raising continuing complaints from state officials as more people die. The federal government has recorded 78 deaths in abandoned or inactive mines since January 2000, including 26 this year. The numbers are incomplete, and the actual death count is probably higher, the government concedes.
Title: Alaska
villagers sue Teck Cominco over pollution Residents of Kivilina, an Inupiat Eskimo village on Alaska's northwestern coast, sued Teck Cominco Ltd. , charging the company with 2,171 federal water-pollution violations at its Red Dog Mine, the world's largest zinc producer. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, came after negotiations on Wednesday between Teck Cominco and the Kivilina residents failed to reach a settlement, the plaintiffs said. The lawsuit alleges that water-pollution violations have been ignored by the state and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Filed as a citizen action under provisions of the Clean Water Act, the lawsuit seeks more than $59 million in fines, or the maximum $27,500 for each violation. Kivilina, home to about 380 people, is the closest village to the mine. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Kivilina Relocation Committee, a local government body, by the San Francisco-based Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment.
Title: Asbestos
Suit Heads to Court, Despite Appeal by Companies An asbestos trial against some of the world's largest companies, including ExxonMobil and Honeywell International, begins in West Virginia this week, even as the case is being challenged before the United States Supreme Court. The lawsuit in Kanawha County Circuit Court includes the cases of 8,000 people who say they were exposed to asbestos. About half of the 259 defendants have appealed to the Supreme Court, saying the cases are so dissimilar that consolidating them infringes on the defendants' constitutional rights. "The trial plan does not appear to be in the same universe as the due process clause in the Constitution," said Walter Dellinger, a primary lawyer for the companies. "What gets lost in a mass trial with this number of defendants and this number of plaintiffs is that a lot of plaintiffs aren't sick and a lot of the companies have nothing to do with asbestos." The defendants include manufacturers, building owners and groups of employers, and there are so many cases that the trial is to be split into separate but simultaneous proceedings — one for companies being sued over product liability claims; the other for those being sued for on-premises exposure to asbestos.
Title: Lead
paint poses new legal threat for US companies Already rattled by asbestos-related lawsuits that have sent dozens of U.S. manufacturers into bankruptcy, a new legal nightmare may soon keep executives awake at night: lead paint litigation. Corporate executives and state attorneys general are keeping close tabs on a lawsuit in Rhode Island that will determine if public nuisance claims can hold companies liable for the huge cost of cleaning up old lead paint. If the six-person jury agrees with prosecutors, it could have a major impact on former makers of lead paint, or the companies that are their successors, according to industry experts. Lead paint was banned in 1978. "There is an outside chance lead paint litigation could be the next
major legal wave against corporate America," said Lehman Brothers
analyst Tim Gerdeman. Other defendants include Atlantic Richfield, which was acquired by BP Plc, Cytec Industries, NL Industries Inc. and a unit of ConAgra Foods.
Title: Appalachian
towns fight to keep coal mines from moving ever closer Susan Skeens and other folks in Lick Creek sprang into action when a coal company moved to open a mine near their homes in this little Appalachian community where the loudest sound at night is often the mournful call of a whippoorwill. "Everything I have will be covered with black dust,"
said Skeens, whose home is some 250 feet from the proposed entrance to
the mine. In the past, Kentucky's coal was typically mined deep in the mountains where coal seams were thickest and easiest to dig out. But after a century of heavy mining, "the easy coal is gone," said Tom FitzGerald, an environmental attorney representing Lick Creek residents. "Coal seams that once were considered marginal or problematic now are being mined. Often, they're close to homes." Roy Mullins, a former coal miner now leading the charge to keep Clintwood Elkhorn Mining Co. from opening the mine in Lick Creek, said residents across the Appalachian coalfields have a vested interest in the case. "It could be their community next," he said. "We're not trying to shut down a coal company, and we're not trying to put anyone out of work. But it's time for the communities to take a stand." Title: Asarco
offers environmental proposal on US plants Asarco Inc., a U.S. unit of No. 3 copper miner Grupo Mexico SA, said Friday it has sent the U.S. Department of Justice a proposal addressing its environmental clean-up obligations at numerous locations used during more than a century of mining and smelting metals. The financially strapped company said that it could not comment on the details of the proposal for remediation at closed plants and other sites, submitted last week, as it was awaiting talks with the government. "We feel like it represents a strong proposal and something we're hopeful the Justice Department will give serious consideration to," Asarco spokesman Clay Allen told Reuters. The company said that the proposal was also a response to the government's legal objection this month to the struggling 103-year-old miner's plan to sell its shares in Southern Peru Copper Corp. to intermediate parent Americas Mining Group to reduce its own massive debt load.
Title: Clean
Coal Initiative Garners 36 Proposals The Department of Energy (DOE) has received 36 proposals for projects valued at more than $5 billion in the first round of President Bush's Clean Coal Power Initiative. The proposals are the first in response to President Bush's pledge to invest $2 billion in federal funding over the next 10 years to advance technologies intended to help meet the nation's growing demand for electricity while also protecting the environment. The program has been criticized by environmental and public interest groups for promoting continued coal mining and the burning of fossil fuels, rather than increasing federal funding for renewable, non-polluting energy sources such as wind, solar and bioenergy. Coal now supplies more than half the electricity in the United States. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said the proposals received so far indicate that the program is "the most striking example yet of industry's willingness to invest in a new generation of clean coal technologies."
Title: Coal
Processor Convicted of Environmental Crimes Koppers Industries Inc., a coal and coke company in Pennsylvania, has pleaded guilty to two felony violations of the Clean Water Act and one felony violation of the Clean Air Act The convictions resulted from releases of hazardous air and water pollutants,
which exceeded permitted limits, at the company's coke production and
coal byproducts facility in Dolomite, Alabama. The facility was dismantled
in 1998. Koppers operated a wastewater treatment plant at the Dolomite facility and also had a stormwater discharge point source permit, which required it to limit the amount of ammonia in its water discharges. The company also was required to submit discharge monitoring reports to the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) indicating the level of pollutants contained in its water discharges based upon test results. Koppers admitted that its employees had allowed the discharge of wastewater that exceeded the permitted level of ammonia in January 1997. In March 1997, its employees submitted a false report to ADEM that understated the level of ammonia contained in the discharge to conceal the fact that Koppers had violated its permit limits.
Title: Asbestos
Claims Vs. Montana Tossed in U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock dismissed claims from 23 lawsuits involving people exposed to asbestos at the W.R. Grace & Co. mine, which has been blamed for some 200 deaths and hundreds of illnesses. The lawsuits accused the state of negligence for not warning Libby residents of the hazards of asbestos exposure and not protecting them and workers from the asbestos fibers that health officials knew were a byproduct of the mining operation.
Title: Suit
Challenges Everglades Limestone Mining Environmental groups are suing two federal agencies to block limestone mining on more than 5,000 acres of Everglades wetlands The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Sierra Club and National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) said they fear the mining project, which has been approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, would threaten Everglades National Park and the historic environmental restoration projects now getting underway in southern Florida. The groups filed suit Tuesday in federal district court in Washington DC against the Corps and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) challenging the agencies permitting of a massive mining operation on the national park's border. The approvals are part of the mining industry's long term plans for a total of over 22,000 acres of mining in the eastern Everglades, an area the size of the city of Miami. Despite its own conclusion that the mining "will have an irreversible significant impact on the environmental resources of this region," the Corps has issued 12 permit approvals to 10 companies since announcing its decision on April 11, 2002.
Title: Researchers
combining mining and milling wastes to create fuel Researchers are trying to create fuel for generating plants from the waste products of mining and lumber industries. Rick Honaker, a University of Kentucky professor, said the project could help get rid of unsightly buildups of lumber mill sawdust as well as gooey coal wastes which have swamped some mining communities. "We need to recover some of this energy we've got just sitting around," Honaker said. The U.S. Department of Energy put up $500,000 to fund the study in which coal particles, retrieved from the bottom of mine refuse ponds, will be combined with sawdust to form briquettes that could be burned in electric-generating plants. Huge mounds of sawdust are common across Appalachia, where coal wastes from mining also are abundant. Researchers said mixing and marketing the combined fuel has the potential to generate $84.5 million a year in revenues.
Title: EPA
ready to dig up contaminated soil in west El Paso Federal environmental officials plan to haul away topsoil from 45 west El Paso yards with potentially dangerous levels of lead and arsenic and plan to check another 1,000 locations for potential contamination. The Environmental Protection Agency hopes to determine by the end of this month how many areas are contaminated, Environmental Protection Agency spokesman David Bary said. The EPA has said an Asarco plant, a 100-year-old copper smelter, may have been responsible for the contamination. It asked the company to conduct sampling, but the company refused. Asarco said it already was involved in a process, started in 1999 and approved by the EPA, to test for contamination and potential threats.
Title: Kentucky
coal company ordered to pay $3.25 million for sludge spill State officials said Wednesday that the company responsible
for one of the nation's worst coal sludge spills has agreed to pay $3.25
million as punishment. More than 300 million gallons of water and sludge broke through the bottom of the impoundment pond on a mountaintop outside Inez on Oct. 11, 2000. The material gushed into underground coal mine portals, out into the two creeks, and into Big Sandy River. Lawns were buried up to 7 feet deep in the molasseslike mixture. All fish were killed in two streams, and drinking water supplies were fouled along 60 miles of Big Sandy River. The Environmental Protection Agency called the spill one of the worst environmental disasters ever in the Southeast.
Title: Asarco
denies responsibility for El Paso lead contamination The federal government will pay to remove contaminated soil in 45 residential yards after the company accused of causing the mess refused to pay, officials said. The Environmental Protection Agency believes that lead and arsenic found in the El Paso yards comes from a 115-year-old smelter owned by Asarco Inc. The company has challenged the EPA's soil-testing procedure and on Monday refused to pay for an EPA-ordered cleanup. Asarco said there is no evidence of an immediate public health threat and no evidence that the smelter, which stopped processing lead in 1985, is the primary contamination source. Company officials say it's too soon to conclude that soil must be removed from the local yards. Asarco has requested additional studies of the extent of contamination, the threat to health, and other possible sources of the contamination.
Title: After
Roll-of-the-Dice Rescue, a Mine Town Rejoices (USA) In their darkest hours down in the mine, the nine trapped
men, bedeviled by rising floodwaters, could hear the steady drilling of
rescuers above them. But they still thought it imperative to jot down
private thoughts and seal them in a lunch bucket as a parting word to
family survivors. See related articles: 'We've Been Waiting,' They Say After 3 Days Underground Wall Bursts and Water Pours in, Trapping 9 Miners 240 Feet Down
Title: US
mining firms seek relief from cleanup bonds The U.S. mining industry asked Congress to ease federal bond requirements for cleaning up toxic chemicals, saying that some mines will be forced to close if they do not get financial relief. A combination of a sour economy and Wall Street accounting scandals have made it nearly impossible for mining companies to obtain bonds from insurers required by the Interior Department before mining can begin on public lands. The process ensures toxic pollution from a new mine will be cleaned up. But the bonding requirements mean more companies are forced to abandon a project, or post cash or a cash equivalent to meet federal requirements, according to the industry. Environmental groups oppose easing the current rules, saying companies routinely underestimate cleanup costs and that taxpayers should not have to pay for restoration.
Title: Californian
law may indirectly benefit aluminum makers Aluminum producers may benefit from a new California auto emissions law, but industry experts said rewards would not come for several years and not directly from California's move but from indirect pressure on automakers to lighten vehicle weight by using light-weight metals. "The whole purpose of this (law), I believe, is to put presure on both the car companies and the federal government to pass a higher fuel economy standard. That will mean a lot more aluminum in vehicles, I think," said Richard Klimisch, vice president of the Aluminum Association's auto/light truck group in Detroit, Michigan. California Governor Gray Davis signed a law on Monday regulating vehicle gas emissions to help curb global warming. It is the first state law requiring auto makers to limit carbon dioxide emissions and other pollutants that scientists have said blanket the atmosphere and lead to warmer temperatures and other harmful effects on humans and other living creatures.
Title: Asarco
could face stiff pollution clean-up costs The west Texas smelting plant of miner Asarco Inc. has been tagged as a "potentially responsible party" in a U.S. federal pollution probe that could lead to an expensive clean-up in addition to other environmental obligations the company is already dealing with. Asarco, a 100-year-old mining and metals producing company, is already involved in cleanups at 40 sites on a federal superfund list of areas polluted with hazardous materials. The costs could soar to hundreds of millions of dollars if the El Paso smelting plant is added, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sources said.
Title: US
extends mining pollution comment period to Oct The U.S. Interior Department said this week it will extend until mid-October the deadline for mining companies, environmental groups and others to offer suggestions on what kinds of financial guarantees may be needed to clean up toxic pollution from surface coal mining. The department's Office of Surface Mining is considering whether to create rules requiring financial bonds or guarantees from companies for treating long-term toxic or acid drainage from surface coal mines. It also is looking at how to punish companies when not enough money has been set aside for long-term reclamation projects. In a Federal Register notice, the government said it would extend the public comment period until Oct. 15. The previous deadline was July 16. The U.S. mining industry is also facing pressure in two other arenas to pay more attention to the environment.
Title: Colorado
group fights coalbed methane wells A citizens' group in western Colorado is fighting a proposal to explore for methane gas in nearby underground coal seams, saying the planned test drilling could devastate the area's water supplies. The Grand Mesa Citizens Alliance, an advocacy group, has asked Delta County commissioners to reject a proposal to drill three test wells, a move that would set the local government against the state and set the stage for a court battle over what has become one of the biggest environmental issues in the Rocky Mountains. The county board met Monday to consider whether to approve a drilling proposal from privately held Gunnison Energy Corp. of West Palm Beach, Fla., and has two weeks to reach a decision. Colorado state regulators have already approved the plan.
Title: US Office of Surface Mining Annual
Report Released The 88-page report, which describes OSM operations for the period October 1, 2000, through September 30, 2001 -- Fiscal Year 2001 -- combines OSM's Annual Report to Congress with its Annual Financial Report. Included in the report is information about activities
carried out under The report is available at: http://www.osmre.gov/annualreports/anrep01.htm
Title: Mine's
mercury spill leaves dim legacy in Peruvian town Consuelo Chuquitucto stares blankly at the courtyard of her home where donkeys bray and plastic sheeting is strung up as walls — but sees nothing. Blind since a mercury spill in this hamlet in Peru's northern Andes two years ago, the 20-year-old's future is as dark as the world that now engulfs her. Unable even to care for her three-year-old daughter Tania, Chuquitucto blames her blindness on the June 2000 spill from one of the world's top gold mines, Yanacocha, an environmental disaster that has prompted villagers to file a lawsuit in Colorado against Denver-based Newmont Minerals. "I just want help for my baby," the sober-faced Chuquitucto says softly, her hands resting limp on her knees. She says she has not received a cent from Yanacocha, owned by Newmont, Peru's Buenaventura, and the World Bank. A group of almost 1,000 people and municipal authorities of Cajamarca, near Yanacocha, have filed lawsuits against Newmont in Colorado. But Yanacocha is asking for the cases to be dismissed, arguing that since the case occurred in Peru it should be tried here under Peruvian law.
Title: Bush
administration cuts clean-up funding The Bush administration has cut the funds necessary to clean up 33 toxic waste sites in 18 states under the Superfund cleanup program, according to a new report to Congress by the inspector general of the Environmental Protection Agency, The New York Times reported yesterday. The cuts will likely mean work comes to a halt at some of the more polluted sites in the U.S., according to the paper, increasing uncertainty over when the work will proceed and who will pay for it. Sites affected by the cuts include a manufacturing plant in Edison, New Jersey, where the herbicide Agent Orange, used in the Vietnam War, was produced, as well as several chemical plants in Florida and two old mines in Montana. See also a related article: EPA says Bush's proposed cuts in Superfund mean work reductions and halts in 18 states
Title: Montana DEQ Data Reveals Beal Mountain
Mine Releasing Cyanide into Trout Streams The Beal Mountain Mine, a cyanide heap leach operation once touted by
the mining industry as a prime example of an environmentally friendly
mine, is dumping toxic pollutants into neighboring trout streams, according
to documents recently released by the Montana Department of Environmental
Quality (DEQ).
Title: Canadian Aboriginal groups approve
Voisey's project Details Labrador aboriginal groups have given the huge Voisey's Bay nickel mining project a major vote of confidence. The Labrador Inuit Association says that the deal to allow the $3-billion project to proceed received support from 82.3 per cent of the voters. About 67 per cent of the Innu who cast ballots supported agreements that promise to provide training, employment and environmental protection for the native people.
Title: US
Mining Company Must Get License for Dams The Homestake Mining Company must get a federal license in order to continue operating two dams on Spearfish Creek and Little Spearfish Creek in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has ruled. In its decision published today, FERC found that many of the power lines and other facilities used to transmit the water and electricity exist on federal lands, one of the conditions requiring federal dam licensing. Homestake Mining Company has been operating the two dams for about 80 years in Spearfish Canyon with no license.
Title: Mining
the US Everglades in Order to Save It The "Lake Belt" mining plan is the starkest evidence
that Everglades restoration is not just about restoring the Everglades.
It calls for the Corps to wait until the rock pits are mined out in 35
years or so, then spend $1 billion to convert two of them into huge storage
reservoirs: one for drinking water and additional flows to Biscayne National
Park and one for Everglades National Park. The premise is that sacrificing
Everglades fringes as big as the city of Miami can help save the ecosystem.
Title: US
EPA issues rule to cut copper smelter pollution The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued a final rule for primary copper smelters that could reduce toxic air pollutants at some plants by 23 percent a year, the National Mining Association said last week. The Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) rule establishes emissions limitations and work practice standards for smelters "that are (or are part of) a major source of HAP (hazardous air pollutants) emissions, and that use batch copper converters," said the NMA in its Mining Week newsletter.
Title: Probe
into possible asbestos poisoning widening beyond western Montana town Federal health officials said Thursday they are trying to determine whether ore mined in Montana and shipped across the country may have spread potentially fatal asbestos. The western Montana town of Libby, which for decades was the world's largest supplier of vermiculite ore, has been at the center of what lawmakers and federal officials describe as a public health crisis. Now officials are concerned that the problem has spread to other towns where the vermiculite was taken to be processed into soil conditioner and home insulation. The Environmental Protection Agency has identified 240 sites in 40 states where the vermiculite was shipped from Libby. See also a photo essay on the effects of the asbestos contamination on the town of Libby, Montana.
Title: Newfoundland legislature approves
Voisey's deal Details Newfoundland's legislature has voted in favour of an agreement to launch the $2.9-billion Voisey's Bay nickel mining project in Northern Labrador. The project now faces a vote June 24 in Labrador's Innu and Inuit communities.
Title: Canada
Imposes New Mining Rules to Benefit Fish Canada will implement new environmental regulations to reduce pollution entering waterways from metal mines across the country, Environment Minister David Anderson announced today. The new rules impose limits on releases of cyanide, metals, and suspended solids, and prohibit the discharge of effluent that is lethal to fish. "The new requirements of the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations which will be fully in force on December 6, 2002, are among the most comprehensive and stringent national standards for mining effluents in the world and provide opportunities for further advances in Canadian environmental expertise in the mining sector," Anderson said. Title: US
Judge Holds Fast to Ban on Mining Permits The U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers may not issue permits allowing rock and dirt from mountaintop
removal coal mines to be disposed of in streams, a federal judge confirmed
Monday. U.S.
Title: Diamond
certification system stirs conflict As 2,500 delegates gather in Vancouver today for the World Diamond Conference, controversy continues to swirl over an international certification system aimed at stemming the flow of so-called blood or conflict diamonds. 37 countries, including Canada, are about to sign on to a process that will require diamonds moving across international borders to have a certificate of origin.
Title: Democrat
seeks to limit US mountaintop coal mining Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a potential 2004 presidential hopeful, yesterday said he will seek to outlaw a Bush administration plan allowing coal companies to dump mining waste into lakes and streams. Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency adopted new rules on so-called mountaintop mining in which peaks of mountains and hills throughout Appalachia are sliced off with explosives to expose the buried coal buried. The agency said coal companies can dispose of left over rock, dirt and other rubble by plowing it downhill into river and stream valleys.
Title: Canada
firm says disputed Peru mine could help poor Canadian miner Manhattan Minerals Corp this week brushed aside fierce criticism of its proposed Tambogrande gold and copper mine, calling the $315 million project a lucrative opportunity that farmers in a poor northern valley could not afford to pass up. "This project can work hand-in-hand with farming and is a great opportunity to develop a poor area of Peru," Roberto Obradovich, head of Manhattan's local unit, told a news conference on the planned mine in the Tambogrande valley. "The state has a responsibility to help us make that happen."
Title: Costa
Rica bans open pit mining Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco signed a decree this week banning open pit mining in a move expected to hit the mining and exploration plans of at least two Canadian firms. Pacheco said the decree was aimed at protecting Costa Rica's environmental wealth, which underpins a healthy tourism industry, and means all open pit exploration and mining projects awaiting government approval are halted. See related article: http://www.infomine.com/news/headline/welcome.asp?NewsID=34359
Title: 6
Years of Talks End in Pact for Labrador Nickel Project in Canada Capping six years of often acrimonious negotiation, the Toronto-based Inco Ltd. and the provincial government of Newfoundland signed an agreement today to develop one of the world's richest nickel and cobalt deposits, at Voisey's Bay, Labrador. Today's deal seeks to balance Inco's quest for an attractive return on the 4.3 billion Canadian dollars (about $3.2 billion at 1996 rates) that it paid for the Voisey's Bay deposit in 1996 with Newfoundland's insistence that the ore be processed locally to bolster the economy there, in Canada's most impoverished province.
Title: Recycler
Slams Sony Mining Proposal It seemed like a good idea at the Waste Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada. In the home state of Battle Mountain's 12 copper mining Superfund sites, Mark Small of Sony Electronics Inc. suggested using open pit mines as repositories for discarded computers, televisions, etc. Mining companies could soak the material in cyanide and arsenic, and actually recover more copper and gold than they get from mountainsides. One electronics recycling company analyzed the proposal, and wasn't amused.
Title: Oregon's
ecologically rich Siskiyou reopened to mining Nearly 1 million acres of the most biologically diverse habitat in the nation is being reopened to mining by decree of the Bush administration. The decision nullifies a two-year-old moratorium on granting new prospecting permits in the region, which is located in southwestern Oregon.
Title: High
Court to Hear U.S. Appeal in Navajo Case The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to consider the government's case in a contract disagreement with the Navajo Nation in which the tribe is seeking $600 million in damages. At issue is whether a federal agency failed to protect the tribe's interest in mining leases on reservation land and must pay for it.
Title: In
Landslide Vote, Tambogrande, Peru Rejects Mine Residents in this northern farming district voted to overwhelmingly reject a Canadian company's plans to develop a rich mineral deposit that lies beneath the town. Of the 19,996 people who voted Sunday, 98.6 percent cast a no vote when asked if they were in favor of mining in the Tambogrande district. Just 1.4 percent cast a yes vote, electoral committee officials said. Another 26.7 percent stayed away, a percentage slightly higher than the absentee rate in the last national elections. The failure to vote in such elections, however, carries stiff fines while Sunday's ballot was voluntary. The balloting, organized by the Tambogrande municipal government, was declared illegal by the central government, which said it would not have an impact on the project. "We hope the state will respect our vote," said Luis Panta Bereche, a grammar school teacher in the town. "If President [Alejandro] Toledo believes in democracy like he says he does, he should respect our opinion."
Title: Peru
mining vote "suspicious" - Manhattan Minerals Canadian miner Manhattan Minerals Corp. yesterday slammed as "suspicious" a weekend vote in which residents of the Tambogrande valley in northern Peru voted overwhelmingly to reject a planned $315 million gold and copper mine. "The vote was full of flaws. It seems suspicious that 93 or 94 percent voted 'no' but that 10,000 people didn't turn up. We have to assume that means that those (absent) at least want to hear more about the project," Roberto Obradovich, head of the local unit of Manhattan, told CPN radio. According to municipal officials in the northern valley of Tambogrande, a prime area for mango and lime production, 98.65 percent of residents voted against the controversial mining project in a nonbinding referendum organized by the local municipal government on Sunday.
Title: Mining's
progress The mining industry is not perfect. However, its performance is a far cry from what it was a couple of decades ago, when society's knowledge of and concern for environmental issues was much different than it is now.
Title: Saving
US Mountain Streams At least for the moment, the Army Corps of Engineers won't be issuing any new permits allowing coal companies to bury Appalachian streams under tons of rubble from mountaintop mining operations. The Bush administration recently issued rules explicitly allowing such permits, but U.S. District Judge Charles H. Haden II quickly said no.
Title: Mining
far from 'green' The so-called "greening" of the mining industry is a skillful public-relations campaign attempting to silence the industry's increasingly effective critics, block attempts to regulate it at national and local levels, and get access to land and deposits.
Title: U.S.
Lifts Mining Ban The Bush administration is lifting a temporary ban on new mining claims in 1.2 million acres of federal land in southern Oregon. The moratorium, imposed by the Clinton administration in 2001 and scheduled to expire in 2003, was intended to give the government time to study the impact of mining on salmon streams and forests in the Siskiyou Mountains.
Title: EPA
Reports Decline in Pollution (U.S.) Overall, industrial toxic chemical pollution has declined by 48 percent since 1988, according to the EPA, although Western hard rock mining companies and electrical utilities continue to generate inordinate levels of air and water pollution. According to the study, hard rock mining companies operating in Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Alaska are the biggest polluters, responsible for 3.3 billion pounds of toxic chemicals that leach into the environment.
Title: Gold
diggers draw ire from environmentalists What if gold were no longer an object of desire but an object of disgust? What if environmentalists were able to do to the image of the glittering metal what animal rights activists did to the fur coat - paint it as a symbol of cruel and thoughtless vanity, not of brilliant success? Many environmentalists want just that, but it's not yet an idea whose time has come. At a high-profile mining conference on sustainable development in Toronto this month, which is home to some of the world's biggest gold miners, several proposals were advanced to put an end to gold extraction.
Title:
EPA
says biggest polluters are hard-rock mining companies and coal-burning
power plants Hard-rock mining companies and coal-burning power plants are America's largest toxic polluters, responsible for nearly two-thirds of the poisonous contaminants in the nation's air and water, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday. In its most comprehensive inventory of pollution and its sources, the EPA said mining of hard-rock minerals — gold, silver, uranium, copper, lead, zinc, and molybdenum — was responsible for 3.4 billion pounds of toxic pollutants in 2000. Coal-burning electric generating plants were responsible for another 1.2 billion pounds. See also: The news item refers to the recent release of the 2000 Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data. The TRI website can be viewed here.
Title: Bush
administration to reopen to mining area considered for national monument
The Bush administration will open most of the 1.2 million acres of federal land in southwestern Oregon to mining claims, drawing the ire of environmentalists who say the action threatens salmon and steelhead protected by the Endangered Species Act.
Title: Executive:
'Big Coal' Swayed Bush A member of a government advisory committee on coal charged last year that President Bush's decision to reverse himself on a campaign pledge to reduce carbon dioxide emissions was a "monumental mistake" that resulted from vigorous coal industry pressure, newly disclosed documents show.
Title:
"Living
and Dying in Libby" - Photo-essay on the effects of Asbestos
Contamination "Living and Dying in Libby" is an award winning photo-essay documenting the effects of asbestos on the town of Libby, Montana. The town has been contaminated by the operation of a nearby vermiculite mine leaving 33% of the population with lung abnormalities. The photo-essay was part of a portfolio by Brian Plonka, a photographer for The Spokesman-Review, that won the Pictures of the Year International (POYI) 'Newspaper Photographer of the Year' award. The photo-essay can be viewed on the POYI website.
Title: U.S.
House bill would toughen hard-rock mining rules An 1872 mining law criticized by green groups for giving U.S. companies cheap, easy access to federal land would be tightened under a bipartisan proposal offered by House lawmakers Thursday. The bill would hold mining companies more accountable for environmental damage, requiring them to pay an 8 percent royalty to the government for clean-up of harsh chemicals used in removing minerals such as gold, silver, and copper.
Title: US Office
of Surface Mining (OSM) Issues Advance Notice of Proposed Rule Making
on Financial Assurance Mechanisms for Treatment of Long-Term and Discharges Advance notice is given of a proposed rulemaking by the Office of Surface Mining (OSM), US Department of the Interior to seek comments on bonding issues and other financial assurance mechanisms for treatment of long-term acid or toxic mine drainage (AMD) that develop as a result of surface coal mining operations. Comments are sought on what types of financial guarantees will best ensure adequate funding for the treatment of unanticipated long-term pollution discharges, including acid or toxic mine drainage, that develop as a result of surface coal mining operations. OSM is specifically
interested in views from all parties on how OSM can best address the proper
level of treatment and number of years to use in calculating financial
assurance amounts for AMD, appropriate financial mechanisms to cover treatment
costs, and suggestions of appropriate enforcement in cases where financial
assurance is not fully adequate for the long term, but AMD is still being Comments may be mailed to the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, Administrative Record, Room 101, 1951Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20240. You may also e-mail comments to osmrules@osmre.gov. Comments must be recived within 60 days of May 17, 2002. For further information contact: Ruth Stokes, Program Support Directorate,
Title: Abandoned
mines said gigantic environment problem The environmental
and social costs of closing and rehabilitating old and abandoned mines
around the world are likely in the trillions of dollars, and far beyond
the capability of mining companies alone to deal with, Sir Robert Wilson,
chairman of London-based metals giant Rio Tinto Plc said this week. Wilson told Reuters at the Global Mining Initiative conference on sustainable development in Toronto that a recent estimate puts rehabilitation costs just in the United States, where regulation is stricter than in many other countries, at $35 billion. "If you look at where the real problems are, in Russia, Eastern Europe, South Africa, India, China, the extent of the (mine) legacy issues is enormous, and it's totally beyond the capability of this industry, either financially or technically, to make a meaningful contribution to that," Wilson said.
Title: Top
miners pledge steps to sustainable development The three-day Global Mining Initiative conference in Toronto, that drew a host of Chief executives from the world's top mining companies, ended yesterday with pledges that the industry is in the process of mending its social and environmental ways, but with no concrete action plan on how this is to be performed.
Title: Mining
sector aims to be kinder, gentler, greener The mining industry
moved to put another nail in the coffin of its swashbuckling past on Monday,
opening a major conference designed give it a kinder, gentler and greener
face - even starting the event with an Ojibwa prayer to the new day, delivered
by a member of the Mississauga Indian nation. About 570 members of the world's mining elite, and some of their harshest critics, started the three-day Global Mining Initiative conference in Toronto that will try to shine up what the sector now willingly admits is a tarnished social and environmental reputation. The conference is being held ahead of the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August.
Title: A
Bad Law's Birthday in U.S. Last week marked the 130th anniversary of a destructive relic known as
the General Mining Law of 1872. The event went unheralded by both the
environmental community, which hates the law, and the mining industry,
which loves the law but would be happy if nobody noticed it. Nevertheless,
a few adventurous members of Congress have now embarked on the first serious
effort since 1994 to rewrite the law, which has done more than any
Title: Mining
Firm May Face Charges After Eagle Rescue in U.S. Eight bald eagles became mired in a mining company's silt pit near the Potomac River in Charles County last week, resulting in a multi-agency helicopter rescue and the possibility of federal charges against the company.
Title:
Ruling
bars permits allowing mountaintop mining in US A federal judge's ruling that bans the dumping of waste from mountaintop coal mining into streams was hailed by environmentalists as a victory for the waterways of Appalachia, but attacked by miners as a threat to the industry. See also: Title: US
jewellery firm resumes Tanzanite sales Zales, the owner of some of the leading US shopping mall jewellery stores, has become the first retailer to lift the boycott of the gemstone Tanzanite. Zales, Tiffany and QVC - who make up the world's largest market for Tanzanite - stopped selling the gemstone last year after The Wall Street Journal claimed proceeds from its sale were funding supporters of Osama bin Laden. Title: US
gov't urged to set emission rules for coal - study U.S. coal-fired utilities
are pushing the federal government to set emissions standards before they
will invest in new technology to cut pollution, a study by a government
advisory council said yesterday. The National Coal
Council, a collection of coal producers, utilities, interest groups and
academic experts, said in a report to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham
that technology for cleaner coal is essential if coal is to compete with
natural gas on a cost of electricity basis. Title: ExxonMobil
rubbishes green investor report ExxonMobil Corp, the world's biggest oil company, labelled as "ridiculous" a report by a group of dissident investors that the company's stance on global warming hurt shareholder value. The report said the oil giant's approach to climate change could cost the company dearly in the future if it failed to diversify into renewable energy and end its dependence on big oil. Title: INSIDE
TRACK: Prospecting for mining balance: VIEWPOINT SIR ROBERT WILSON: A
global initiative aims to improve the sector's sustainable development
record The resources industry is an essential pillar of economic activity, but it can also be a source of social and environmental problems. Mining companies have sometimes been too slow in reacting to society's calls for improvements in corporate social responsibility. But compliance with the law is not enough. We must respond to demands for higher environmental and social standards, and greater transparency in accounting for performance. That is why Rio Tinto joined others in the industry in setting up the Global Mining Initiative (GMI). See the article for the full text. Title: New
Proposal to Aid Mountaintop Mining The Bush administration
is considering a second rule change that environmentalists say will further
encourage mountaintop mining, an efficient but destructive way to get
coal. The proposal by the Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining
would exempt mountaintop mining from a rule banning coal mining within
100 feet of streams. Mountaintop mining, most prevalent in Kentucky and
West Virginia, involves shearing off the tops of ridges to expose coal
seams. Dirt and rocks are pushed into nearby stream beds, a practice known
as valley fill. Title: US
EPA moves to allow mine dumping in waterways The US Environmental Protection Agency has drafted new rules that would let mining companies dump waste from mountaintop coal mining operations into rivers and streams, The Washington Post reported last week. Mountaintop coal mining has been limited by federal rules and court challenges aimed at restricting how much of the waste from these operations can be dumped in waterways. Related Articles: "Rule Could Let Mine Debris Fill in Valleys and Streams" "EPA
Would Allow Mine Dumping in Waterways" Title: Kentucky
Shifts on Coal Mine Disease A surprising change of heart by Gov. Paul Patton and overwhelming support from the Kentucky General Assembly made it easier for sick miners to qualify for black lung benefits. Under the law, a miner with any X-ray evidence of black lung -- even with no breathing impairment -- would be eligible for retraining benefits worth nearly $65,000 over four years. See also a related article: "Former mine workers fight for black lung benefits" Title: Turkey
manure turns old mine into wetland in USA The transformation of one of the state's (Indiana, USA) largest abandoned coal mines into a wetland is relying on an unusual ingredient -- about 1,200 truckloads of turkey manure. The turkey manure - with its high nitrogen content - will be used to fertilize the wetlands, which are designed as a passive treatment system to purify acidic mine run-off water. Title: Protesters
slam Placer Dome Protesters and environmentalists
slammed mining giant Placer Dome
Inc. at the company's annual general meeting in Vancouver yesterday,
accusing the Title: Teck-Cominco
fined for accident at Trail plant in Canada Safety regulators
fined Teck-Cominco Ltd. C$270,000 ($172,000) last week for an accident
last year at the company's Trail, British Columbia, Canada lead smelter
that exposed workers to toxic thallium. The province's Workers Compensation Board cited the company and several subcontractors involved in a repair project for problems including poor communications and an inadequate hazards assessment. Title: U.S.
Expands Mining in Florida Everglades The Army Corps of Engineers has issued permits for mining in 5,409 acres in the Everglades, more than doubling the amount of limestone quarries in the protected wetlands. Officials said the $46 million in permit fees would go toward buying and improving another 7,500 acres of wetlands nearby. Environmentalists said that the expanded mining could endanger drinking water and harm efforts to restore the Everglades. See also a related article: http://www.cnn.com/2002/TRAVEL/NEWS/04/12/everglades.mining.ap/index.html Title: Report
cites $54 bln in wasteful US gov't projects The U.S. government could save $54 billion over five years by cutting spending for coal and nuclear technologies, road construction in forests and more than 70 other programs that are wasteful and damage the environment, interest groups said yesterday. For instance, the 1872 Mining Law that allows mining companies to remove minerals from publicly owned lands without paying royalties to the government. Green Scissors proposal includes implementing a royalty fee that could raise $394 million over five years. The Green Scissors 2002 report can be downloaded from: http://www.greenscissors.org/publications/gs2002411.pdf Title: Public
Debates Alberta, Canada Wetland Protection Plan A government plan
protecting a Northern Alberta wetland was debated at an open house this
week after environmentalists said the province is ignoring its own rules
over a billion-barrel oil-sands project. TrueNorth Energy is proposing
to mine in a protected wetland near McClelland Lake, about 450 kilometres
northeast of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada. Title: Obliterating
U.S. Clean Water The ancient mountains
and pristine streams of Appalachia are being destroyed by a form of coal
mining known as "mountaintop removal." The name all too literally
describes this devastating practice in which mining companies blow off
hundreds of feet from the tops of mountains to reach the thin seams of
coal beneath, creating hundreds of millions of tons of waste that is then
dumped into nearby valleys and streams. Title: USA
Appalachians have 66 billion tons of coal The United States has "sufficient" coal reserves buried in the Appalachian Mountains to meet the country's growing electricity needs, according to a government study released last week. Coal has long been criticized by environmental groups for spewing tons of pollutants into the air that contribute to global warming. Coal emissions have been cut significantly during the last 30 years, and the Bush administration has earmarked millions of dollars to further reduce pollutants. Title: Ontario,
Canada Mining Environment Policy The Ontario Mining
Association (OMA) supports the goal of environmentally sustainable economic
development, which ensures that the utilisation of resources and the environment
today does not damage prospects for their use by future generations. The
OMA requires its members to act responsibly to mitigate any adverse environmental
impacts arising from their activities. Title: Montana
Companies Agree to Clean-Up Mining companies have agreed to pay $87 million to build and run a plant to treat highly toxic water that is rising in an open-pit copper mine in Butte. The companies, Atlantic Richfield Company and Montana Resources, pledged the money in a consent decree with the government that was filed in Federal District Court. The mine, Berkeley Pit, is one of the largest bodies of contaminated water in the United States. Title: Inco
ordered to clean up polluted properties in Canada Inco Ltd. was ordered last week to clean up 25 homes polluted by its nickel refinery in Port Colborne, Ontario, in an ongoing dispute that has pitted the mining giant against angry residents of the small town on the shores of Lake Erie. The orders compel Inco to clean up the properties in the town's Rodney Street area which the province said have "unacceptable nickel levels in the soil". Title: Lead
Company to Buy Homes Near Smelter The Doe Run Company will offer to buy the property of about 160 homeowners living near the company's lead smelter in Herculaneum, Missouri, USA. After a six hour meeting between Doe Run officials and government representatives last Thursday, Doe Run announced that it would offer buyouts to families with children younger than age six within a specific geographic area around the smelter and slag pile. "My concern has always been the children of Herculaneum, and this agreement will result in immediate action to protect the children at greatest risk," said Missouri Governor Bob Holden, who arranged the negotiations. "This agreement is truly extraordinary. All of the parties involved demonstrated their commitment to making significant progress in resolving this critical health issue." Holden called for immediate action after a recent state health study revealed that more than half of the children tested living within a half mile of the smelter had elevated blood lead levels. Exposure to lead exposure has been linked to developmental and neurological impairment in children, mental retardation, poor academic performance and juvenile delinquency. For the full news article. Title: Opposition
Revived Over Scaled-Down Mining Plan in USA When the state and federal governments purchased more than 1,200 forested acres at Douglas Point last year, an environmental citizens group that for months fought a mining company's proposal to dig there celebrated a victory. Last week the company filed another application to mine that parcel, and members of the citizens group said they are gearing up for Round 2. Title: Alabama
Coal Giant Is Sued Over 3 Killings in Colombia The state's largest mining business, the Drummond Company, has been accused of encouraging the assassination of three union leaders at its giant coal mine in Colombia. In a federal lawsuit filed here last week, a union in Colombia and the families of the dead leaders assert that Drummond's Colombian managers signaled paramilitary gunmen that they wanted the officials killed. Unions from Colombia have filed suits against Drummond and a handful of other American companies doing business in that country, hoping to create legal and public pressure to stop the assassinations. In the last decade, more than 1,500 union officials have been killed in Colombia, where leftist guerrillas are battling the government and business. "We have evidence
that the paramilitaries who killed the three union leaders were in fact
working for Drummond," said Terry Collingsworth, president of the
International Labor Rights Fund,
a Washington advocacy group that has worked with the United
Steelworkers of America in suing Drummond. For the full news article. See also a related article by the BBC World Service. Title: In
Twist, Idahoans Fight Toxic Cleanup The US federal government wants to spend big money in the Idaho Panhandle — as much as $1.3 billion over several decades — to clean up toxic mining waste in the Coeur d'Alene River Basin. Convinced that the government's plan is a huge overreaction and that designation of the area as a Superfund site would frighten away tourists and new businesses, many towns have joined a lawsuit to block expansion of the cleanup. Title: New Canadian parks and reserves
protected from mining! Ontario’s 378 new
parks and reserves created through the Ontario’s Living Legacy (OLL) plan
have just received some good news. There will be no further mineral exploration
permitted within parks and conservation reserves. Title: Canadian
Mining city says that it digs wind power After years of being maligned for its slag, smokestacks and a terrain often described as a moonscape, Sudbury wants to be known as a green-power pioneer. The Northern Ontario mining city wants to build a wind farm -- windmills producing electricity -- and is shopping for business partners with ideas on how to do it. Title: Virginia
County Delays Ruling on Strip Mine The Orange County Board of Supervisors postponed its vote tonight on a proposal by a brick company to dig a strip mine on an agriculturally zoned tract in the picturesque tourist town of Barboursville, USA, about 100 miles southwest of Washington D.C.. Opponents argued that mining activity in Barboursville would deter visitors, pollute the environment and impede traffic.
Title: Battle
for Oil-rich Canadian Island The Haida Indians of Queen Charlotte Island off the northern Pacific Ocean coast of Canada have begun a major court battle that could result in significant changes to land claims in the country. If the courts agree, it will force the government to involve the Haida in every level of land and resource planning. The island is rich in natural resources such as oil and forest. The full news article can be viewed here. Title: Winning in industry doesn’t
have to mean wasting the environment At various times in recent decades, mining and pulp and paper companies threatened to kill jobs if regulations were to prevent them from choking the air and the water with poison. This year, the tried and trusted strategy is back in force. Article no longer available online. Title: Bush
Proposing to Shift Burden of Toxic Cleanups to Taxpayers Faced with dwindling reserves in the huge account that gave the Superfund waste cleanup program its name, the Bush administration has decided to designate fewer contaminated sites for restoration and to shift the bulk of the costs from industry to taxpayers. For years Congress has failed to reach agreement on reauthorizing the tax on industry that used to be the source of money for the Superfund, which was founded in 1980 under the slogan "the polluter pays." The trust fund used the special corporate taxes to clean up contamination at so-called orphan sites, or those where the responsible party could not be identified or could not pay, as well as for recalcitrant companies and emergency action . Under pressure from the chemical and oil industries, Congress let the corporate taxes expire in 1995. Without them, the trust fund dwindled, from a high of $3.8 billion in 1996 to a projected $28 million next year. The Superfund sites include many former mining operations such as the two sites being considered by the EPA for addition this year. See the full article. Title: Changes
in World Economy on Raw Materials May Doom Many Towns "All along the nation's back roads, hundreds of towns like Brady, Texas, are teetering in the recession, and some worry that they may never recover. Uranium mining has stopped in Falls City, Texas. In Loving County, Texas, oil exploration has stalled. For farmers in Pima, Arizona, and Bartow, Georgia., cotton prices have sunk to 30-year lows. Here in Brady, the ranchers who raise goats for angora wool are victims of low prices and competition from New Zealand and Argentina. Stretched across the southern tier, from Arizona and New Mexico through Texas and Georgia and into Virginia, these small rural communities form the base of the national supply chain. They produce most of the oil and much of the ore, fiber and food. In past recessions, even if they did not bounce back entirely, at least they survived. But this time around,
as the overall economy begins to show some signs of healing, things are
ominously different in many of these towns." The full article discussing the effects of a globalised commodity market on US commodity suppliers is available for purchase from the New York Times here. Title: Decision
Expected on Missouri Lead Drilling Beneath the thick
curtain of evergreens runs a rich vein of lead ore, and the Doe Run Co.
wants to drill up to 232 holes in the Mark Twain National Forest in southeastern
Missouri to prospect for possible sites for mining. Critics worry that
the area's porous limestone could allow any mining contamination to pollute
watersheds miles away. Title: Cuts
won't cost layoffs, Canada's Inco says
The $75-million (U.S.)
in annual cost cuts being imposed by Inco.
Ltd. will be done through attrition and other initiatives, with no
major layoffs planned, the company and its key union said yesterday. Title: U.S.
blue chips end up on asbestos talk
Blue-chip stocks rose
on Friday amid speculation the Bush administration may move to limit liability
for asbestos lawsuits. Shares of manufacturing giants Halliburton Co.,
Dow Chemical Co. and Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co. gained. Topping
the list of gainers on the New York Stock Exchange were companies facing
asbestos liabilities. Title: Wilderness
Above, A Mine Below and a Furor in the US
Last month federal and state regulators granted a permit for a giant silver and copper mine that would burrow a length of three miles under a federal wilderness area, 900 feet below the snowy ridges and the lodgepole pine. The result would be one of the largest underground mines in North America and make this the first time the government had permitted large-scale mining beneath a wilderness area. Title: Lawsuit
Filed Against Mining Companies (US) A lawsuit has been filed against mining companies in northern Idaho's Silver Valley, alleging lead contamination of the air and water that has damaged the health of as many as 100,000 residents. Related Articles: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/09/national/09BRFS.html http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/01/09/silvervalleylawsuit.ap/index.html
Title: New
Technique uses Plants for Alternative Mining
USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has teamed with Viridian Resources, L.L.C., of Houston, Texas, the University of Maryland, Oregon State University and the UK's University of Sheffield to develop phytomining. In this process, metal-loving plants can be used to extract useful amounts of nickel and other metals from the earth without machinery. Title: Tribe
Prepared for Renewed Fight over Gold Mine in California
Glamis Gold Ltd. wants to dig a 1,600-acre, open-pit gold mine. The company's eight-year effort gained ground two months ago when the Bush administration reversed a ruling by Bruce Babbitt, President Bill Clinton's interior secretary, that digging such a mine would rreparably harm the environment of the Quechan ancestral lands.
Title: Deaths
from Mining Accidents Sets New Low in the US Mining deaths fell
to a historic low in the United States last year. The
Title: Mining
Company Gets Protection in Legislation Pushed by Daschle in South Dakota,
USA
A mining company in South Dakota has tapped a rich vein of influence on Capitol Hill, turning to the Senate Democratic leader to obtain valuable help for a project in his state. With little debate, lawmakers agreed to relieve the company, Homestake Mining, of any legal liability that it might have for damage done to the environment in digging gold from the Black Hills over the last 125 years.
Title: Wise
pledges to spend more on mine safety The Charleston Gazette, November 19th, 2001. Gov. Bob Wise said Sunday he will ask the Legislature for more money for the state mine safety agency and pledged to pursue more aggressive regulation of industry contracting practices in an effort to eliminate mining fatalities. The full article is available. Title: Lawsuit
Claims New Mining Rules Aren'T Tough Enough Seattle Post, November 17th, 2001. Charging that new Bush administration rules governing hard-rock mining on public lands will stick taxpayers with cleanup costs for toxic messes, environmentalists sued yesterday to block the regulations from going into effect. The full article is available. Title: ExxonMobil
wins appeal against Exxon Valdez oil spill punitive damges award Economist.com, Business this Week summary, November 8th, 2001. ExxonMobil won an appeals-court ruling that a $5 billion punitive damages award for the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, made by a jury, was excessive. The award against the giant oil company is now likely to be reduced. Related articles from: Title: Miners
studying certification system: Code of conduct to ensure sustainable development National Post Online, November 6th, 2001. Several of world's biggest mining companies might adopt a certification system to insulate themselves from public relations disasters. Title: Pennsylvanians
Protest Unfair Mining Laws ENS, Ameriscan, November 6th, 2001. Tri-State Citizens Mining Network, along with residents of the coalfields, held a demonstration Saturday outside the office of Pennsylvania state Senator Barry Stout, urging support of the Coal Communities Fairness Act. The legislation, which will be introduced in the Pennsylvania General Assembly this fall, is intended to level the playing field for citizens whose lives and property are undermined, and to prevent excessive damage to the environment, homes, farms and highways by the coal industry. The full article is available on ENS, scroll towards the bottom of the page of articles. Title: US
to ease hard-rock mining rules – green groups Reuters News Service, Washington, October 25th, 2001. The Bush administration is set to abandon Clinton-era environmental restrictions on mining for gold, silver, copper and other metals on federal lands, green groups said yesterday. The centerpiece of the new regulations - giving the Interior secretary the power to block mining projects likely to cause "sustainable and irreparable" harm to the land - is in danger. Related articles from the New York Times on October 26th and October 29th and Edie Weekly on 2 November 2001. NAS Report - 'Hardrock
Mining on Federal Lands' 1999. Reviewed existing regulatory framework
and recommended a number of reforms.
Title: Restored
Mines Yield Jobs and a Healthier Future Ontario MNDM, September 20th, 2001. The abandoned Kam Kotia copper/zinc mine site near Timmins, Northern Ontario, Canada will be the biggest project funded this year under the Ontario government’s $27-million, four-year Abandoned Mines Rehabilitation Program. About forty abandoned mine sites have already been ehabilitated in the first two years of the program. The Kam Kotia mine site will be the biggest project of the 2001-2002 fiscal year. A press release on the abandoned mines program and photographs of the Kam Kotia mine are available.
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