More on the McArthur River

My father rang from Melbourne last night, a little exited. He just seen a story on the 7:30 report about the McArthur River Mine. There is an element of doubt about the wisdom of granting this mining lease and it's growing fast!




The current mine site


Last night I met with my local member Len Kiely who acknowledged Xstrata’s poor track record when it came to community involvement. He had visited the site during the wet (why? I did not ask) and conceded that a huge amount of water builds up over a very large area that the mine would be built in. He was sympathetic to some people’s fears about the validity of the mine and conceded that there might be considerable risks involved. However as far as he is concerned the government is following the correct process and the proposal (in theory) has been approved by the Minister for the Environment and is currently in the hands of the Minister for Mines Mr Chris Nat. He gave me little hope that there was any way of stopping the approval of the mine and indicated that as proper procedure had been followed he did not intend to go against the decision to mine if it were made.

I challenged him that if the mine was granted the plan is so ridiculous that his government would likely still be in office when the toxic mining waste hits the fan and their popularity might suffer terribly. I warned him that although there had only been a few people present at the day of action in front of Parliament house last week, momentum was growing and there will be more opposition and more action in the weeks to come.

Have we been given any reason to think we can trust Xstrata with the life of this River?

The ABC's 7:30 Report last night ran a 10 minute story on the issue and revealed a little bit of the history of the mine. They were originally granted the right to mine after the Keating Government, (in the interest of profiteering for maximum return and maximum damage) passed legislation that allowed for approval of mining leases prior to the submission of environmental impact reports or any of the other safeguards that the public require for sound decision making. Mines could then be fast tracked into operation and the paperwork and various reports could be submitted retrospectively. How arse up is that? But basically saying that our environmental measure have no real value and so can be disregarded and diluted into worthless pages of toilet paper.

The Mine's presence appears to have had no meaningful beneficial impact on the community of Borroloola and it's activities are threatening the very life blood of the people who live along the river.

Please look at these images taken from Google Earth.
You can easily see the tributaries diverging on the river all around the flood plain tht the mine site is nested on top of (and under). The river then flows into a large rock outcrop that must act as a bottle neck for all that water in the wet season causing it to bank up and collect in the area that the new mine is proposed. If you can imagine this scene in the wet it would look like an enormous dam, and Xstrata think they can build a mine at the bottom of it!




(The mine site is in the top right hand quarter of this image)


(Mine north of centre in this image)


Please send the Chief Minister and Minister for Mines and Energy a message.

http://www.ecnt.org/html/cur_mining_mcarthur_submit.html


You Can Make a Diference
We must act NOW