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More photos of Newcrest’s environmental damage in Fiji
Filed under Environmental impact, Fiji, Human rights
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Papua New Guinea Mine Watch 
Oh, I never realised just how terrible the damage is.
It looks just shocking,.
That rather small puddle filled with rain water, and that slippage on the river bank caused by excessive rain.
That little creek with the muddy water …………
And that access track awaiting relclaimation in an area that constantly regrows with vegitation naturally within weeks.
Just shocking!!!!
Your kidding us?
Right?
Do they have any real photos of environmental damage?
Is this even Fiji? If so it looks like the place Fiji water comes from…
I must be missing something here? These are pictures of naturally occuring events, can someone please explain how this is classed as enviromental damage?
Please reset and or clarify date on pic one. Date captured is 2010. Jan 15th. Misleading if not corrected.
Date could be correct. They just can’t find more recent photos. Run out of batteries on their last trip, perhaps.
Well, if there are any photos.
But more to the point, it looks as if the whole thing is an utter storm in a tea cup blown way way out of proportion to the point whwre I can’t help feeling there may have been some kind of fraud perpetrated by the NGO.
Let’s preseume the NGO is the Mineral Policy Institute of Australia.
I’ve got a head ache, like the poor people of Fiji, being manipulated and lied to by the green left of Australia.
And the gullibility of people, esp those knowledgeable ones who cannot do thier own research into how NGOs operate and shove their no-development ideology down peoples’ throats.
We would all be in caves and huts with stone tools if mineral exploration and development was never part of human progress. From planes and rockets to knives and shovels, this global economy is mine-based which environmentalists want to bring to a halt. A few mud puddles holding up progress and development is plain crazy.
A few mud puddles could lead open up a lake of disasater.Mother nature will always prevail.Progress and development will never bring back the purity and nature of land and water.Mining will never bring any development to the people of Fiji but it will destroy their livelyhood .People should educate themselfs on the the deadly process involving copper and gold minning at this level.Its no good looking at the gold and the dollars at the end of the day compared to the aftermath of destruction.
J Brown
John, how stupid.
The people of Fiji will never develop if they are not prepared to learn and understand.
Copper is mined all over the world and mining it is is not a “deadly process”, nor is it “destructive”.
You need to educate yourself on the reality of copper mining rather than believing an NGO with no real knowledge of what the process involves.
I think perhaps the point is not what has already occurred (although such photographs may often not show the full extent of toxicity levels etc), but rather what damage the planned Namosi Joint Venture will inflict on the significant Namosi ecosystem and the local community once full-scale mining commences. Also, while I am not personally affiliated with them, I can assure you it is a local Fiji NGO that is working on this issue – in the tricky context of a militarized state, where massive intimidation can be brought to bear on landowning communities. The type of mining that is being proposed in this particular environment is a destructive process, and we need to support the efforts of the local community to prevent it from happening in Namosi.
There is no doubt that once sulphides are released from their matrix and exposed to air and water H++ irons start to move around.
This is a scientific fact.
And yes, Fijian’s do not live in a democracy so they can’t expect any protection from the powers that be.
They live in a military dictatorship and enjoy no democratic rights.
The grant or non grant of the permissions to mine will be determined by one corrupt man who has a team of goons with guns.
But who’s fault is this?
After all, the Land Owners of Fiji created the situation where there is no transparent accountable regulatory capacity in the Fiji Islands by permitting a military dictator ship.
sp “eye on z”
Wesley if you no nothing about Fiji and Namosi LOU’s please SHUT THE F@#k UP. If we live in huts and are much happier with lesser diseases and illness associated with development so be it. If we are much happier in our social relations so be it. As long as we are not a conglomerate’s bitch we are free. We might have a military back govt but we are much happier in the highlands of Fiji. F@#k you very much.
Not interested Gauna.
Why, (other than for cost savings) are they open cutting this mine??? They would not get away with this attitude in Australia. They will completely wreck the natural flora and fauna permanently if this mining operation is allowed. I have spent part of my youth growing up in Suva and now work for an underground mining company in Australia as an Environmental Coordinator and can predict exactely what impacts this mine will have in Fiji. If this mine is going to go ahead it should be pushed to be an underground mine.
Probably not able to mine economically underground.
The nature of the deposit with regard to location [near surface], grade [low] and size [large porphry copper] dictates it be mined via an open cut for both viability and engineering reasons. Nerida… if you live in Australia and are involved with mining, then you would know that open cut mines by far out number underground mines and that open cut mining is a legitimate and accepted mining method in Australia. Newcrest have such a mine, Cadia, within close proximity to a city, Orange, in NSW and the state of NSW has one of the most stringent environmental compliance and enforcement regimes compared to other australian states. This would suggest Newcrest does conform to a high level of acceptable mining practise.
Has this mine destroyed some flora and fauna — yes it has, as does all mining. The challenge for Namosi and Fiji should it choose to consider this mine, is to minmise the negative impacts whilst maximising the mineral wealth exploitation and working towards land rehabilitation once the mining is done and one would expect on less from Newcrest to keep its investors and stakeholders on side.
I do not work for Newcrest but am considering their shares and as such would expect Newcrest to behave as a responsible global miner and not abuse its license to operate.
When I read so many negatives post I thought it only right to ask you to consider the following.
I did work at Telfer Gold Mine in Australia from 1989 approx. 4 years with Newmont and then Newcrest.
The difference between environmental compliance and the on ground management practices can differ substantially.
I know for a fact that I was on many occasions instructed by maintenance management to dump 10,000’s of litres of used/waste earthmoving oil into the environment at the Telfer project for many years. Understand that took the approval and of not only the maintenance management, but the earthmoving management who would organise to cut a deep trench with a D9 Bulldozer out in the bush into which the used oil was dumped and then filled back in.
I also know it was condoned practice to spray 1,000’s of litres of diesel fuel onto the golf course ‘sand only’ greens to bind the sand together. Another regular occurrence which any regular players or member of the Telfer golf club was aware of.
I also remember when they put in a go-cart racing track, I really big project and again I was instructed to spray 10’s of thousands of litres of diesel over that whole site once the earthmoving equipment had cleared the scrub and levelled it.
I suspect that the consumption of such fuel would have to have been misrepresented on the company accounts or written off as loss, The common denominator is that none of the above occurred without the senior managers from the Maintenance, Earthmoving and Stores being complicit in the activity.
This was Australia’s largest goldmine, and yes there was layers of onsite management and every litre of new fuel and oil was recorded so who was balancing the books. And yes I should have said ‘NO’ when instructed to do it, it was wrong and I should have reported it to the authorities, I regret that to this day.
But the fact is I should never have been placed in that situation in the first place by the management of one of the largest gold mining companies in the world.
So can mining companies sometimes get it wrong….yes. So don’t jumped so quickly to condemn individuals who may just be alerting you to the first signs of a breakdown of onsite management and or a failing process.