Because of the "devastating" impact of the Ok Tedi mine, people in the area now get education, clean water and sewage disposal, education and a life-span at least 30 years longer on average than their ancestors. They also get skills training for the modern world, a future for their children in the modern world rather than the stone age, and the chances of mothers dying painfully during childbirth, or of septicaemia afterwards, are much reduced. They also have a better chance of not getting killed because of some ancient and stupid stone-age argument over a pig or a woman, or being murdered by their own people as a witch should someone in the vilage die.

Ever seen and listened to a woman dying because of an ectopic pregnancy? I was aboard the helicopter that got her out from Tolukuma to Port Moresby Hospital a couple of years ago. Ever seen a totally uneducated couple walk, in hope, into a mine camp after a walk of two days through the mountainous PNG jungle with a sick baby? I was the person that put them on a helicopter at the company's expense to get them to hospital in Port Moresby.

I for one am thoroughly tired of those who have benefitted from modern mining-related developments for the last 300 years and who yet are happy to condemn others to "living in harmony with nature" and to die of TB, malaria, worms, septicaemmia from a simple scratch, ectopic pregnancies, and any other one of the million nasty illnesses that has us in the developed world screaming for good public health care. I see stone-age superstition as stupid and brutal and pointless if it can be supplanted by education. Ask any landowner in PNG if they prefer a mine to their life in the big bush. I have yet to find one who will say, "No". And they usually get plenty of compensation from the mine, if not equity in the mine.

I ask that the Government on both sides of Federal Politics 'gets its head' together, to focus on the combined skills across both sides of the table, for all Australians.

It is not for Kevin Rudd to show "kindest" to the opposing side, and nor is it the role of the opposing side to "throw the hat at" it's own leader who has worn the brunt of all the ideological spill left over from the 2007 election.

Australia needs itself to come together.

We are a Nation with much Knowledge and Wealth.

There is a national will to unite generations of people right now.

All peoples who think differently are being asked to share and exchange their knowledge. End the playboy semantics and spin.

We need to move forward as a 2008 Nation.

Andrew Hewett makes a valid point where he says "Australia is reaping the rewards of an extended mining boom so both government and industry can well afford to devote some of the profits to ensuring communities' grievances are heard and resolved. " and "We should not enjoy the riches of this mining boom without protecting the lives and livelihoods of those whose resources are being extracted for our benefit."

On the 'home front' I say we must look at the situation of HOUSING. Mining Companies ought to seek harder standards, in their role or the impact of their role on "communities" in this paradigm.

Hear the stories of the displaced Indigenous and non-indigenous locals" in Broom and other similar townships.

As civilized Australians, I don't believe we should be having this problem.

http://www.miacat.com/
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In 1984, BHP was allowed to open the mine and to dump 80,000 tonnes of waste directly into the Ok Tedi River every day. This then flows into PNG’s second largest river, the Fly River.

Not surprisingly the waste was having a devastating impact and the company acknowledged it would kill over two thousand square kilometres of forest along the Fly/Ok Tedi, and cause a possible total collapse of the fishery, in addition to the 70 to 90% of fish that were already dead in the Ok Tedi River.

In 1996 30,000 villagers living along the river won a significant victory. After two years of legal action in Australia, during which they had to establish their right to sue in an Australian court, they settled out of court for compensation and the company’s commitment that it would stop dumping its waste into the river.

By April 2000, with the waste dumping continuing, the villagers were back in court suing BHP for breach of the out of court settlement.

"BHP Billiton and the operators of the Ok Tedi copper mine in Papua New Guinea are currently being sued for more than $US4 billion ($A5.08 billion) damages by villagers on the Ok Tedi River.

"Experts predicted it would take 300 years to clean up the toxic contamination.

"Mr Narakobi represents six Ningerum clans that are not signatory to the Community Mine Continuation Agreement between landowners and Ok Tedi Mining Limited (OTML)."

Fortunately these clans did not succumb to the false promises of "prosperity" through compensation, in exchange for corporations knowingly causing catastrophic damage to their eco systems - the life blood for these communities and beyond.

Dickie-silt is not "toxic " waste. The chemicals are extracted before dumping. Studies have shown that the fish population has not, to my knowledge, diminished by the dramatic amounts you claim. Because of the "traim tasol" tactics of a bunch of lawyers, BHP pulled out. The mine is now a joint venture between the PNG government and someone else, unless things have changed again. The mine would have closed after BHP pulled out, but for this, and estimates of the social impact of the pull-out were that Tabubil would have died within 5 years, and the place would have reverted to not much more than a scruffy station in PNG, with all the attendant health/social problems etc. That would mean 20 000 people with nowhere to go, and with no future.

80 000 tonnes of silt per day and the die-back are major problems. But what alternative can you offer?
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It is fine to be indignant about mining companies in PNG. But they and the missions are the only vehicles bringing PNG into the modern world, and providing health-care, schooling and skills-training to outlying districts. There are NO government services left in the country, bar in a very few centres. If you firmly believe that we should leave such places as human stone-age zoos for the vicarious pleasures of those who are having a massive impact on our climate from merely driving their car to work, or who are taking unneccessary tourist trips (e.g. to walk the Kokoda Track) in jumbo jets, try living in harmony with nature in PNG and see how quickly you will want good public health care and a clean ambulance to your doorstep. And then listen, without hope, to your wife or daughter dying during a three week period from an ectopic pregnancy, or septicaemia after childbirth.

Finally, in PNG the landowners own the land and if they don't want a mine, it does not and cannot go ahead. As Bougainville has shown, the PNG landowners are perfectly capable of defending themselves.

HenryVIII

The non-toxic silt you refer to are tailings. Tailings are considered toxic and that's why all regulated mines must safely contain their tailings.

"It is fine to be indignant about mining companies in PNG. But they and the missions are the only vehicles bringing PNG into the modern world, and providing health-care, schooling and skills-training to outlying districts."

I believe that the well-regarded environmental scientist and mining consultant, Dr Alan Tingay would reject that claim HenryVIII since this is what he said after his expert assessment in September 2006:

"OVER THE PAST 20 YEARS THERE HAS NOT BEEN
A MARKED IMPROVEMENT IN BASIC NECESSITIES
OF COMMUNITY HEALTH, WOMENS HEALTH, SAFE
WATER SUPPLY, SANITATION AND FOOD
SECURITY.

" THE IMPACTS OF THE MINE WILL LAST
FOR MORE THAN A HUNDRED YEARS.

"THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS ON THE
OK TEDI AND FLY RIVER SYSTEMS WILL
HAVE PROFOUND AND INCREASING
SOCIAL IMPACT ON THOUSANDS OF
PEOPLE OVER MANY GENERATIONS

"FLOODING WILL CAUSE MAJOR CHANGES TO THE
WHOLE FLOODPLAIN ECOSYSTEM. THESE WILL
BE PERMANENT.

"DIEBACK WILL SEVERELY DEPLETE WILD FOODS,
FOREST ANIMALS AND OTHER FOREST
PRODUCTS

" FISH RESOURCES WILL CONTINUE TO BE
SEVERELY DEPLETED AND MAY NOT BE
ADEQUATE TO FEED THE POPULATION

"THE TRADITIONAL WATER SUPPLY FROM THE
RIVER IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE DUE TO
PERCEIVED POLLUTION.

"SANITATION IS LIKELY TO BECOME AN
IMPORTANT HEALTH ISSUE DUE TO THE
FLOODING OF TOILETS AND NEED TO USE THE
BUSH
•
"FLOODING MAY CAUSE AN INCREASE IN
MOSQUITO HABITATS WHICH WILL MEAN AN
INCREASE IN DISEASE (ARBOVIRUSES)

"ILLNESSES WILL INCREASE AS A RESULT OF
POOR NUTRITION."

http://www.wanbelistap.com/Downloads/TingayPresentation.pdf

http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/ore-production-and-waste-generation-at-ok-tedi-mine

HenryVIII

Given the overwhelming scientific evidence revealing the extent of the desecration of those eco systems, desecration which has been caused by the operations of the Ok Tedi mine, I believe it would be quite futile to try to make a silk purse out of a pig's ear.

Dickie- having lived and worked in PNG for 12 years, working with government and with people in the bush, and still being engaged in PNG, and having read a good number of reports on Ok Tedi from the early planning days as well as on the effects of mine closure, and having worked at mine sites and having seen what is being done and what is not being done, I may have some knowledge of the place and the people. Nothing is perfect, but no-one in PNG wants to live in a stone-age human zoo with a life-span of 30 years. It's not just Ok Tedi and "nasty" Australian mining companies that dump waste into rivers. The local indigenous miners in the Wau-Bulolo area have completely wrecked the Watut River running into the Markham River and out to the sea at Lae. Siltation from sluicing, gold panning and gold-washing with mercury by the local people continue to do a great deal of damage both to this river and elewhere. The PNG Mineral Resources Authority, which is heavily involved in mining, is trying to get education programmes out to the grass-roots folk about this, and I have also attempted to explain the dangers in using mercury to illiterate villagers who mine gold and use mercury. At least cyanide will oxidise very quickly in an open environment, whatever it may do to you if you swallow it. And the local people do a terrific amount of damage with deforestation, burning off every year and causing consequent siltation of their streams among other things-I've seen it. It's not a "4 legs good, 2 legs bad" type of situation, whatever we might prefer to think. Which is why this article is irritating.