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MEDIA RELEASE
EXPORT DEVELOPMENT CANADA-BACKED MINE LEAVES A SEA OF CYANIDE:
Groups call on G8 Environment Ministers to Improve
Environmental Standards of Export Credit Agencies
For immediate release
Ottawa, April 10, 2002 - The Lihir gold
mine in Papua New Guinea is breaching the spirit of international
conventions on dumping waste at sea, yet it has been backed by public
export credit agencies, including EDC. The US export credit agency,
the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, turned down support for
this project on environmental grounds in 1996. Groups are calling on the G8 Environment Ministers, meeting this weekend in Banff,
to call for the highest common environmental standards for export
credit agencies.
"The environmental problems at the Lihir gold mine will not be
solved by weak environmental guidelines such as those that EDC has
adopted", says Melanie Quevillon, Coordinator of the NGO Working
Group on the EDC. "Commitments made at the G8 Environment Ministers
meeting are empty promises unless the
Ministers show commitment to get their own houses in order".
The mine is pumping 110 million cubic metres of waste, contaminated
with cyanide and other chemicals, into the sea each year through a
pipeline 125 metres beneath the surface. Another 20 million tonnes
of rock waste are dumped each year into Luise Harbour. A plume of
sediment from the seaside mine
extends two kilometres into the Pacific Ocean. Huge piles of rock
waste sit on reclaimed harbour that locals say was a breeding site
for endangered leatherback turtles. EDC provided a guarantee for $29.6
million.
In a story in the Australian Sydney Morning Herald, April 9, 2002,
residents near the mine are quoted as saying "The mine has failed
to provide the promised business spin-offs. Its benefits go offshore. Most people on Lihir now oppose
it. We think it is the next Bougainville." (Bougainville's Panguna
mine was forced to close in 1989 by violent protests.)
At last year's meeting of the G8 Environment Ministers in Trieste,
the Ministers called for common binding environmental guidelines for
export credit agencies as well as common measures to increase transparency.
So
far there is no consensus, as the US has consistently called for higher
standards than what Canada and others have agreed to. Japan as well,
has higher
environmental standards than Canada.
"Canada should not be associated with environmental and social
disasters like the Lihir gold mine", says Joan Kuyek, National
Coordinator of MiningWatch Canada. "The upcoming World Summit
on Sustainable development focus on corporate sustainability is laughable
when institutions owned outright by G8
governments are not held to the highest standards".
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For further information contact Melanie Quevillon
at 613-789-4447 or Joan Kuyek at 613-569-3439.
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