One year on, BHP Billiton held to account for the Samarco tailings dam disaster

Action outside BHP Billiton’s AGM in London, October 2016. Photo: London Mining Network

MEDIA RELEASE
17 November 2016
BHP Billiton’s AGM | Thursday 17^th November at 11 am | Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre

At the BHP Billiton Limited AGM in Brisbane this Thursday, dissident shareholders will challenge the company’s board over its response to the Samarco tailings dam disaster. The AGM is being held twelve months on from the disastrous collapse of the Fundão mining waste (‘tailings’) dam at the Samarco iron ore mine in Minas Gerais, Brazil, which is 50-50 owned by BHP Billiton and Brazilian mining giant Vale.

“The dam break led to the destruction of all forms of life in the region. Mud covered everything, resulting in 20 deaths and unmeasurable environmental destruction. We have seen whole communities destroyed by BHP Billiton and Vale’s operations. They have lost everything, without receiving any real compensation. Instead of reparations for the victims, what is becoming evident is the blatant corporate capture of our government by transnational companies”, said Rodrigo de Castro Amédée Péret, of the Churches and Mining Network in Latin America who attended the BHP Billiton London AGM.

The collapsed waste dam killed twenty people [1], left 700 people homeless and polluted hundreds of kilometres of the Rio Doce river valley. Following the 5 November, 2015 disaster, MAB (People Affected by Dams), a coalition of local communities impacted by Brazil’s thousands of dam projects, made four key demands of Samarco and parent companies BHP Billiton and Vale [2].

Natalie Lowrey, of Australia’s Mineral Policy Institute, said, “BHP Billiton and its associates at Samarco are ignoring those most affected – the people whose lives and livelihoods have been devastated by last year’s tailings dam collapse. The demands being made by MAB, the social movement of people affected by dams, should be accepted. People want meaningful participation in decision-making about the clean-up and compensation, and for everyone who has been affected to be recognised – the companies shouldn’t be picking and choosing who gets help.”

BHP Billiton living in la la land on uranium: mining giant faces difficult questions at its Annual General Meeting

MEDIA RELEASE

16^th November 2016

Nuclear Free activist, benny Zable outside BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam mine.

Company Directors of BHP Billiton will face some difficult questions tomorrow at the mining giants Annual General Meeting in Brisbane.  The operator of the Olympic Dam uranium mine in South Australia’s north has been receiving much attention over the past year after the tailings dam collapse at its jointly owned Samarco iron ore mine in Brazil in November 2015, causing what’s been described as the worst environmental disaster in Brazil’s history.

Anti-nuclear and social justice campaigner Adam Sharah is one of several delegates attending the meeting to challenge company directors on matters including the Samarco disaster and issues surrounding the Olympic Dam mine. Mr Sharah will question company directors about BHP Billiton’s position regarding nuclear regulation in Australia, new expansion plans for Olympic Dam, and plans to increase the height of the tailings dams at the mine.

Open letter from Mariana, Minas Gerais Brazil

An open letter to the International Community & Australian Parliament on the ongoing crisis in Brazil

The violence not seen: social and environmental damage, institutional fragilities and reparation duty

We, the undersigned members of Brazilian civil society, appeal to the Australian parliament to recognise the social, environmental and technological disaster caused by the collapse of BHP/Vale Samarco dam that released polluted mining tailings and destroyed townships and livelihoods in Brazil.

The disaster that occurred in Brazil on 5 November 2015 in the town of Mariana, Minas Gerais, is ongoing.

The Samarco mining company, 50% owned by Anglo-Australian BHP Billiton[1] and 50% by Brazilian Vale S.A., has been exploring iron ore in Brazil since 1977. The tailings from this exploration were stored in 3 dams, namely: Fundao, Germano and Santarem. The collapse of Fundao, which contained contaminated tailings, triggered the biggest social and environmental catastrophe ever faced by Brazilian society.

The fear of imminent dam collapse was already widespread amongst the inhabitants of the surrounding community, as shown in the 2012 doctorate thesis of the Brazilian sociologist Viana.[2]  As the fears of this community became reality, it is estimated that 62 thousand million cubic metres of polluting mining debris – the equivalent of 25 thousand Olympic sized pools – was spilled, destroying and contaminating everything in its path. [3]

This disaster transformed affected people into victims in many ways, compromising health, causing loss of life, the destruction of property and contamination of land that forms the basis of social, cultural and economic life. The damage sprawled for over 850 km, directly affecting hundreds of thousands of people.

BHP in Indonesian Borneo: the coal disaster waiting to happen

ABC News
19 November 2013

Endangered orangutans may be imperilled by a new coal development.
Credit: iStockphoto

BHP Billiton has a massive coal mine planned for Central Kalimantan. But local environmental activists are worried about its impact on people and forests.

FROM MY HOME IN Central Kalimantan, a province on the southern side of Indonesian Borneo, I have observed the Australian coal boom. Recently I was in Australia to talk about environmental destruction in Kalimantan and I was surprised how few people know that Kalimantan is experiencing a similar rush to extract fossil fuels. I think its important for Australians to know more because of the connections between our countries in the global coal market and the environmental crisis it is producing.

Indonesia Digging Up Too Much Coal: Greenpeace

 

BHP Billiton is among the mining companies mining coal in Kalimantan in Indonesia

Indonesia’s ambitious plans to boost coal production and exports from Kalimantan are ill-advised and not worth the environmental and social cost, according to a key report from Greenpeace.

In the “Point of No Return” report released last week, the environmental group said the Indonesian government was one of a handful of governments helping “push the world past the point of no return” by pursuing massive coal, oil and gas projects that would produce as much new carbon dioxide emissions in 2020 as the entire United States.

Mozambique smelting profits should not fill foreign coffers, say campaigners

The Guardian | Mark Tran | 8 Jan 2013

UK government and World Bank among investors accused of benefiting disproportionately from lucrative Mozal smelter

Tax campaigners are calling on Britain, the World Bank and private investors to return “excessive” profits from a flagship aluminium smelting project in Mozambique started as part of a recovery programme after the country’s civil war in the early 1990s.

According to a report by Jubilee Debt Campaign in the UK, the Tax Justice Network and Justica Ambiental (Friends of the Earth Mozambique), the Mozal smelter – the biggest private-sector project investment in the former Portuguese colony – has benefited foreign interests much more than the people of Mozambique.

Ok Tedi mine a curse

Ok Tedi exnvironmental disaster. Source: http://www.uwec.edu

Papua New Guinea’s Minister for Environment and Conservation, John Pundari, broke his silence on the Ok Tedi mining pollution issue, describing it as a “curse” on the Fly River people of Western province. He says he plans a visit to all impacted areas along the Ok Tedi and Fly River areas and intends to take along a contingent of international and national media to see for themselves the scale of damage. “The mine has been operating in the country for some 27 years, and while it has made a significant contribution to the development of our country, it has also brought a curse upon the people of Western in terms of the enormous environmental damage caused to the Fly River system,” Pundari said. Ok Tedi was constructed and originally run by BHP Billiton.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=12194.

Colombia: Coal mining unions support Cerrejon community resistance

From Mines and Communities

There has been massive support among local communities in Colombia for striking workers who have previously backed them in confronting the Cerrejon coal mining expansions.

The workers have rejected the company’s plan to divert the River Rancheria.

Meanwhile, an armed attack on mine property has been condemned by both major mining unions, SINTRACARBON and FUNTRAENERGETICA.

To show support for the workers, see http://londonminingnetwork.org/2013/02/take-action-to-support-mine-workers-hungry-villagers-in-colombia/.

Previous article on MAC: UK NGOs call for urgent action on Colombian mega-coal mine

See update on the strike at Mines and Communities

Cambodia: BHP accused of corrupt deal with Cambodia’s prime minister

Note from Mines and Communities

In May 2010, the world’s largest mining company, BHP-Billiton, was accused of bribing the Cambodian government four years earlier, by shelling out US$3.5 million which never appeared on government books – and didn’t result in any benefit to the country’s citizens.

The payments were said to have been made in pursuit of a bauxite mining concession on 100,000 hectares of land in Mondolkiri province, for which the company paid an additional US$ 1 million in 2006. See: BHP’s ‘tea money’ missing in Cambodia

These charges have recently re-surfaced with Cambodian prime minister, Hun Sen, being named as a beneficiary of the alleged corruption.

One Cambodian politician has described such illicit deals as “tea money”. 

Such a payment (if it occurred) is technically “small beer” for a company worth many billions of dollars. And BHP Billiton withdrew from the country in 2009.

Nonetheless it’s a highly serious matter, being regarded as such, at least by officials in Australia and the USA.

Japanese & Australian activist unfurl banner at BHP Sydney AGM