BY BERNIE WUNSCH
LISMORE — Recent heavy rainfall on New South Wales' north coast resulted in the flooding of the region. Lismore, Moree, Grafton and Coraki were under a metre of water. While the floods produced minor damage — and some fun for some residents — it almost produced an ecological disaster at the Timbarra gold mine.
As predicted by environmentalists, the rainfall caused holding dams, which had until recently contained several tonnes of sodium cyanide solution, to overflow into the Clarence River catchment. Even Lou Rozman, CEO of Delta Gold, reported that the company was "struggling with water at the mine site" and that it was "out of our hands to take further control".
The storms that hit the north coast the first major rainfall event since the Timbarra mine opened in 1999. They confirmed environmentalists' concerns about placing cyanide leach pads for gold extraction in such a high rainfall area.
The state government's Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) confirmed that water from the mine's storage dams overflowed and were released into Nelson Creek, which flows into the Timbarra River and then joins the Clarence River at Tabulum.
At the end of 1999, Ross Mining NL scaled down operations due to the drop in the gold price, problems with mine infrastructure, continuing court action by the traditional owners and sporadic protests. Delta Gold recently bought out Ross Mining.
Kate Kirkwood from the Alliance to Close Timbarra explained that "Fortunately, unlike when the mine was operating in 1999, the neutralisation of the cyanide solution was nearing completion". It seems that the Clarence River luckily escaped a disaster this time.
Ruth Rosenhek, a Rainforest Information Centre activist and a campaigner against the use of cyanide in gold mining, explained that, "If not for the brave efforts of those who have protested against this mine, with blockades, and court actions, it would be in production mode right now and we would be witnessing an eco-catastrophe much like the one in Romania, where tonnes of water laced with cyanide and heavy metals spilled into the Tisza and Danube rivers."
The EPA has repeatedly stated that the Timbarra mine poses minimal or no risk of releasing contaminants into the Clarence River system but many environmentalists and concerned citizens disagreed. Approval for the Timbarra gold mine was granted in April 1996 by the Department of Mineral Resources and has been monitored by the EPA. The mine was supposedly built to withstand a "one in 400 years rainfall event" but failed what was a one in 10 years event.
Even after this major failure, Delta Gold is to try to reopen the mine in the future and continue to use the cyanide process. Even with supposed redevelopment of the site, there is little evidence that there will be any improvement in the monitoring of the mine by government bodies or the commitment to the environment by the company.
The storms caused telephone lines, power and road access to be cut. Tenterfield police attempted to check on the mine but were unable to gain access because of the one-metre-deep water 600-700 metres from the gate.
"There are no emergency plans that cater to this kind of event", said Simon Smith, regional manager of the EPA in Armidale. "[The holding ponds were] chock-a-block full ... The good thing is that the cyanide readings [were] just a touch over detection level."
Smith explained that once the Timbarra mine was approved by the Department of mineral resources, the EPA had no power to reduce the operations of the mine.
Opponents of the mine are calling for the swift closure to the mine and the complete rehabilitation of the site. They are also calling for a ban on cyanide leach mining in NSW. The NSW Greens along with Friends of the Earth and the Rainforest Information Centre in Lismore have submitted a bill to this effect and it is to be discussed in state parliament.
There are two options facing the people of the north coast: force the closure of the Timbarra gold mine or allow the corporate rich to ecologically destroy the largest river system on the east coast of Australia.
[For further information, call Ruth Rosenhek at Rainforest Information Centre on (02) 6621 3294 or email <ruthr@ozemail.com.au>.]