European smelter will help PNG with Ok Tedi issue
The National, Copyright 2000
November 11, 2000
By HARLYNE JOKU
AN EXECUTIVE from leading European copper smelter Norddeutsche Affinerie AG (NA) of Germany has given an assurance in Port Moresby yesterday that NA will use its influence to convince BHP to pay for the damage caused to the environment and people and reach an amicable solution with all stakeholders before pulling out of Ok Tedi Mining Ltd (OTML).
Dr Michael Landau, a member of the executive board of NA, said it is known within the international mining industry that BHP wants to quit its shareholdings in OTML and is currently negotiating with its other partner shareholders, including the PNG government on the pullout.
BHP owns 52 per cent of the Ok Tedi mine while Canadian mining enterprise Inmet owns 18 per cent and the PNG government owns 30 per cent.
Dr Landau stressed that NA will use its influence and convince BHP to make a decision that would prove acceptable to all stakeholders.
"We have been talking to BHP and will continue our dialogue and relationship with them," he said.
He was responding to questions raised by The National yesterday about NA's view on BHP's decision to pull out of Ok Tedi.
Dr Landau, accompanied by two NA executives and two members of German environmental pressure groups, "Rettet die Elbe" ("Save the Elbe, a river in Germany) and the German Pacific Network, had visited the Ok Tedi mine and the Bige dredging site in the past two days.
They gave a media briefing about their findings yesterday at the Lamana convention centre.
Dr Landau said under a long-term contract, NA takes 80,000 tonnes of Ok Tedi concentrates per annum with a copper content of about 23,000 tonnes. This accounts for approximately 15 per cent of Ok Tedi's output, which makes it an important customer of OTML.
NA is also the leading copper smelter in Europe, which is the largest market for copper in the world, and has been in operation in Hamburg, Germany for 136 years.
Twenty years ago NA was severely criticised for polluting the city of Hamburg and the river Elbe with toxic metals and arsenic.
Since then NA has refurbished its facilities and applied better cleaning techniques. Today, it boasts of having the most environmental-friendly copper smelter in the world.
Dr Landau said measures taken to protect the environment usually taken at the other copper mines are not practical at the Ok Tedi mine due to the extreme geographical, geological and climatic conditions.
"Consequently, fine dead rock must be discharged into the river system, and this has an adverse impact on the waters and bordering shore regions.
"The measures implemented by the mine operators have led to an improvement, but have not brought about a fundamental solution to the environmental problems," Dr Landau said.