Olympic Dam uranium / copper mine

Information about the mine expansion approval process and the amended Roxby Downs Indenture Act

More information on the Roxby Downs Indenture Act

Lizards Revenge protest at Olympic Dam, July 2012 www.lizardsrevenge.net

Dr Gavin Mudd's report on the option of exporting copper, gold and silver but not uranium from Olympic Dam

Alternative Annuals Reports (PDF): 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

Greenhouse emissions - Olympic Dam mine expansion (PDF) - technical paper by Dr Gavin Mudd, Monash University

Radiation leak plan 15 years out of date

2008 Annual General Meeting - statement by Kevin Buzzacott, and some media articles

WMC's racism in the 1990s - Jan Whyte and Ila Marks look at how WMC's activities divide Aboriginal people. Also: 1995 ABC Radio National Background Briefing story about the outbreak of violence in Marree and its connection to the Roxby Downs mine.

Detailed report on Mound Springs and the Roxby mine's impacts on them (PDF) By Daniel Keane, 1997

Another report on Mound Springs and the Roxby mine's impacts on them (PDF) By Gavin Mudd

Massive energy consumption and greenhouse emissions.

Bird deaths from the tailings dam

Accidents and incidents 2003-08 (PDF). From the SA government: http://outernode.pir.sa.gov.au/minerals/mines__and__developing_projects/approved_mines/olympic_dam/olympic_dam_incident_summary_2003_-_2009

SA Parliamentary Inquiry Into The Tailings System Leakage - In 1994, WMC reported that up to 5 million cubic metres of liquid had leaked from it's Tailings Retention System at Olympic Dam. According to WMC the leak had been happening for at least 2 years but only became fully understood in January 1994.

Roxby timeline + accidents 1987-2001

Environmental Impacts Statement - submission by Friends of the Earth, Adelaide. August 2009 (PDF)

BHP Billiton's operations overseas - undermining the future

OLYMPIC DAM - SUMMARY OF MAJOR CONCERNS

Olympic Dam is a state within a state; it operates under a unique set of laws enshrined in the amended Roxby Downs Indenture Act. That would be unobjectionable except that the Indenture Act allows Olympic Dam wide-ranging exemptions from environmental laws, water management laws and Aboriginal Heritage laws − and for good measure it curtails the application of the Freedom of Information Act.

SA Liberal Party industry spokesperson Martin Hamilton-Smith − no friend of anyone who will be converging on the mine site later this week − said "every word of the [Indenture] agreement favours BHP, not South Australians." It beggars belief that the SA Labor government would agree to such one-sided terms; and it beggars belief that Mr Hamilton-Smith and his Liberal colleagues waved it through Parliament with no amendments.

The only politician to insist on some scrutiny of the amended Indenture Act was SA Greens MLC Mark Parnell. He was accused of holding the state's economy to ransom. Yet the transcripts of his late-night Parliamentary questioning of the Labor government ought to be required reading (see here and here). Time and time again the government spokesperson said that BHP wanted such-and-such a provision in the Indenture Act, and the government simply agreed without further consideration or consultation.

For example, Parnell asked why the Indenture Act retains exemptions from the SA Aboriginal Heritage Act. The government spokesperson said: "BHP were satisfied with the current arrangements and insisted on the continuation of these arrangements, and the government did not consult further than that."

In a scathing assessment of the Olympic Dam royalties regime enshrined in the Indenture Act, journalist Paul Clearly wrote in The Australian on October 21 that the regime "has robbed the state's citizens and all Australians of the opportunity to share in the profits of what will become the world's biggest mine." He added that the agreement "will unfortunately stand as a sad and enduring indictment of the weakness of our state governments when it comes to negotiating with powerful mining multinationals."

Olympic Dam is a state within a state − and it has shades of a Stalinist state. When a mine worker provided the media with photos of multiple leaks in the tailings dams in 2009, BHP's response was to threaten "disiplinary action" against any workers caught taking photos. The SA government was conspicuously silent. Have the leaks of toxic tailings liquid been fixed? Who knows. It would be naive to believe anything BHP or the state government has to say on the subject.

In 2010, another worker was sufficiently concerned about occupational health issues at Olympic Dam that he leaked information to the media. The leaked documents show that BHP uses manipulated averages and distorted sampling to ensure its official figures of worker radiation exposure slip under the maximum exposure levels set by government. Are those claims true? Who knows. It would be naive to believe anything BHP or the state government has to say on the subject.

The risks will escalate with plans for a massive expansion of the mine. The BHP whistleblower said. "Assertions of safety of workers made by BHP are not credible because they rely on assumptions rather than, for example, blood sampling and, crucially, an assumption that all workers wear a respirator when exposed to highly radioactive polonium dust in the smelter."

So there we have a couple of examples of serious concerns being raised by mine workers, with inadequate responses (or no response at all) by BHP and the SA government, and no way for any of us to get to the truth of the matter. Suffice it to mention one more. Mining consultants Advanced Geomechanics noted in a 2004 report that radioactive slurry was deposited "partially off" a lined area of a storage pond at Olympic Dam, contributing to greater seepage and rising ground water levels; that there is no agreed, accurate formula to determine the rate of evaporation of tailings and how much leaks into the ground; and that cells within a tailings pond covered an area more than three times greater than recommended, requiring "urgent remedial measures".

Have any of those problems been addressed? I doubt it. But we do know that the management of radioactive tailings has been an ongoing headache for decades and that the rate of production is set to go through the roof − from 10 million tonnes annually to 68 million tonnes. And we do know that BHP has responded to worker concerns about tailings mismanagement with intimidation instead of information.

The domestic problems with Australia's uranium industry are compounded by serious international problems. Australia has uranium export agreements with nuclear weapons states with no intention of meeting their Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty disarmament obligations; countries with a history of secret nuclear weapons research; countries that refuse to sign and ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty; countries blocking progress on the proposed Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty; undemocratic, and secretive states with appalling human rights records.

Both major parties now support the abandonment of previous policy of refusing uranium exports to countries that have not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty. And the federal government is planning to allow uranium sales to a Middle Eastern dictatorship − the United Arab Emirates. The last time Australia planned uranium sales to a Middle Eastern dictatorship was in late 1978 when the Fraser government was negotiating with the Shah of Iran − a few short months before his overthrow during the Iranian Revolution. You'd think we'd learn.

All of these uranium export agreements are accompanied by safeguards inspection regimes that are at best modest, sometimes tokenistic (e.g. China) and sometimes all but non-existent (e.g. Russia).

Australians are evenly divided on the topic of uranium mining; typically, polls find that a majority of Australians want existing uranium mines to be allowed to run their course but a majority want a ban on new uranium mines. A 2006 Newspoll found that a majority of Coalition voters − yes, Coalition voters − wanted a ban on new uranium mines, as did more than three-quarters of Labor voters. Recent polls indicate that two-thirds of Australians oppose uranium sales to nuclear weapons states and two-thirds oppose the plan to sell uranium to India − a country which has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty and is engaged in a nuclear arms race with Pakistan and China.

LIZARDS REVENGE AT THE OLYMPIC DAM URANIUM MINE

500+ brave souls participated in the Lizards Revenge protest at BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam uranium mine from July 11-20. The event was a huge success in drawing attention to the many problems with the mine. Hundreds of newspaper, radio and TV items provided opportunities to hold BHP Billiton and the SA and federal governments to account for racist policies (such as the mine's exemptions from the SA Aboriginal Heritage Act), grossly irresponsible environmental practices, and irresponsible export policies such as selling uranium to nuclear weapons states and dictatorships.

Lizard Revenge was also inspiring, educational and great fun for everyone who attended. Police behaviour was not as bad as it was at Beverley in 2000 but it was still heavy-handed, particularly the arrest of 18 protesters for innocuous stunts such as a 'Breakfast Not Bombs' event and a game of cricket on Olympic Way ('uranium is unAustralian, it's just not cricket and that's why we picket'). One batter played a delightful tickle to the fine-leg boundary only to be arrested moments later ... on 99 not out!

Details of post-Lizards debriefs and campaign planning meetings, and fundrazors for arrestees, will be posted at: lizardsrevenge.net/fundrazors. Please let [email protected] know about events in your town/city and he will upload details to that webpage. (Melbourne Lizards Revenge debrief − Sat Aug 4, 1pm at the Anarchist Book Fair.)

Huge thanks and congratulations to Uncle Kevin Buzzacott, Izzie Brown, Tully McIntyre, Nectaria Calan and Svea Pitman, and a big shout out to the Food Not Bombs kitchen crew, the Indig kitchen, the media team and everyone else who made Lizards Revenge such a success including the 500+ people who travelled huge distances to get to the gates of hell.

See www.lizardsrevenge.net for lots more information including photos, videos, media releases and media reports.

This is just the beginning of the Lizards Revenge, so spread the word, keep your eyes peeled and be ready to strike! If you're inspired to get active today (instead of radioactive tomorrow), find your local anti-nuclear campaign group at: www.foe.org.au/anti-nuclear/links#1

If you're not yet inspired then please i) browse some of the links below and ii) return to previous paragraph.

LIZARDS REVENGE WEBSITE & MULTIMEDIA

Web: www.lizardsrevenge.net

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lizardsrevenge

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/The-Lizards-Revenge/386464501416955

Facebook event page: www.facebook.com/events/224524544273924
Event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/224524544273924/

PHOTOS

http://lizardsrevenge.net/photos

flickr.com/photos/zebparkes/sets

http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/51648

http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/51658

VIDEOS ABOUT LIZARDS REVENGE