Stanbroke Pastoral Company has lodged\u00a0documents with the Brisbane Supreme Court to sue Xstrata’s Ernest Henry Mining Pty Ltd (EHM)\u00a0for\u00a0just under $2 million ($1,989,520) to cover environmental damage caused by negligence, plus interest and costs.\u00a0 The Ernest Henry mine is located\u00a038km north of Cloncurry (North West Queensland) and it is within the boundaries of the Stanbroke-owned cattle station, Fort Constantine.<\/p>\n
After heavy rain in early 2009 heavy metals leaked from\u00a0Ernest Henry gold & copper mine\u00a0water storages into two watercourses that run through Fort Constantine Station.\u00a0 The minerals include\u00a0arsenic, lead, copper, cobalt and chloride.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0state government Department of Environment & Resource Management (DERM) is also pursuing Ernest Henry Mining over the same spill, and\u00a0four other mining companies for environmental damage elsewhere.\u00a0 These are:\u00a0 Australia Raw Materials Corporation Pty Ltd (Great Australia Mine), the Lady Annie Mine (parent company CopperCo Ltd), MMG Century Ltd (Century Mine) and Birla Mt Gordon Pty Ltd.<\/p>\n
Pastoralists all over Australia will be watching the Stanbroke Vs Ernest Henry Mine case with a great deal of\u00a0interest.\u00a0 There is a perception in the bush that while pastoralists are not even allowed to cut down a\u00a0tree or two for\u00a0any purpose including fencing, mining companies can pretty well behave as they please, with impunity.\u00a0 Flying over thousands of square miles of shot lines crossing fragile creeks and gullies is perhaps the best illustration.\u00a0 Mining activity has caused damage of varying degrees and types\u00a0to pastoral land\u00a0all over Australia.\u00a0 Damage ranges from groundwater contamination and water table lowering (including the Great Artesian Basin), surface water use and pollution, air pollution from smelter discharges, and the degradation\/pollution of food-producing land and the natural environment (soil and creeks\/rivers). \u00a0Stanbroke are to be commended for pursuing this case, as action like this will help throw the spotlight on issues gnawing away at many landholders, and help ensure mining companies take more care in future.<\/p>\n
To\u00a0explain away leaking tailings dam pollution by saying that the rainfall was ‘unprecedented’ and ‘unexpected’ etc is absolutely pathetic.\u00a0\u00a0We all know how erratic\u00a0Australian rainfall is and that\u00a0it is not uncommon for most parts of Australia\u00a0to\u00a0receive their whole annual rainfall within just a few days – from Melbourne to Cairns to Broome and all points inbetween.\u00a0 Our oldest rainfall records only date back slightly more than a couple of centuries so it’s simply unacceptable to claim that because one rainfall event broke a record that is only 200 years old (or even less than 130 years old, in the case of most of northern Australia), they should be excused from environmental care and responsibility.\u00a0 Weather patterns consist of small and large cycles – from daily cycles right up to long term cycles over thousands of years.\u00a0 A century or two of records\u00a0is a mere fly spot on the earth’s calendar.<\/p>\n
Miners, of all people, are completely aware of the age of the earth and climatic variability because the minerals they’re digging up are millions of years old (an estimaged 1500 million years ago, in the case of Ernest Henry),\u00a0laid down when the region’s climate was very different.\u00a0 For mining companies to claim that heavy rainfall was a surprise when they’re digging up something created when the area was a rainforest or under the sea, is simply laughable.\u00a0 There isn’t any other group in society that is faced with such a degree of daily first hand evidence of the changing environment as much as miners.<\/p>\n
Go Stanbroke, it won’t just be the Cloncurry and Gulf Pastoralists cheering for you, it will be every property owner who has ever been affected by mining activity.\u00a0\u00a0Plus everyone who has wondered why, when it comes to looking after the earth and water supplies, there is one rule for some and one rule for others.<\/p>\n