But since the 80s, most people don’t
have to imagine anymore. The dangers of cyanide gold mining entered the
public agenda with the Ok Tedi operation, or its more popular name
today, “environmental disaster” – one of the worst caused by humans. The
mine in Papua New Guinea managed to spill 1000 km downstream (as seen
above) two tons of untreated mining waste between 1984 and 2013. 1600 km2
of forest have been partially or completely destroyed (don’t worry,
according to the company it will recover – in 200 years), after heavy
rainfall destroyed the tailings dam in 1984. The lack of action to stop
the spillage led to the disruption of the lives of 50.000 people, and
the ruining of agriculture or fisheries, which represented the
traditional occupations of the natives.
This, of course, wouldn’t happen in a
civilized first world country, where people care about the environment
and have post-material needs, right? Right. At the same time the
tailings dam was breaking in Papua New Guinea, a traditional mining site
in Colorado, the United States (yes, those United States) was
extended and thus implemented a new method – cyanidation. You probably
guessed that I am not just randomly mentioning gold mines from different
places in the world, so you can anticipate what happened next – mining
waste and other by-products were leaked in the water, eventually
contaminating the Alamosa River. The small mine, pictured below (only
2.2 km2, and a total production of 9.1 tons of gold), caused
the worst cyanide spill in US history, leaching 10 million tons of ore.
The US Government intervened much faster than the one from Papua New
Guinea – it only took them… 7 years. In 1991, they issued a
cease-and-desist order to the company and used 155 million $ to clean up
the site.
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