Scars Upon Sacred Land II: Apache Leap and BHP Billiton/Rio Tinto

Apache Leap.  Photo credit unknown.

Author's Note: This piece first appeared as part of the now-defunct EcoJustice series at Daily Kos on October 4, 2010. It is reposted here with minor edits.

Welcome to Apache Leap. The elders tell of a time when invading U.S. soldiers sought to abduct the Apache people, herd them onto reservations, and steal their land. The people fought valiantly, but were woefully outnumbered. When the end came, the Apache warriors chose to retain their honor rather than surrender to thieves and thugs: They leapt off the peak to their deaths below, joining the spirits of their ancestors and depriving the Army of prize captives.

At the base of the formation, a nearly-translucent brown-black obsidian is found. The stones are called Apache tears, and as the story goes, when the surviving women found the bodies of their men at the base of the leap, they mourned so deeply and bitterly that Spirit turned their tears to beautifully, lethally sharp stone, so that no one would forget the crime against the people that had happened in that place.

Now, John McCain, Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick, and other greedy pols want to turn this sacred space over to an even greedier consortium of foreign corporations - to desecrate it further and dishonor the memories of those warriors and their survivors.


Some time ago, I wrote a piece called Scars Upon Sacred Land: Uranium Mining Begins at the Grand Canyon. That post dealt with Denison Mines and the threats it presents to the sacred lands of the Havasupai and Hualapai tribes. Eventually, there'll be additional pieces in this series dealing with other mining travesties on our lands.

However, a new spectre has arisen, again, in Arizona, this time threatening lands sacred to the San Carlos Apache, White Mountain Apache, Tonto Apache, Camp Verde Yavapai Apache, Hopi, and Hualapai tribes. This time, the offender is a foreign mining operation called Resolution Copper. With the blessing of too many Arizona pols, Resolution Copper is attempting to force a land swap that will give them protected lands, including lands sacred to the tribes listed above . . . because they sit atop what may be the single largest copper deposit in all of North America. Resolution Copper is worthy of a diary of its own, and indeed, it will get one. Another Kossack has a diary in the works related to the details of the conflict over Resolution Copper's efforts to obtain protected Arizona lands that include Apache Leap, so this diary will not address those issues. Instead, on the theory that knowing one's enemies is key to a proper defense, it will instead focus on the two foreign corporations that jointly own Resolution Copper: BHP Billiton and the Rio Tinto Group.

Their history, particularly with regard to their treatment of indigenous populations, is instructive.


BHP BILLITON

Australian firm BHP Billiton describes itself as follows:

We are a world-class business. We have a diverse range of products, customers and markets, outstanding management depth and an enviable portfolio of growth opportunities.

Hmm. Okay; if they say so. So, what products? What customers? what markets? What "enviable portfolio of growth opportunities?"

I had to dig around a bit to fins out what BHP Billiton actually is and does. Finally, at the base of a page filled with more nebulous jargon, I found a reference to "CSGs" - "Customer Sector Groups." And those are:

• Aluminium
• Base Metals
• Diamonds and Specialty Products
• Energy Coal
• Iron Ore
• Manganese
• Metallurgical Coal
• Petroleum
• Stainless Steel Materials

Ah. Another mining company.

In fact, a merger of two mining companies:

• BHP, a leading global natural resources company, with a diversified commodity suite that included minerals, oil, gas and steel. One of Australia's oldest and largest companies, it was renowned for continuously developing new operations both domestically and internationally. It was also recognised as one of Australia's great companies. 

• Billiton, one of the world's premier mining companies, with a portfolio of best-in-class mining and metals operations. Via acquisitions, expansions and new projects, it was known for its innovation and disciplined cost-efficiency in the global mining sector.

BHP, Billiton, and BHP Billiton currently operate - or have recently operated - a number of mines in the U.S., including several in Arizona. They also operate facilities in the following countries:

• Australia 
• Canada 
• Chile 
• Colombia 
• Papua New Guinea 
• South Africa 
• The Philippines 
• West Papua (Indonesia) 

In some of those countries, it has a troubling record with regard to its interactions with indigenous peoples.

In southern Australia, BHP Billiton bought an underground uranium mine, the Olympic Dam, in 2005; four years later, the company announced its intent to convert Olympic Dam into a large open-pit mine. the mine first opened under its original ownership in 1983 over the objections of the indigenous Arabunna and Kokotha peoples who lived in the area. The indigenous elders have objected to the planned expansion:

"Many of our food sources, traditional plants and trees are gone because of this mine. We worry for our water; it’s our main source of life. The expansion causes many safety risks to our roads – transporting the uranium from the mine. It has stopped us from accessing our sacred sites and destroyed others. These can never be replaced. BHP never consulted me or my families, they select who they consult with. Many of our people have not had a voice. We want the mine stopped now, because it’s not good for anything."

Unfortunately, the mine is operated under an Australian law called the Roxby Downs Indenture Act, which permits exemptions from not only preservation requirements for sacred indigenous sites, but also from an array of basic health and safety regulations. As a result:

The company decides the level of protection that Aboriginal heritage sites receive and which sites are recognized. BHP Billiton claims that it fully complies with Aboriginal heritage legislation. However, the question remains why the company is unwilling to relinquish the legal exemptions.

Moreover, the mine has a terrible safety record that such expansion would only make worse:

The mine expansion plan would see the production of radioactive tailings increase seven-fold to 68 million tonnes annually. These tailings are stored above ground and contain a toxic, acidic mix of radionuclides and heavy metals, effectively a source of permanent pollution. There have been many spills and leaks since the mine began. In the mid-1990s it was revealed that about three billion litres had seeped from the tailings dams over two years. These problems have yet to be resolved. 

. . . 

Alongside the mine expansion, BHP Billiton (2009) proposes an increase in water consumption from 35 million litres daily from the Great Artesian Basin (GAB) to over 260 million litres daily. 

This water would come from a combination of sources of which up to 42 million litres would come from the Great Artesian Basin and around 200 million litres a day from a proposed desalination plant near Whyalla.. That’s over 100,000 litres every minute − in the driest state of the driest inhabited continent on Earth.

According to Arabunna elder Uncle Kevin Buzzacott:

"Here you are, BHP, the biggest mining company in the world, and here we are the oldest peoples in the world. You should be listening to us about this land and the water. BHP, don’t go ahead with the expansion, we all know how dangerous it is[. . . .] "When you’ve packed up and gone that’s when the earthquakes will happen, don’t go ahead with it; use your common sense. There should never be an open cut uranium mine in the desert. We don’t know if you shareholders understand the impacts of what you’re doing to the Arabunna people, the Kokatha people and other tribes around that area. You don’t understand what you’re doing to the land and the culture."

In Papua, New Guinea, BHP Billiton operates the Ok Tedi Copper and Gold Mine. The mine is sited at the source of the Ok Tedi River, and the mine dumps its waste — at a rate of 100 million metric tons per year — directly into the River, where it feeds through the Fly River Delta into the Gulf of Papua, north of the Great Barrier Reef. Since the mine began operating in 1984, it has discharged more than one billion metric tons of tailings and other waste directly into the Ok Tedi River, and while the mine is slated to operate until 2013, the company is apparently contemplating continuing operations for another decade or more after that.

The damage to the Ok Tedi River, which is a source of fish and plant life for the indigenous Yonggon population, has been drastic:

The disposal of tailings into the Ok Tedi and Fly Rivers has caused environmental problems including more than 1,500 square kilometres of deforestation. Deforestation is expected to increase to at least 3,000 square kilometres, and to last for more than 50 years along some parts of the river. Much of this area will not return to tropical rain forest, but permanently transform into savannah grasslands. 

Fish populations have declined by 95% in the Ok Tedi River, 85% in the upper middle Fly River and by 60% in the lower middle Fly. 

The number of fish species in the Ok Tedi and Fly River system, which included many endemic species, has also declined by 30%.

In addition, a byproduct of the mining process, pyrite, has leached into the watershed, causing acid mine drainage (AMD) that may damage the habitat for centuries. As a "fix," the company is contemplating storing hazardous materials in "cells" - along the banks of the lower part of the river. By 1999, the company had expended AU $100 million on investigations, suits, and supposed research into remediation - remediation that has not yet occurred.

According to Andok Yang, of the Yonggom:

"Before the mine, we had plenty of food. We inherited gardens along the river from our parents. Bananas and taro from the gardens fed our family. Game was plentiful and we ate wild pig, cassowary and cuscus meat. The river was clear and it was easy to catch fish and prawns[. . . .] "But by 1984 our lives had changed. The river became muddy and the fish and prawns died. At the same time, the sand banks that later covered our gardens began to form. By 1986 the plants and trees along the river began to die. Their leaves turned yellow and fell off. Gradually the effects of the mine spread into the swamps where our sago palms grow, and into the surrounding forest as well. The creeks filled with mud, killing the sago trees. The sand banks along the river grew higher. 

Today (1996) it is hard to find sago. There are no fish in the river and the turtles no longer come to lay their eggs. The animals have all gone away and we do not know where they are living. I worry about the future: will we continue to face these problems or will the mine clean up the river?"

The Yonggom live in poverty; families frequently go hungry because of the loss of traditional food sources. Worse, potable water is often unavailable. Available health services are also declining in some areas, and are simply inaccessible in others. Despite the fact that the company has been legally required to pay millions in compensation to the Yonggom, very little has ever reached the people themselves; most is apparently appropriated by the country's government to fund development in other regions.

In Western Papua, Indonesia, BHP Billiton has also played a role in the jeopardizing the unique ecosystem on the Raja Ampat Archipelago.

According to BHP Billiton Watch:

Home to at least 537 species of hard coral mollusks and 1,074 species of reef fishes – with 104 new reef fish species identified since 2002 – the Raja Ampat marine environment is the "bulls-eye of marine biodiversity on the planet". Above ground, the Raja Ampat archipelago is also a biological hotspot. The region’s biogeography, isolation and relatively intact ecosystems have resulted in high levels of regional endemism (species found in a region are specific to that area).

The Archipelago is so environmentally valuable that it is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Marine Site.

Unfortunately, the archipelago's Gag Island sits atop a large and valuable deposit of nickel laterite. In 1998, the company began plans to mine on the island, but were halted the next year, before operations could begin, when Indonesia's Minister of the Environment classified Gag Island as "protected." However, BHP Billiton also operated a mine on nearby Manuran island via a wholly-owned subsidiary, Queensland Nickel (QNI). Via QNI, BHP Billiton transported the nickel from the mine on Manuran Island to its refinery in Townsville, Australia — by trucking it through the Raja Ampat Archipelago. Moreover, despite subsequently selling off its interest in the Manuran Island mine, the company is reportedly keeping its options open with regard to attempting to re-open mining operations on the archipelago. Interestingly, Manuran Island is apparently the one part of the Archipelago that has been excluded from the UNESCO World Heritage Marine Site designation - because of the damage wrought by the nickel mining. Indigenous populations have begun to reassert their rights regarding control over Manuran Island and the rest of the Arichipelago; future mining development threatens those rights, as well as the entire Archipelago's protected status and its crucial ecosystem.

Cerrejon Coal Mine (La Guajira, Colombia)

In La Guajira, Northern Colombia, is what is reportedly the world's largest "open-coast" coal mine, the Cerrejon Coal Mine. In 2000, BHP Billiton, Anglo American, and Xstrata jointly bought a half-interest in Cerrejon from the Colmbian government; Exxon's Intercor subsidiary owned the other half and operated the mine.

Intercor reportedly has a "history of forced relocations of Indigenous and Afrocolombian communities, with inadequate or non-existent compensation, to make way for mine expansion": forced relocation of indigenous Wayuu communities in order to build a railway and export port; desecration of indigenous burial grounds and sacred sites; with the aid of armed security and military personnel, bulldozing an entire AfroColombiam farming village, Tabaco, and forcibly relocating its inhabitants; and destruction of indigenous farming and other lands and the local ecosystem. The following year, the three multinationals bought out Intercor's half-interest, and BHP Billiton now owns one-third of the mine's operating company, Cerrejon Coal.

In 2007 and 2008, Cerrejon Coal agreed in principle to compensate those who were forcibly relocated; however, implementation of the compensation program has been spotty, at best. Meanwhile, Cerrejon Coal continues to expand its mining operations, in terms of both output and lands and resources consumed, further encroaching upon and displacing indigenous populations. As the companies drag their feet on abiding by and fulfilling compensation agreements, local communities continue to experience damage to homes from the blasting and other aspects of the expanded mining operations, as well as damage to their members' health from the effects of coal dust and other contaminants.

Northwest Territories, Canada

North of Yellowknife, in Canada's Northwest Territories, lies the Ekati Diamond Mine, which features both open and underground pits. BHP Billiton has benefited from good rpess with regard to this particular mine, because it "negotiated agreements" in advance with four area tribes, is allegedly in compliance with relevant regulations, and is hailed as a great model of corporate responsibility by a so-called "Independent Environmental Monitoring Agency" - an agency, incidentally, that is funded by BHP Billiton.

The "negotiated agreements" with area tribes are not all they're cracked up to be, either. Apparently the "negotiations" were rushed, and done in corporatese, leaving representatives of the four tribes in question, the Akaitcho Treaty 8 Council, the Dogrib Treaty 11 Council, Kitikmeot Inuit Association, and the North Slave Metis Alliance, "feeling pressured, overwhelmed, ill-informed and confused about the process." In addition, "royalties" are a joke: "[L]ocal royalty earnings add up to less than 1% of the mine’s annual profit." Moreover, tribal populations are largely trapped in low-paying, labor-intensive positions, with social and health problems arising out of short-shift work schedules and with strikes being required to gain even minimal collective bargaining processes and concessions.

Tribal elders also point to habitat destruction, which is reducing the populations of indigenous wildlife, and causing changes in migratory patterns that prevent the tribes from engaging in their traditional cultural and spiritual practices, because the animals no longer inhabit traditional hunting grounds.

Finally, BHP Billiton Watch cites a number of ecological impacts that are being neither prevented nor remediated:

accidental spills and seepage of tailings as well as sewage from the site, acid mine drainage, increases in uranium and aluminium [sic] residue in the air, and elevated levels of dissolved solids, potassium, ammonia, nitrates and molybdenum in local water bodies.

Tribal leaders have also expressed dismay over the company's failure to plan for the impacts of global warming and climate change.


RIO TINTO

Australia-based Rio Tinto is reportedly the world's largest mining company, with more than 60 facilities stretching across 40 countries on six continents (Antarctica excepted, for now, anyway). Eleven years ago, its annual revenues were US $9.3` billion, with net (after tax) profits of US $1.28 billion. According to GreenLeft:

It mines a diverse range of minerals and metals including coal, copper, gold, uranium and iron ore. It controls 55% of the world production of borate, 15% of industrial diamonds and around 8% of uranium.

As with BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto describes itself as environmentally friendly and obsessed with "sustainable development":

Our focus on sustainable development — on economic prosperity, social wellbeing, environmental stewardship and strong governance and integrity systems - provides the framework in which our business operates. Delivering on our sustainable development commitment means making sustainable development considerations an integral part of our business plans and decision making processes.

The reality, of course, is a bit different. Also according to GreenLeft:

The company was founded on blood. English capitalists formed the company in 1873 to mine the Rio Tinto copper deposit in Spain. During the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39, when Germany's Adolf Hitler and Italy's Benito Mussolini were in an alliance with Spain's General Franco, Rio Tinto's chief Sir Auckland Geddes told the company's 1937 annual general meeting in London: "Since the mining region was occupied by General Franco's forces, there have been no further labour problems ... Miners found guilty of troublemaking are court-martialled and shot."


This became the model for Rio Tinto's later cosy relationships with South Africa's racist apartheid regime, Chile's dictator General Pinochet and Indonesia's murderous dictator Suharto.

The English company merged with its own Australian subsidiary, Conzinc Riotinto of Australia, in 1995, and changed its name simply to "Rio Tinto" two years later.

Describing Rio Tinto's record as "appalling," GreenLeft reports:

• Rio Tinto led the mining industry campaign against native title in Australia in 1997-8; 

• to build the Weipa bauxite mine in north Queensland, Comalco (then a subsidiary of CRA), forcibly removed two Aboriginal communities, at Weipa and Mapoon; 

• Aboriginal sacred sites were almost completely destroyed during construction of the Argyle diamond mines in Western Australia; 

• Indonesia's armed forces (TNI) have killed and tortured indigenous land owners protesting against the Grasberg mine in West Papua. The mine is primarily owned by US-based Freeport-McMoRan, but Rio Tinto has a 12% share in the company and a 40% interest in the mine expansion. Freeport-McMoran provides Indonesian soldiers with transport, food and accommodation; and 

• the establishment of Rio Tinto mines in Bougainville, Indonesia and the Philippines has resulted in large numbers of indigenous people being thrown off their land with little or no compensation and appalling environmental consequences. 

It has a record of union-busting, and by 200, had reportedly "reduced its coal operations work force by 28% and cut real wages by 20%" in its Australian mines. It has a record of using "scabs" to avoid unionization in South Africa and Zimbabwe; ignored UN sanctions to set up shop illegally in Namibia; profited greatly from South Africa's repressive apartheid regime in the Transvaal; and has a record of discriminatory wage and employment practices against black workers throughout Africa.

By dumping the tailings and other waste from its mines into local watersheds, it has contaminated watersheds used by indigenous populations for drinking and bathing in multiple countries, including Madagascar and Papua, New Guinea.

Madagascar is perhaps best known for its unusual biodiversity. Increasingly, however, it is becoming known for it extreme poverty and the habitat destruction flowing from exploitation of that poverty. Rio Tinto plays a significant role in both the exploitation and the destruction. In 2006, the company began construction on an ilmenite mine in Madagascar; extraction commenced two years later.

First, INGOs claim that Rio Tinto‟s production activities within Madagascar resulted in the forced displacement of an estimated 6,000 people living in rural villages in and around the forest and heathland area which was removed in the process of mine development. Second, again based on evidence gathered by the Panos London Report, INGOs accuse Rio Tinto of breaching compensation arrangements established by both the corporation‟s and World Bank policies. Critics claim that Rio Tinto has failed to respect customary land rights and that families without formal land title have been disadvantaged in the compensation process. Specifically, indigenous residents complain that when compensation was offered, it was wholly insufficient and did not allow them to purchase land of similar quality in the same area. Finally, INGOs accuse Rio Tinto of undermining indigenous cultures in the process of establishing mining production in Madagascar. They claim that construction of the ilmenite mine has denied communities access to the natural resources from the forest on which they depend for food, firewood, and medicine. This has harmed their livelihoods, but more importantly, has led to the destruction of cultures and customs which have been passed down for generations within the Madagascar communities.

Rio Tinto also owned the Pangua mine in Bougainville, Papua, New Guinea. As with the Madagascar mine, the indigenous population alleges that the company appropriated their lands without appropriate compensation. In 1988, the situation turned violent: Residents of the Bougainville area mounted a protest against Rio Tinto; the government of Papua, New Guinea intervened to put down the protest, and the situation escalated into an internal civil war that would run for the next ten years, with Bourgainville seeking to secede from the rest of the country. Rio Tinto is accused of war crimes in abetting the government's efforts to stifle the protest. In 2000, members of the Bougainville indigenous community sought redress against Rio Tinto in U.S. federal district court under the Alien Tort Claims Act. In 2008, the suit was finally dismissed on jurisdictional grounds.

In addition to the usual acts of land theft, Rio Tinto has also regularly been accused of union-busting and other unfair labor practices, as well as discrimination on the basis of race.


FUTURE INFORMATION

I have additional pieces in this series currently in the works: Look for "Scars Upon Sacred Land" title. Future posts may address BHP Billiton and the Rio Tinto Group, Resolution Copper, and other mining companies.



Copyright Ajijaakwe, 2010, 2014; all rights reserved.