Report warns of tailings dam failure at Rio Tinto’s former Panguna mine on Bougainville
More than 30 years after it was closed, the legacy of Rio Tinto’s former Panguna copper mine on Bougainville still threatens the health of local residents.
Consultants looking into the environmental wreckage left at Rio Tinto’s former Panguna copper mine on Bougainville have warned a major tailings dam is at risk of failure, putting locals downstream at risk from flooding and the release of toxic waste into key river systems.
The interim report, released by the oversight committee leading an investigation into Panguna’s legacy, warns a key levee holding back toxic mine waste from a major river system is “almost certain to collapse at some stage in the future”.
The report recommends work to assess risks posed by the abandoned mine needs to be accelerated to assess the condition of the tailings facilities, saying it is not yet clear how quickly the levees are deteriorating.
The report, produced by environmental consultants Tetra Tech Coffey, is the interim result of an environmental study on the mine, prepared as a result of a complaint lodged two years ago by traditional landowners to the Australian National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises about the mess left when the mine was abandoned in 1989.
Rio Tinto is funding the study. The oversight committee comprises local Bougainville community leaders, assisted by Tetra Tech, Rio Tinto and the Human Rights Legal Centre, which is representing the affected landowners in Australia.
The remote location of the mine, and the uncertain security situation within the region, has meant Tetra Tech’s assessment was based on aerial surveys and satellite imagery of Panguna, with the Covid-19 pandemic also serving to prevent technical experts from visiting the mine.
“If the levee collapsed, structures and people that live on the flood-plain downstream of the Jaba River would be directly impacted by flooding or landslide effect,” the report says.
“In addition to this, if the levee collapsed there would be an increase in erosion of the Kawerong River and more sediment would be transported into the Jaba River which could result in more flooding downstream.”
The report says it is not clear how many locals would be affected by the failure of the dams, but says it believes more than 500 people live within the area likely to be affected by flooding if a tailings levee failed.
Up to 23,000 people live within precincts of the old Panguna mine area, the report says.
Theonila Roka Matbob, a traditional landowner and lead complainant in the human rights complaint – and the member of parliament for the area where the mine is located – welcomed Rio’s ongoing support for the assessment work, but said the report highlighted the urgency of the risks facing the community living around Panguna.
“This early report shows the world just some of what we live with every day. Every day we worry about levees collapsing on us, about rivers full of mine waste flooding our land and villages and about whether the water we drink and wash with is making us sick,” she said.
“It is critical that Rio Tinto also commits to supporting the implementation of solutions to the huge problems we face.”
Human Right Law Centre chief executive Keren Adams said the report “reinforces the devastating environmental legacy of the Panguna mine”.
“When we visited these communities, we saw first-hand the devastating effects of mine-waste mud flows on communities’ water sources and fishing areas. We spoke to people who live downstream of the collapsing levees and fear their houses could be swept away,” she said.
Rio Tinto cut ties with Panguna in 2016 but chief executive Jakob Stausholm, who took the top job at Rio in late 2020, has spent much of the last two years cleaning up a series of legacy issues that have hung over the company for years.
Rio is funding the environmental review, and has indicated it may be open to playing a role in rehabilitation of the mine in the future, though no formal commitments have been made.
A spokesman for Rio acknowledged the release of the interim report, and said a consultant for the on-ground assessment of the state of the mine would be appointed shortly.
“The Impact Assessment is due to commence on the ground this year and will provide all parties with a clearer understanding of the impacts, so that together we can consider the right way forward,” he said.
While the interim report focuses on the potential failure of tailings dam levees, it is understood Rio has also identified significant concerns with the leakage of chemicals into the local water system from waste rock dumps, and is likely to ask the consultants to give additional consideration to those issues during its impact assessment.
Panguna was abandoned in 1989, after community anger over environmental damage and their lack of share in the mine’s profits spilled over into bloodshed, sparking a bloody civil war that lasted until peace was brokered in 2001.
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