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Gift of life

14 February 2001 - The Guardian UK - The world's largest mining company has been given a chance to prove its green credentials and save Aboriginal homelands. By Paul Brown.

Rio Tinto, the world's largest mining company, has been asked to prove its green credentials by abandoning plans to open a new uranium mine on a world heritage site in the Northern Territory of Australia. The company, which for years has been many environmental groups' most reviled company, has spent the last five years trying to improve its image and, at black spots around the world, clean up both its pollution and human rights record.

Accidently, so the company claims, by taking over an Australian mining company, it has become enmeshed in one of the fiercest environmental struggles in Australian history.

The Jabiluka mine is in the homeland of the Mirrar Aboriginal people. The uranium lies under the Kakadu national park and is set to provide fuel for Britain's nuclear reactors. Even before Rio Tinto came along, a number of court cases had already been fought and lost in a bid to protect the Mirrar people's homeland and the park, and there had been hundreds of arrests in demonstrations.

Rio Tinto acquired Jabiluka, and a nearby existing uranium mine called Ranger, in July last year when it took over the Australian conglomerate North Mining Ltd. The Ranger mine supplies fuel both for British Nuclear Fuel's Magnox reactors and British Energy's eight advanced gas cooled reactors, but is now nearing exhaustion. Under North's original plans, the Jabiluka mine was expected to start production to fill the gap.

But for London-based Rio Tinto, opening Jabiluka would be a public relations disaster. Among the projects that blackened Rio Tinto's name in the 1970s and 80s was the operation of the uranium mine in Namibia - in cooperation with the South African regime- to supply uranium for Britain's nuclear weapons programme.

Although the company still operates the Namibian mine on a smaller scale, it claims that uranium is no longer part of its core business. The acquisition of both the Australian mines was a by-product of a much larger takeover of North's iron ore business and, although the takeover was last summer, no decision has yet been reached about the future of the two mines.

Last week, Rio Tinto, which has its world headquarters in London, announced profits of $2.5bn (£1.7bn), 25% up on the previous year. The chairman, Sir Robert Wilson, said it had been a particularly active year, mentioning the acquisition of extra coal, iron and diamond interests.

Friends of the Earth (FOE), which is mounting an international campaign to get Rio Tinto to close both mines in Australia, said a company with so much money could make a one-off gesture by closing the Ranger mine and giving back the Jabiluka land to the Mirrar people.

FOE fears that, to avoid the adverse publicity when it opens the mine, Rio Tinto may sell Jabiluka on to the French nuclear giant Cogema. Although there is a world surplus of uranium and, according to Rio Tinto's own annual report, prices have slumped to an all-time low, Cogema could use Jabiluka to safeguard its own uranium supplies for more than 40 French reactors, as well as export the surplus to the UK.

The Ranger and Jabiluka mines are both inside the Kakadu national park made famous by the Crocodile Dundee films and declared a world heritage site. It is the home of 2.5m water birds, almost 1,000 different plant species and attracts 250,000 tourists a year.

The Mirrar people regard this as their ancestral home and point to the damage done over years by the Ranger mine, which has left 20m tonnes of radioactive tailings in spoil heaps around its operations. According to FOE, there have been 120 breaches of the mine's operational guidelines under North's ownership - most recently in May last year, when there was a leak of 2m gallons of radioactive liquid contaminated with manganese, uranium and radium. Some of this escaped into the Kakadu wetlands.

An investigation by the Australian senate criticised the government for not conducting a social impact study of the Jabiluka project to see what effect it would have on the Mirrar people and found the circumstances surrounding the 1982 mining agreement with the local people was deeply unfair and that the mine should not proceed. The Mirrar people now repudiate the 1982 agreement, saying that they were misinformed about their rights, but the government disagreed and said the mine could go ahead. Construction was completed by North Mining before the takeover, but no uranium has yet been mined.

Ed Matthew, from FOE in London, says: "This mine is on land unjustly wrested from the Aboriginal people and inside a World Heritage site. If Rio Tinto proceed with this mine it will be telling us that there is no place on earth the company is not prepared to plunder. They are a hugely rich company, and they could well afford to make a generous gesture which will show the world they care.
"If Rio Tinto sells the mining leases to another mining company they are condemning the Mirrar people to another 30 years of social chaos. This is a key test of Rio Tinto's claims to respect the environment and support sustainable development. The company's reputation will be soiled for ever if this goes ahead."

Rio Tinto say that the three options were to operate Jabiluka, close it or sell it, but no decision has yet been reached.

British Nuclear Fuels said Australia was just one of a number of sources of supply of uranium, and that Jabiluka was not essential. There were also mines in Canada, South Africa and Russia.

Rio Tinto's troubled record

Madagascar: Plans for a titanium dioxide mine on the south-east coast of Madagascar generated international condemnation following the death from a heart attack of Andrew Lees, former campaigns Director at Friends of the Earth, while investigating the project in 1995. Despite this Rio Tinto are considering forging ahead which FOE says could destroy up to 76% of a unique forest ecosystem. The project also threatens to pollute the local water supply, to destroy its fishing industry and to endanger over 500 species. Titanium dioxide is a mineral used to manufacture a white pigment that is commonly used in paper, paint and plastics. There are many other potential sources not located in ecologically sensitive sites.

Papua, New Guinea: Panguna copper mine began a civil war between the government and Bougainville revolutionary army. In the conflict 15,000 islanders died. A court case began in the US in September last year on behalf of the local people against Rio Tinto.

Hull, UK: In July last year, the families of 200 workers of smelting works on the Humber, many of whom have died prematurely, sued the company for compensation.

Indonesia: A month after buying a stake in the Grasberg mine, 2,700 miles east of Jakarta, the military were accused of murdering and torturing the local people who objected to the mine. The tailings from the mine were said to have severely degraded the rainforests.

Source: The Guardian UK

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