Archive for the ‘spinbuster’ Category

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Dubious record of Australian uranium mining companies; Paladin and Rio Tinto in Africa

February 11, 2013

What have interested Australian companies, or the Australian government, done to address these concerns?…….

 what should we make of Australian Defence Force chief General David Hurley’s alarming indication that there might be a role for the ADF in protecting “Australian interests” in Africa?

Multinational miners: magnanimous or malevolent? Kellie Tranter – lawyer and Humna Rights Activist, FEBRUARY 1, 2013 BY    “……..Malawi “…….Minister Carr praised the work of Australian mining company Paladin, referring to its strong corporate social responsibility.  Paladin operates Malawi’s biggest uranium mine, the Kayelekera.

In June 2008, The Bench Marks Foundation released a report ‘Corporate Social Responsibility and the Mining Sector in Southern Africa’ which suggested that when Paladin struck its deal with the Malawi government to mine uranium, it was agreed that it would get a 100% capital write off, a reduction in corporate tax from 30% to 27.5% and a scrapping of the 10% resource rent tax.  Paladin was also to be exempt from the standard 17.5% import VAT or duty and a royalty rate reduced from 5% to 1.5% in the first three years and 3% thereafter. (more…)

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Paladin uranium miner, and others, use Australia’s overseas aid to bolster their image in Africa

February 11, 2013

Paladin, which has been the subject of some controversy in Malawi over job cuts, was last year linked to a funding application through its employees’ charity – Friends and Employees of Paladin for African Children.

 Paladin’s (African) Ltd general manager, international affairs, Greg Walker, who was invited late last year to be Australia’s honorary consul to Malawi, was involved in the process, according to 2012 correspondence from Australia’s ambassador to Zimbabwe, Matthew Neuhaus, to Mr Walker. The letter obtained under freedom of information confirmed Mr Walker’s successful application for the employees’ charity funding proposal.

The Aidwatch director Thulsi Narayanasamy said it was not the place of the Australian aid program to fund the corporate social responsibility programs of wealthy mining companies.

Firms use tax money for aid projects : http://www.smh.com.au/money/tax/firms-use-tax-money-for-aid-projects-20130129-2ditd.html#ixzz2Jbp0RzOT  January 30, 2013 Rory Callinan

WEALTHY resource companies operating overseas are tapping into Australian taxpayer funds to set up aid projects potentially benefiting their corporate social responsibility credentials.

Aid and mining watchdogs have expressed concerns about the practice, arguing the corporations are wealthy enough to bankroll their own aid and that linking donations to controversial mine operations is a conflict of interest.

Nine mining companies all operating in Africa have been linked to the successful applications via the Foreign Affairs Department’s Direct Aid Program – a scheme that allows heads of missions to give up to $30,000 to local causes.

About $215,000 of taxpayers’ money went to the mining company-conceived projects last financial year, including a school for the deaf, providing trade skill training to local workers, establishing women’s groups and digging wells. Two applications involved uranium mining companies, Paladin Energy in Malawi and Bannerman Resources in Namibia. (more…)

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Lynas rare earths company bent on discrediting its critics

December 28, 2012

Lynas’ waste plans a toxic pipe dream  Aliran,   19 December 2012 Scientists and community leaders are concerned about radioactive waste from Lynas’ Malaysian plant but the company representative who took Wendy Bacon’s questions brushed off the criticism. This is the second of two articles about Lynas by Wendy Bacon “………Shutting down the critics

New Matilda asked to interview Lynas Executive Chairperson Nick Curtis but he was not available. Instead we interviewed a Lynas spokesperson who insists that the waste products of the Lamp project are “not hazardous in any way”. He refers to the safety record of Lynas which in “all of its constructions … has been achieved with zero lost time injury”.

When New Matilda suggested that problems are more likely to arise in the long term, even 20 or 30 years away, he replied: “I would be lying if I categorically tell you there is no risk in 20 or 30 years time from anything. What I can tell you is that the unanimous conclusion of all of the scientific experts from all of the different organisations that have investigated this material and everything else is that there will be no discernible risk for the public or anyone else from this facility.”

But this is far from true. (more…)

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BHP chief Kloppers hangs on to giant uranium mine dream

June 24, 2012

Complicated messages from Marius Kloppers as he tries to promote his baby – the planned new giant open cut uranium mine at Olympic Dam:

  • Kloppers pays a little lip service to renewable energy – but he doesn’t want BHP Billiton to be involved in that.
  • Kloppers says that fossil fuels, especially gas are the go, for now, but nuclear power will come into its own, – later
  • Kloppers sees the Olympic Dam development as being 10 years or more away from completely functioning
  • Kloppers admits that BHP would withhold investment in Olympic Dam, if necessary
  • Kloppers wants a better deal on royalties and taxes – to make the big project work (even more concessions than BHP already has?)
  • Kloppers wants “flexibility” in the workforce –  I wonder what that flexibility would really mean (?crush the unions, fly-in workers, negotiating conditions – from BHP’s position of relative power) - Christina Macpherson 

Kloppers backing down on $80 billion expansion , talking to ABC  - talking about solar cells ‘we are going to stick to our knitting: He says that natural gas and nuclear power will have very big roles before renewable energy takes over  -quoted on ABC Business News 7 June 12 (more…)

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Doctors expose Toro Energy’s promotion of quack science about ionising radiation

May 6, 2012

We call on Toro Energy to stop promoting fringe scientific views to uranium industry workers and to  the public at large.

The Medical Association for Prevention of War has released a statement signed by 45 medical doctors calling on uranium mining company Toro Energy to stop promoting the view that low-level radiation is beneficial to human health. Toro Energy, which plans to mine uranium at Wiluna in WA and has interests in uranium exploration ventures in the NT and SA, has sponsored speaking tours by controversial Canadian scientist Doug Boreham. The joint statement notes that recent research has heightened rather than reduced concern about the adverse health impacts of low-level radiation.

TORO ENERGY PROMOTES RADIATION JUNK SCIENCE , Statement by 45 doctors – (signatures at end ) 1 May 2012
Toro Energy is an Australian company involved in uranium exploration in Western Australia, the  Northern Territory, South Australia and in Namibia, Africa. The company’s most advanced project is  the proposed Wiluna uranium mine in the WA Goldfields.
Toro Energy has consistently promoted the fringe scientific view that exposure to low-level radiation  is harmless. Toro Energy has sponsored at least three speaking visits to Australia by Canadian  scientist Dr Doug Boreham, who argues that low-level radiation is actually beneficial to human health.
Those views are at odds with mainstream scientific evidence and expert assessment. For example: (more…)

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Refuting the spin of the Australian Uranium Association about radiation

October 30, 2011
Uranium and health: industry has to face the unpleasant facts, SENATOR SCOTT LUDLAM, AUSTRALIAN GREENS SENATOR FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA, 22 Oct 11,  Mr. Michael Angwin of the Australian Uranium Association has objected to my statement to the ABC  that ‘Uranium mining has killed a lot of its workforce’, and has demanded I withdraw the comment.
I will do no such thing.
There is a well-established link between uranium mining and lung cancer.
Uranium miners are exposed to radon gas.  According to the WHO, radon is a carcinogen 2 and the second most common cause of cancer in the world, responsible for up to 14% of all lung cancer and 30% of lung cancers in non-smokers.  All radon studies of lung cancer show a linear relationship between dose and risk of cancer.
In 2009, the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) reported that radon exposure was more risky than experts had thought, and cut the recommended dose threshold by half. 3
The Biological Effects of Ionising Radiation VI report (1999) 4 reviewed eleven studies covering a total of 60,000 underground uranium miners. The report found an increasing frequency of lung cancer, directly proportional to the cumulative amount of radon the miners had been exposed to.
As the industry knows, radiation exposure can take a decade or more to manifest as a cancer or other condition, which makes it impossible to put a time and a place on exposure. Despite this, many peer reviewed studies 5 of uranium mine workers shows increased cancer mortality as well as chromosomal aberrations.
The industry often underestimates worker exposure as it is presumed that miners always use personal protective equipment designed to reduce inhalation. The fact is, they often don’t.
The maximum additional radiation exposure permitted to the general public is 1 millisievert per year; for uranium miners it is 20 millisieverts. This increased exposure to radiation increases the risks and the occurrences of cancer.
Science predicts an increase of 1 in 10,000 incidence of cancer per 1 millisievert. The average uranium mine worker is in their late 20s and stays 3 to 5 years.  If they receive the average of 3-8 millisieverts per year and don’t wear their protective equipment at all times, that average increases steeply.
Today’s standards are better than the conditions that wiped out the miners of Bohemia or the Native Americans of the Four Corners region in the USA. But uranium mining has killed a lot of its workforce – globally, historically and currently, Mr. Angwin.
 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-21/20111021-uranium-miner-response/3592108?section=nt

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Against all available evidence, uranium company chairman talk up uranium mining’s future

October 9, 2011

Russel Bluck Chairman Uranium SA Limited gave a brave  Address to Shareholders
on 6 October.  It was designed to jolly them up, and Mr Bluck is to be admired, for he has learned all the right terms.  I was reminded of schooldays, when I was taught certain religious beliefs and words by rote.  Obviously Australia’s uranium mining executives have followed the same sort of teaching.

First comes the admission – “ The rate of corporate and generational change has been slowed [ a better word than plummeted?] by external circumstance”

But this is followed quickly by the new nuclear dogmas:   about  ”robust returns on invested capital”,…..”The failure of the Fukushima nuclear plants was an industrial [ not a nuclear?] catastrophe within the context of a major natural disaster.”…

…as the fog of disinformation [does he mean the facts on radiation?] clears , it is again clear nuclear power generation is safe and made even safer by the lessons of Fukushima,…

Nuclear power is the only proven technology which is able to deliver energy at the levels required to sustain and grow industry and urban populations – it has a secure future. [Oh Yeah?]
 the uranium market will continue to have a sound future structure [Oh Yeah?]
As a corporate entity, everything we do is done professionally and with integrity [ except telling the truth] – by Christina Macpherson

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It’s feasible to export Olympic Dam’s copper, without the uranium

April 9, 2011

The Olympic Dam Mega-Expansion Without Uranium Recovery.Dr Gavin Mudd, 2010 Peer-Reviewed Report for SA Greens MLC Mark Parnell and WA Greens Senator Scott Ludlam, Adelaide, SA, December 2010, 10 p (Download PDF – 591 kb).

“…….It is eminently reasonable to propose a process flow sheet for Olympic Dam which does not include recovery of uranium but still allows for copper, gold and silver to be produced… This report .. proposing  a technically viable alternative for operating Olympic Dam in the next expansion which excludes uranium recovery….”

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So-called “independence” of uranium mining study

February 7, 2011

Politics and uranium mining | GoDanRiver.com, RICHARD D. WOOD 6 Jan 2011, With all the study and attention to the mining of uranium in Pittsylvania County, I would like to comment. As for the independent study, the so-called independents, in the real world will be working for who hired them to do the so-called independent study. (more…)

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Australia’s sham nuclear debate – really all about selling uranium

January 8, 2011

The Australian Conservation Foundation is agreeable to the matter being discussed at the ALP’s conference but says there should be an open debate, not one where factions decided the matter behind closed doors….

Uranium industry claims nuclear attitudes are changing | The Australian, 27 Dec 10, ….…………anti-nuclear campaigners say the industry’s claim that nuclear power can help address climate change problems is a cover for trying to increase exports…….. (more…)

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