Australian executives charged

Wednesday, August 7, 1996 - 10:00

By Norm Dixon

Two senior Australian executives of a Canadian copper mining company operating on the central Philippines island of Marinduque have been charged with criminal negligence over a disastrous mine tailings accident. A massive pipe rupture on March 23 — which has yet to be repaired — has left the Boac River biologically dead and more than 10 hectares of crop land poisoned.

The Philippines Justice Department has charged the head of the Marcopper mining company, John Loney, and the resident manager at the mine, Steve Reid, with violations of the water code and the mining act and with criminal negligence. They are not allowed to leave the Philippines until the charges are heard.

The devastation followed the failure of a 2.6 km drainage tunnel below the tailings dam, which caused a massive leak. At least 2.5 million tonnes of waste engulfed the 27 km river.

According to a Radio Australia report, the riverbed is filled "from top to bottom" with tailings and is now just a "small stream that limps its way to the coast". The impact on the local villagers has been extensive. Three hundred families were cut off from the outside world for almost three months.

Interviewed on Radio Australia, Steve Reid refused to concede that the leak was an environmental disaster or that the river was completely dead. "That's your opinion ... What we have here is an environmental accident. That's what I accept", he told the reporter.

A Philippines government official said on April 8 that the Boac River would take at least 25 years to recover. There had been a massive loss of freshwater and marine life, and the disaster will cause frequent flooding in the future.

The official also estimated that the spill will disrupt the livelihoods of at least 15,000 people through crop losses and the forced sale of livestock due to lack of safe water. There will be food shortages and price increases.

Previous leaks from the tailings dam have gone unpunished. Marcopper also has a poor industrial relations record. It has failed to pay workers properly and attempted to smash their trade unions. When half of its 1100 workers went on strike in February 1995, it locked out union members and replaced 366 of them with inexperienced contract workers. Soldiers and police have provided support to the company's 100-strong security force since.