VIC: BHP must clean up Ok Tedi disaster: ACF

AAP General News (Australia)
08-12-1999
VIC: BHP must clean up Ok Tedi disaster: ACF

MELBOURNE, Aug 12 AAP - BHP must accept responsibility for the environmental damage caused
by its Ok Tedi copper mine in Papua New Guinea, conservationists said today.

Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) executive director Don Henry said the mine was an
environmental disaster, having contaminated fertile river banks and killed productive forest
land.

"BHP can't walk away so fast," Mr Henry said in a statement.

"It has to stick around to clean up its mess.

"This means putting money and commitment into the clean-up."

The call came after the Mineral Policy Institute yesterday also urged BHP to take
responsibility for the environmental destruction caused by the mine.

BHP has said that it would consult a range of interested parties before making any decision
about the future of its 52 per cent stake in the mine.

But having considered the environmental and social reports, BHP believed the responsible
course of action was for the mine to continue to operate while the PNG government - a 30 per
cent stakeholder - and other parties decided on its longer-term future.

"It is not acceptable for BHP to simply hand its problems to the PNG government," institute
director Geoff Evans said.

"If the mine continues to operate, then BHP is responsible for making sure that it stops
polluting."

Mr Henry said 1,200 km of the Fly River and its river banks had been contaminated by the
mine waste and 1,350 km of productive forest land had died from seepage of mine-polluted
water.

"The real test of BHP's environmental credentials is the health of the environment and
communities which BHP leaves behind," he said.

AAP ljm/er/kr/br

KEYWORD: PNG OKTEDI (CARRIED EARLIER)

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