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Oxfam Australia's Leon Miles checks water quality at Tolukuma. Photo: OxfamAUS
Fast facts
- Resource: Gold
- Mine location: Goliala District, Central Province, Papua New Guinea
- Mine operator: Tolukuma Gold Mine
- Mine owner: Emperor Mines Limited
- Affected communities: Yaloge, Fuyuge, Roro, Mekeo and Kuni people
Tolukuma, Papua New Guinea
The situation
Each year, Tolukuma Gold Mine – owned by Australian-based Emperor Mines Ltd – dumps more than 230,000 tonnes of mine waste into PNG's Auga-Angabanga river system. Communities living along these rivers had previously relied on the river for drinking water and for cooking and washing.
For communities living downstream, the consequences of dumping mine waste into the river are severe. Community members attribute illnesses and deaths to drinking and washing in the river. They report that fish have died and that food gardens have been destroyed posing a threat to the community's food supply, and that changes in the river flow have led to flash flooding, making river crossings difficult and preventing access to market gardens.
Women have been particularly affected because they are responsible for the collection, transport, storage and use of water. Women from some villages along the Angabanga River now walk four hours a day to collect clean water from cleaner streams and wells. This has implications for their workloads and safety as they pass through land belonging to other villages.
Oxfam's response
We have been working with communities affected by the Tolukuma Gold Mine to ensure their concerns are addressed by Emperor Mines Ltd.
In 2005, Oxfam Australia’s Mining Ombudsman commissioned scientific tests and analyses of the water in the river system. Ensuring that communities who participated in these tests were the first to hear the results, the Ombudsman met with affected communities and key stakeholders, including Emperor Mines, to discuss the findings which revealed levels of arsenic, lead and other metals and pollutants in the water that were well above World Health Organisation standards. Community members identified and insisted that clean water was an imperative.
In August 2007, with the prior consent and participation of people from affected communities, the Mining Ombudsman helped a team to assess alternative clean water sources for communities in Gagaifua and Oriropetana. The team comprised community members, local community organisations, Oxfam Australia technical advisers and, for the first time, mining company representatives. Recommendations for provision of clean water sources were based on the information and advice of communities coupled with sound scientific analysis. Following agreement by the communities to the recommended solutions, the mine operator has committed to implementing all of the recommendations contained in the team's report.
The key priority for downstream communities and Oxfam Australia remains for the mine to stop disposing toxic waste into the Auga-Angabanga river system and to address the many grievances raised by affected communities. In early 2007, following a campaign by Oxfam Australia highlighting the need to stop riverine tailings disposal, Emperor Mines and Tolukuma Gold Mine management advised the Mining Ombudsman that the mine operations will have zero impact on the river system within three years.
In September 2007, Emperor announced it planned to sell the mine. The Mining Ombudsman has urged the company to ensure that the sale of the mine be conditional upon the new operator working with communities to alleviate the mine's negative impacts (which includes a commitment to implementing the water assessment recommendations), and stopping the practice of disposing mine waste into rivers.
Find out more
- Read the latest news on this case (2008)
- Read our full case report (2004)
- Read the water assessment report that evaluates options for alternative clean water supplies
- Read the scientific report that assesses the quality of domestic water supplies for affected communities
- Read the scientific report that assesses the condition of the Auga-Angabanga river system