03/23/00 -- Potentially Deadly Cyanide Spill in Papua New Guinea, Cleanup Underway

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PAPUA NEW GUINEA RAINFOREST & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CAMPAIGN NEWS

Potentially Deadly Cyanide Spill, Cleanup Underway

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3/23/00

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ITEM #1

Title: Deadly cyanide washes into PNG river

Source: Reuters

Date: March 23, 2000

Deadly sodium cyanide accidentally dropped from a helicopter in Papua

New Guinea has seeped into a river and villagers in the area have been

warned not to drink the water.

Tuesday's spill comes as another blow to the reputation of Australian

mining firms after a major cyanide spill from a half-owned Australian

gold mine in Romania in January.

Up to 70 percent of one ton of poison pellets had been recovered from

dense jungle about 85 kilometers (50 miles) north of the Papua New

Guinea capital Port Moresby but rains had washed some into a nearby

river, said the Australian mining company involved. "Something like

100 to 150 kilos (220 to 330 pounds) would probably have dissolved,"

said Dome Resources managing director Michael

Silver.

The U.S. National Academy of Sciences says ingestion or exposure to

cyanide through eye or skin contact can be fatal, adding exposure to

as little as 50 mg to 150 mg can cause immediate death.

A crate of cyanide pellets, suspended below a helicopter, dropped

while being flown to Dome Resources' Tolukuma mine on Tuesday. Dome's

Silver said he believed the cyanide now in the river system would not

pose a risk to villagers downstream or wildlife as it would be

substantially diluted in the river system.

No reports of deaths

But emergency services are continuing to warn people not to drink the

water.

"There have been no reports of poisoning of people or dead fish,"

Martin Mose, deputy director of Papua New Guinea's emergency services

told Reuters.

"But we have issued a precautionary warning for villagers not to drink

any river water in the area just in case."

The mining company said its decontamination team had collected into

sealed containers all visible cyanide pellets where the incident

occurred and this material was being taken to the mine.

"Any danger from cyanide causes us great concern where it's not

controlled," said Silver. "Hopefully, there'll be absolutely no danger

to any of the local population."

Dome said testing of the stream below the accident site showed traces

of cyanide and the stream had been flushed with neutralizing

chemicals, also used to clean-up cyanide on land.

"The results of our testing below the site are encouraging. We believe

that there will be no significant damage to the river environment,"

said Silver, adding that Dome's operations manager had drunk water

downstream and "found it to be clean."

Accidents happen

But Silver said he could not guarantee it would not have an impact.

"One cannot guarantee anything. Accidents happen, unfortunately mining

can be a dangerous occupation and you can have people unfortunately

being injured all the time."

The decontamination operation should be completed by late Thursday or

early Friday. "By the end of today or tomorrow we will have cleaned

the site up as best that we can," Silver said.

Silver did not say what caused the crate of cyanide to fall.

"It was a very unusual incident," he said, adding that all equipment

and goods had to be flown into the remote mine.

The Papua New Guinea government has ordered an investigation.

Australia mining company Esmeralda Exploration Ltd. went into

voluntary administration this month after cyanide spilled from a

tailings dam in January at its Baia Mare gold mine in Romania, causing

one of the worst environmental river disasters in Europe.

More than 100,000 cubic meters of cyanide-tainted water leaked from

the dam and was blamed for thousands of fish and bird deaths in the

Tisza and Danube Rivers which flow through Romania, Hungry and Serbia.

Australian miners have had a checkered environmental history in PNG,

with The BHP Co Ltd. facing a massive clean-up bill after decades of

deadly waste flowed unchecked from its gold and copper Ok Tedi mine

into rivers.

ITEM #2

Title: Cyanide decontamination begins in Papua New Guinea

Source: Reuters

Date: March 23, 2000

SYDNEY - Teams moved yesterday to contain a potentially deadly one-

tonne consignment of sodium cyanide pellets that were accidentally

dropped from a helicopter in rugged terrain in Papua New Guinea.

Most of the pellets - destined for Australia's Dome Resources's

Tolukuma gold mine - were intact and a clean up operation would be

undertaken in coming hours, Dome's Managing Director Michael Silver

said.

Silver said the area of contamination appeared to be contained 1,250

square metres.

The PNG national Disaster and Emergency Service issued a warning not

to drink water from natural sources in the region.

"As with any disaster of this type it's probably not safe to drink

water from natural sources in the area," Silver added.

Environmental group Greenpeace said the type of cyanide being

transported was concentrated and perhaps more potent than the cyanide

spill from a gold mine in Romania in January that caused one of the

worst environmental river disasters in Europe.

"Sodium cyanide will dissolve quite quickly and that would spell

trouble," said Mark Oakwood, a toxic spill specialist for Greenpeace.

FEAR OF RAIN

The cyanide crate fell from the helicopter on Tuesday about 85 km (50

miles) north of Papua New Guinea's capital, Port Moresby.

An air and ground search was launched on Tuesday to find the cyanide

but it took more than 24 hours before the deadly material was located.

Cyanide is used to process gold ore.

"The cyanide was found in an area heavily covered by vegetation and

not close to any areas of habitation, gardens or village water

sources," Dome said in the statement to the Australian Stock Exchange

on Wednesday.

"The strategy will be to recover all the cyanide that can be gathered

up and thoroughly decontaminate the area," it said.

Silver later said the company planned to remove the top 10 centimetres

of soil from the contaminated area and replace it with a counter-

acting agent, ferrous sulphate, to neutralise any lingering cyanide.

Two river systems, the Angabanga and the Mekeo, are downstream of the

Tolukuma gold mine site.

Environmentalists said they were concerned that monsoon rains would

cause uncovered pellets to dissolve and unleash the poisonous

substance into the soil and river systems.

Asked whether the deadly poison threatened villages or rivers in the

area, Kuma Aua, secretary of the PNG mines department said: "I don't

know. My inspectors are on their way up there now. We have never had a

cyanide spill before".

Environmental experts said cyanide attacks the environment more

quickly than the slow destructive pattern of waste generated over

decades from the steady discharge of heavy metals from mining

operations.

"Cyanide never leaves the environment, it just gets absorbed into

living matter," Nina Lansbury, researcher for the Minerals Policy

Institute, a mining industry environmental watchdog.

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