Against license to kill

Another bancyanide committee member admitted to hospital

2012-01-15T23:19:00.000-08:00

One of the bancyanide movement pioneers ~ Mr. Woon was attacked by stroke last night and admitted to ICU. He is in coma now.
Dear all friends, please pray for him.

BERNAMA:Federal Court Grants Leave To Appeal To Bukit Koman Residents

2012-01-12T23:13:00.000-08:00

PUTRAJAYA, Jan 11 (Bernama) -- Villagers of Kampung Bukit Koman in Raub who claim to have suffered health problems from the use of cyanide in a gold mine in the vicinty, can continue on with their legal struggle for a pollution- free environment.

This follows a decision by a three-man Federal Court panel chaired by Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Richard Malanjum to allow the residents' application for leave to appeal against a High Court's refusal to grant them permission to commence a judicial review.

They failed in their bid to obtain leave from the High Court on June 1 2009 to file a judicial review proceeding to challenge the Environment Director-General's decision to approve a preliminary environmental impact assessment (PEIA) report concerning the Bukit Koman gold mine which is located nearby their village.

Malanjum, who sat on the panel with Federal Court judges Tan Sri Abdull Hamid Embong and Datuk Ahmad Maarop, gave the nod on one legal question to be determined by the Federal Court.

The question of law was whether a court, in determining an application for extension of time to file a leave application, is required to consider the merits of the applicants' complaint set out in their leave application to commence a judicial review.

The High Court threw out the residents' leave application for a judicial review on grounds that there was an inordinate delay by them in filing the application and that they did not have good reasons for the court to grant an extension of time for them to file their application.

Order 53 Rule 6 of the Rules of the High Court 1980 provides that an application for leave for judicial review shall be made prompty and in any event within 40 days from the date when the grounds of the application first arose or when the decision was first communicated to the applicant.

The appellate court accepted the findings of the High Court and dismissed the residents' appeal on Aug 3 last year.

Outside the court, their lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar said both the High Court and appellate court had held that the court would only look at the reasons for the delay in filing the application and not the merits of the complaint which precluded the public interest dimension.

The Environment Director-General approved the PEIA report on Jan 13, 1997. Via a letter dated Feb 21, 2008, the DG declined to acceed to the residents' request to review the PEIA and require Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn Bhd (RAGMSB) to provide a detailed one.

On March 21, 2008, four representatives of the residents, Wong Kin Hoong, Chong Sow Pin, Hue Fui How and Mustapha Hussin (Mustapha passed away last night), filed leave to initiate a judicial review proceeding naming the Environment Director-General and RAGMSB.

The residents want the Environment DG to require RAGMSB to furnish a detailed EIA report as they claimed the preliminary EIA (PEIA) report submitted by the gold mining company on Aug 27, 1996 contained serious deficiencies.

They claimed the PEIA report omitted information on where and how treatment of gold mining waste should be disposed off, and also contained inadequate information on discharge of effluents.

The residents also alleged the PEIA report infringed on their fundamental rights to life and livelihood due to its omission on the facility's risks to public health and environment.

They also claimed that the PEIA preparation did not include public participation.

In their affidavit affirmed on May 12, 2009, the applicants alleged that in early February 2009, they encountered strong and noxious fumes several times a day, causing them to choke, suffer giddiness, shortness of breath, irritation to the eyes and lungs, nausea and body rashes.

Senior Federal Counsels Suzana Atan and Suhaila Haron represented the Enviroment Director-General while RAGMSB was represented by a team of lawyers led by Tan Sri Cecil Abraham.

-- BERNAMA

NST:Kg Bukit Koman residents get leave to appeal Read more: Kg Bukit Koman residents get leave to appeal

2012-01-02T23:15:00.000-08:00

PUTRAJAYA: Villagers of Kampung Bukit Koman in Raub who claim to have suffered health problems from the use of cyanide in a gold mine in the vicinty, can continue on with their legal struggle for a pollution- free environment.

This follows a decision by a three-man Federal Court panel chaired by Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Richard Malanjum to allow the residents' application for leave to appeal against a High Court's refusal to grant them permission to commence a judicial review.

They failed in their bid to obtain leave from the High Court on June 1 2009 to file a judicial review proceeding to challenge the Environment Director-General's decision to approve a preliminary environmental impact assessment (PEIA) report concerning the Bukit Koman gold mine which is located nearby their village.

Malanjum, who sat on the panel with Federal Court judges Tan Sri Abdull Hamid Embong and Datuk Ahmad Maarop, gave the nod on one legal question to be determined by the Federal Court. The question of law was whether a court, in determining an application for extension of time to file a leave application, is required to consider the merits of the applicants' complaint set out in their leave application to commence a judicial review.

The High Court threw out the residents' leave application for a judicial review on grounds that there was an inordinate delay by them in filing the application and that they did not have good reasons for the court to grant an extension of time for them to file their application.

Order 53 Rule 6 of the Rules of the High Court 1980 provides that an application for leave for judicial review shall be made prompty and in any event within 40 days from the date when the grounds of the application first arose or when the decision was first communicated to the applicant.

The appellate court accepted the findings of the High Court and dismissed the residents' appeal on Aug 3 last year.

Outside the court, their lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar said both the High Court and appellate court had held that the court would only look at the reasons for the delay in filing the application and not the merits of the complaint which precluded the public interest dimension.

The Environment Director-General approved the PEIA report on Jan 13, 1997. Via a letter dated Feb 21, 2008, the DG declined to acceed to the residents' request to review the PEIA and require Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn Bhd (RAGMSB) to provide a detailed one.

On March 21, 2008, four representatives of the residents, Wong Kin Hoong, Chong Sow Pin, Hue Fui How and Mustapha Hussin (Mustapha passed away last night), filed leave to initiate a judicial review proceeding naming the Environment Director-General and RAGMSB.

The residents want the Environment DG to require RAGMSB to furnish a detailed EIA report as they claimed the preliminary EIA (PEIA) report submitted by the gold mining company on Aug 27, 1996 contained serious deficiencies.

They claimed the PEIA report omitted information on where and how treatment of gold mining waste should be disposed off, and also contained inadequate information on discharge of effluents.

The residents also alleged the PEIA report infringed on their fundamental rights to life and livelihood due to its omission on the facility's risks to public health and environment.

They also claimed that the PEIA preparation did not include public participation.

In their affidavit affirmed on May 12, 2009, the applicants alleged that in early February 2009, they encountered strong and noxious fumes several times a day, causing them to choke, suffer giddiness, shortness of breath, irritation to the eyes and lungs, nausea and body rashes.

Senior Federal Counsels Suzana Atan and Suhaila Haron represented the Enviroment Director-General while RAGMSB was represented by a team of lawyers led by Tan Sri Cecil Abraham. -- BERNAMA

Wild Asia Heroes - The Bukit Koman community

2010-03-30T11:06:00.000-07:00

Wild Asia nominates the villagers of Bukit Koman as our first Wild Asia Hero. The 300-odd families have been fighting an uphill battle to protect their community and the environment from potential contamination by a gold mining facility in their village. JULES ONG reports.

Written by Jules Ong on 25 Jan 2010 with 0 comments. Be the first!

Our first Wild Asia Heroes nomination goes to the Anti-Cyanide Committee of Bukit Koman. For two years, the Committee has led an on-going campaign to stop the usage of cyanide in gold mining in their village. Theirs is a story of courage and resilience in the face of formidable challenges. Wild Asia highlights their struggles in the hope that their story will offer inspiration and spur people to action.

Bukit Koman is a small village of 300 families. Most of the villagers are descendants of miners from Raub, the town just next to the village, once known as the "gold capital" of Malaya.

With the resurgence of gold price, the Raub Australian Gold Mining (RAGM) company had began a multi-million dollar operation using a new method to extract gold from tailings left behind from decades of conventional mining.

This method - carbon-in-leach - has an 80% efficacy rate of extracting gold, a far more effective but expensive way compared to shaft mining. It also carries more risk. According to the project's Environment Impact Assessment, 400 tonnes of sodium cyanide, a highly toxic compound is used in the facility every year. That translates to 1.5 tonnes a day!

What's worrying the villagers is that the facility is only 100 to 200 meters from the village and any spillage would be an environmental disaster.

According to the UNEP there have been 10 mining spills between 1985 and 2000 worldwide. The worst was in Romania, where 50 to 100 tonnes of cyanide spilled into the Danube water catchment killing tonnes of fish. Cyanide vapours could be seen hovering above the water surface for days.

Bukit Koman also sits in a water catchment area crisscrossed by many rivers that feed into the Klau Dam 13 km away. In a couple of year's time, this new dam will supply water to Selangor, the most populous state in Malaysia.

In March 2008, Dr Glen C. Miller of the University of Nevada and an expert in mining contamination visited Bukit Koman. After doing an investigation, he said the gold mining facility did not follow international standards of safety and is likely to cause long-term contamination.

Worried, the villagers organised themselves and set up the Bukit Koman Action Committee Against Cyanide. They have sent numerous letters of concern and memorandums to the company and the government, demanding for transparency in the mining operations and concrete safety measures in case of spillage.

In 2008, they collected 10,000 signatures voicing their objections to the usage of cyanide in the mining facility. They also mounted a legal challenge to stop the operations in their request for a judicial review of the Environmental Impact Assessment. But their application was quashed last year.

Their many requests for a dialogue with the company and the government who had approved the mining facility have all fallen on deaf ears. RAGM had begun its full operations using cyanide since February last year.

RAGM is a Malaysian company that is wholly owned by the Peninsular Gold Limited. It is listed in the London Stock Exchange and registered in Jersey, a semi-autonomous region under the British Crown. Jersey is also dubiously known as a tax haven.

The company's main shareholder is Andrew Kam whose father, Kam Mun Wah, is a veteran politician of the Malaysian Chinese Association, a component political party of the ruling government. Its other shareholders are the daughter of the Sultan of Pahang, Puteri Seri Lela Manja and her ex-husband, Mohd Moiz.

Despite tremendous odds, the villagers of Bukit Koman have shown great fortitude to fight for their rights - their right to information, to clean air and water, and their right to life.

Because of their determination in protecting the environment and their community's well being, a vision that Wild Asia shares, we are proud to honour them as Wild Asia Heroes.

Cyanide use in gold-mining is 'safe'

2009-11-21T01:02:00.001-08:00

The Star

Please join us!

2009-11-18T01:08:00.000-08:00

Many of us wish to contribute our efforts in protecting our home land

by posting bancyanide logo and calling for help @ Facebook...

by wearing green when traveling to overseas...

by creating awareness no matter where they go...

by writing about this environmental issue in their blogs...

by participating every event held to show their supports...

they are willing to do anything for the smoothness of the event...

Friend, are you ready to join us?
We can do even more to save our home land.

The gold price is tremendously high, our healths and environment are now been threatening.We have nothing more to lose!

Please join us!

A meeting will be held in KL on 23-11-2009（Mon）@ 8PM.
Please send email to bancyanide@gmail.com if you are concern about the life and environment .

Freedom Film Fest 2009

2009-11-05T02:37:00.000-08:00

Freedom Film Fest is a harvest of local and international documentary feature and short films dealing with the topic of human rights, social and environmental justice.
A film named 'Peace Cyanide Hill' which tell a story about cyanide mining in Bukit Koman, was one of the films screened in Freedom Film Fest 2009.
'Bukit Koman, situated in the heart of Raub in Pahang was once known to be the "gold capital" via the promising extraction of gold. In 2009, the gold mining company and its allies decided to extract the remaining gold, this time allegedly with the use of cyanide. Fearing for their lives and health, the villagers have lodged dissent against the alleged use of cyanide. Despite these concerns, the corporation, government and legal system have thus far ignored the pleas of the desperate villagers...'
We would like to convey our highest gratitude to the producer, Thilaga Sulathireh, and everybody who took part in making the film success. Thanks for your concern towards the environment and let our voices heard through the film.

Mid Autumn Dinner held successfully

2009-10-23T05:28:00.000-07:00

Mid Autumn Dinner was held successfully without any disruption by the police despite sudden change of the venue due to unforeseen circumstances.

Introduction of '1 Malaysia' by PM followed by variety mid autumn songs.

Dancing presentation at the beginning of the show.

～Negaraku～

Welcome speech by the chair person~Mr. Woon.

Ribbon-cutting ceremony by Pahang Exco member~
Dato' Ho Khai Mun

Opening ceremony speech.
"Pahang state government is very concern about cyanide mining matter,we are trying to solve it step by step."

Singing song with edited lyrics-Peak of the show!
《我愿意》
“嘟嘟”是一种很毒的东西，随风而行，
无声又无息出没在村里，转眼跑进我们身体，
我无法承受，特别是夜里，哦~它令我无法呼吸，
恨不得立即朝你狂奔去，可惜找不到你。。。（我别TAHAN）
我们求求你（x3），装置探测器，
只要你借出空气探测器，我们的村子有转机，
我们因为你(x3) ，就快要断气，
只要你愿意借我们探测器，我真的很感激，真的很感激有你！

《月亮圆》
现在的孩子不相信家乡是安全的，
我们所呼吸不再是新鲜和自由的空气，
当有一天啊这悲剧真的上演，
亲爱的朋友们你们可否告诉我，
我们的未来何去何从？
月亮圆月亮圆月亮照在我的家，
只有健康安全的家流传千年。。。

《但愿人长久》
我们很忧愁，真的想爆头，
为何明明很危险，他们说很安全？
我有一个心愿，把它赶出家园，
从此不再辗转难眠，人人展笑颜，大家来团圆。

Bukit Koman Choir:《传灯》《把根留住》《我家在哪里》

（Conducted by 林铭伟老师）

Poetry：《把根留住。爱劳勿》

Harmonica presentation:《故乡》《榕树下》。

History of Raub~Emas!

Lantern riddles and 'story telling' by Ling Kek Mun.

《月亮代表我的心》sung by Mr.Tang.

Master Shi Ru Chi and his slogan:

‘一个你，一个我，一个武吉公满，一个劳勿，一个彭亨州，
一个大马，同一颗心，同抗山埃，保卫家园。”Funny story telling by Mr. Tan.

Ms.Chen: "Nothing to talk about since we are not allow to do so...
Air and water monitoring is compulsory."

Lastly, Mr. Wong was requested to sing《汪洋中的一条船》。
汪洋中的一条船
船中装满血泪和血汗
不怕风不怕巨浪
勇敢地向前勇敢向前闯
汪洋中的一条船
它为了那艰苦的希望
努力闯克服万难
流尽了多少的折磨血汗
啊它虽然它虽然
受尽狂风受尽风霜
啊它奋斗它奋斗
受尽折磨受尽凄凉
不怕那道路长
不怕那千万难
就算是上刀山也要闯
汪洋中的一条船
船中装满血泪和血汗
不怕风不怕巨浪
勇敢地向前勇敢向前闯
汪洋中的一条船
它为了那艰苦的希望
努力闯克服万难
流尽了多少的折磨血汗
啊它克服它克服
饥寒交迫追求理想
啊它忍受它忍受
爬在地上受尽创伤
那怕是风霜苦
那怕是刀上刺
也要为它理想开创幸福

p/s: Many villagers asked:
"Why do we not allowed to mention even the word CYANIDE?"
IS THIS WHAT PM MEANT NATION UNDER THE BEAUTIFUL SLOGAN OF '1 MALAYSIA'?"

Lantern Festival Bukit Koman

2009-10-04T23:08:00.001-07:00

About 200 villagers of Bukit Koman were celebrating Lantern Festival on 3-10-2009.
We began our lantern walk from Balai Raya Bukit Koman to gold mine area, then went through "huo che lu bei", carrying colourful lanterns with the lantern lights flickering in the darkness.

Both kids and adults had fun!

Creative villagers shown their lanterns which made of disposed styrofoam lunch box.

Villagers enjoyed the foods and moon cakes served.

Villagers who like singing prensented few songs during the gathering. What a delightful lantern festival in Bukit Koman!

Unfortunately, few Peronda cars and 30 over polices came and advised us to dismiss as
the villagers do not grant any permit for the lantern festival celebration!

Finally, we were forced to dismiss at 8:45pm.

Mid Autumn Celebration Poster

2009-09-28T07:24:00.000-07:00

Raub regaining lustre as gold mine under RM60m investment

2009-08-01T09:30:00.002-07:00

By Gan Yen Kuan fd@bizedge.com

Raub, once a thriving gold mine in Pahang, is set to regain its lustre under London-listed Peninsular Gold Ltd’s RM60 million investment to build a hi-tech gold processing plant.

The Malaysian-controlled company, via its unit Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn Bhd, has mining rights on a 202ha of land in Raub, with proven tailings reserves of 180,000 ounces.

Peninsular Gold chairman and chief executive Datuk Seri Andrew Kam said on March 2 the company’s target was to extract 100,000 ounces of gold a year. There are also plans for further RM150-million investment.

He was speaking to reporters at the groundbreaking ceremony for the plant. The RM60-million plant will be financed from borrowings and equity and it can process 1.1 million tonnes of tailings to produce 25,000 ounces of gold a year.

The plant, scheduled to be completed in 12 months, will use the carbon-in-leach (CIL) technology to extract gold from tailings – residues left behind by earlier miners who used traditional gravity methods of gold extraction.

Kam said the CIL technology, which had been used worldwide over 30 years, enable miners to recover up to 85% of gold from the tailings compared with 15% under the traditional gravity method.

According to World Gold Council, the world produced 2,467 tonnes of gold in 2006, while total demand stood at 3,362 tonnes. Gold prices are now hovering around US$660 (RM2315) per ounce.

Peninsular Gold posted a net loss of 1.44 million sterling pounds (RM9.88 million) for the 14-month financial period ended June 30, 2006. Kam said he hoped the company would start making profits in two-and-a-half years once the plant starts operations.

He said Peninsular Gold had been working with the Pahang State Development Corporation over the past 10 years to unearth for more gold mines in the state, including the Bentong-Raub area.

“We are very confident there is a lot of gold. We just need to continue our exploration. Proven reserves are 180,000 ounces, which we are going to mine immediately,” he said.

Meanwhile, Pahang Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob said the investments by Peninsular Gold would create a spin-off effect for the district’s economy.

Raub produced over one million ounces of gold in the past 100 years. Royalties collected by the state government from gold mining companies totalled RM6.15 million in 2005 and RM11.62 million in 2006. There are 44 mining certificate holders in the state, 31 of which are for gold mining.

BERNAMA:Bukit Koman Residents Apply For Judicial Review

2009-08-01T09:26:00.002-07:00

KUALA LUMPUR, March 22 (Bernama) -- Residents of Kampung Bukit Koman, Raub, Pahang yesterday filed an application for a judicial review at the High Court here on the decision by the Director-General of Environment which approved the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report for the proposal for gold mining activity at Bukit Koman.

The EIA report was submitted by the Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn Bhd (RAGMSB) on Aug 27 1996 and approved by the Director-General of Environment on Jan 13 1997, but according to the Action Committee Against the Use of Cyanide in the mining operations at Bukit Koman, the residents of Kampung Bukit Koman were not assured that the use of the cyanide would not affect their health and pollute their environment.

The application for the judicial review was filed by four representatives of the residents comprising Wong Kin Hoong, Chong Sow Pin, Hue Fui How and Mustapha Hussin at the High Court Registrar's Office (Appeals and Special Powers Division) through the legal firm Messrs Meena Raman & Partners and the applicants named the Director-General of Environment and RAGMSB as the first and second respondents respectively.

They are seeking for a declaration that the EIA report for the proposed mining and extraction of gold from the old mine at Bukit Koman which was submitted by RAGMSB to the Director-General of Environment did not meet the requirement and regulations outlined in Section 34A of the Environment Quality Act 1974 (AKAS).

Among other things, they are also seeking for a certiorary order to revoke the decision of the first defendant dated Jan 13 1997 which approved the EIA report, besides seeking for a declaration that the decision of the first respondent on Feb 21 which rejected the application by the action committee so that RAGMSB was required to prepare and provide a new and detailed EIA report was unfair and unreasonable.

-- BERNAMA

Call for probe into gold mine

2009-08-01T09:25:00.000-07:00

▲Choong Siew Onn claims the company had gone against government requirements

PUTRAJAYA: About 50 villagers living in and around Bukit Koman village in Pahang yesterday complained to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission about possible abuses in connection with the operation of a gold mine.

They wanted the MACC to investigate why the authorities did not take action against a gold mining company in Raub for allegedly using dangerous chemicals.

The residents turned up at the MACC office at 10am, carrying a banner protesting the use of cyanide in the gold mining process.

Among the 50 was Tras assemblyman Choong Siew Onn who claimed the company had gone against government requirements by using chemicals that could jeopardise the health of villagers.

"Despite numerous objections and appeals to the 'bigwigs', nothing has been done, which leads us to believe there is some foul play involved," said Choong.
Teratai assemblyman Janice Lee was also present.

One of the villagers, Raja Puji Raja Abd Hamid, claimed: "Although it has only been two months since the company has been operational, we have noticed that the small fish and shellfish have disappeared."

Raja Puji, who is Pas Raub division head, said many residents had complained of a pungent stench and itchiness of the skin.

Mining is safe, Bukit Koman residents told

2009-08-01T09:23:00.000-07:00

By SIMON KHOO
http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2009/5/25/southneast/3952210&sec=southneast

RAUB: Bukit Koman residents can rest assured that mining activities near their homes will not affect their health.

State Local Government, Environment and Health Committee chairman Datuk Hoh Khai Mun said the relevant authorities had been directed to monitor the area closely and furnish the state with reports from time to time.

Hoh said the task had been given to the Environment, Health, Minerals and Geoscience departments.

“Geologists will check the mining site every week. Every three months, a medical team will carry out health inspections on residents living in the vicinity.

“The team will take water samples from the area to ensure it is pollution-free,” he said after chairing a meeting with representatives of the three departments here recently.

Hoh said the reports would be discussed during the weekly exco meetings and that precautionary measures had been put in place to safeguard the health of residents.

He said the latest report showed that 60 houses with 246 occupants had been inspected and declared safe.

Water samples taken in April showed no signs of contamination, while early this month, health authorities detected 0.03mg/l of cyanide, which was within the permissible level, he said.

Teras assemblyman Choong Siew Onn said a group of residents had filed a suit against the Environment Department and the mining firm.

The issue had put the authorities in a fix as the residents had staged numerous protests against the firm for using cyanide in the mining activities.

On April 28, a vocal protester was found dead in his durian orchard and this raised suspicions, leading to the lodging of a police report.

A post-mortem by Raub Hospital revealed that Chong Sow Peng, 63, had died of a heart attack, allaying fears that he had succumbed to cyanide poisoning.

THIRD EYE: Poisonous gold, ungrateful bloggers and pundits

2009-08-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

Malay Mail

GOLD it is and it will surely glitter but the risk is too much for one small community. According to media reports, "the residents of Kampung Bukit Koman in Raub, who claimed to have suffered health problems from the use of cyanide in the Bukit Koman gold mine project, today failed to get leave for a judicial review to stop the project".

Counsel for the residents explained that the judgement was based on the failure of the residents to fIle their complaint within 40 days after the Environmental Impact Assessment report was issued. The residents feel that the report does not comply with environmental laws.

Can this small community beat the big company? Stayed tuned.

Explanation Needs To Be Given To Bukit Koman Residents

2009-08-01T09:16:00.000-07:00

Raub,Pahang was once the largest gold-mine site in the country.

The gold-mine site in Raub is situated at a new village known as Bukit Koman. During the 1900's era, Bukit Koman experienced an era of remarkable progress due to the gold-mine development in the area. At the end of the gold mine era during the 1960's, Bukit Koman faced obstacles in its local development. This place is a new village which exudes customs and traditions, and native culture, and emphasized a common social communication of local residents since the past decade.

In the year 2007, an international invester and, once again resumed gold mining activities without giving notice and informing the local residents. The problem now is not mining but the use of toxic materials especially cyanide in the mining process.

The relevant authorities did not take the necessary precautions to explain to the residents about the ill effects of cyanide which is harmful to human beings and the natural environment. The local residents discovered the problem of cyanide by searching for and collecting information on their own effort.

At the same time time, the local residents became aware that this problem could become a serious threat, which may poison the whole village. After which they formed a committee which protested against the use of cyanide in local mining and searched for various solutions and used proper channels to voice their grievances which needed help from outside.

The local residents are not against development as such, and progress brought about by mining but, several questions that follow frighten them.

1. Every kind of industry should be situated at least more than 5 km away from residential areas. However, the site of Bukit Koman gold mining is situated about one main road away from the residences of local people and not 10 km from their homes. How could certification be issued when the gold mining location does not have a clear buffer zone from the residential quarters, shops and schools. The mining location uses 1.5 tons of toxic chemical materials every day.

2. There are clear examples concerning incidents of toxic material leakage from mining locations in foreign countries. In Indonesia , a case of mercury leakage happened in Buyat, which caused 1,000 local residents who lived in 6 different villages to suffer the dangerous effects of poison caused by toxic materials. The Indonesian Government in the end ordered all local residents to evacuate from the affected areas. In the USA, an incident of cyanide leakage also accurred in Colorado. This particular incident caused the death of all marine creatures within a radius of 27 km. A case of cyanide leakage and environmental pollution could also occur in USA, which is a developed nation; what more in Malaysia, a country that is not yet designated as a developed nation, where there are doubts whether it can be assured that cyanide will be used in a safe manner?

3.The local residents had contacted the relevant authorities and, the latter replied that the use of cyanide in mining is safe if the management, production and manufacturing process is well run and supervised. But the relevant authority cannot guarantee the safety of the residents by giving a reply like that. The safety policy and monitoring systems that are applied has never been set out by the relevant authorities. If the safety of the residents is guaranteed, why don’t the authorities allow the local residents to visit the gold mine location to further understand the safety precautions it employs so as have an assurance of their safety.

For the last 2 years, the authorities still have neither supplied information nor given any explanation regarding questions forwarded by the concerned residents of Bukit Koman.

Submissions of memorandums, face to face discussions, holding rallies and open vocal opposition at public places, including whatever ways that are used by the local residents have all been exhausted.

Last year,the local residents decided to challenge the approval of the authority regarding the use of cyanide in gold mining in Bukit Koman and, filed an application for leave for judicial review of the EIA (Enviromental Impact Assessment) that was approved in 1997. However, the High Court did not allow the application after conducting a hearing which took more than one year. The reason given by the High Court was that the application made by the local residents of Bukit Koman was late because the Department of Environment (DOE) had approved the EIA in 1997. The court did not accept the arguments of the residents that they were unaware of the approval of the EIA until only recently, and that they could not file the application earlier as they required expert reports on the contents of the EIA. The High Court’s rejection of the residents’ application has crashed their hopes. However, they refuse to give up and have filed an appeal to the Court of Appeal.

The residents are now faced with many obstacles that concern environmental pollution which will seriously affect their lives and the health of their immediate families.

This case is seen and is connected to not only an issue that involves the daily livelihood of local residents but also involves the issue of the natural environment and basic human rights of each individual. Every strata of society cannot brush aside this case and , most important of all, the government should take proper steps to enrich and protect the livelihood of its citizens.

The final hope of the local residents is receiving help from the government. As a government that places the interest of its citizens first, it must carry out its responsibility to ensure the well-being of the people, besides emphasizing progress and national economic development and, safe-guarding the priorities and safety of its citizens.

Under the "people first" policy which was brought forward by the new Prime Minister, it is hoped that the government will treatthe utmost seriousness and take appropriate actions at the same time to resolve this issue, as explanations to the 3 questions brought forward by the local citizens of Bukit Koman.

A safe place to live in, a lasting peace and good health for a family and the next generation after it, are all that are hoped for and yearned by each citizen.

Why Start Operation in 2009 but not 1997?

2009-06-30T18:25:00.000-07:00

Gold Price From 1999 to 2009

http://www.kitco.com/charts/livegold.html

Why AIM LSE but not KLSE?

2009-06-30T07:23:00.000-07:00

Peninsular Gold Limited was incorporated in April 2005 in Jersey (registration number:89895) and listed on AIM, London Stock Exchange on 23rd June 2005 (EPI code:PGL).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_Investment_Market

The Alternative Investment Market (AIM) is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange, allowing smaller companies to float shares with a more flexible regulatory system than is applicable to the Main Market. The AIM was launched in 1995 and has raised almost £24 billion for more than 2,200 companies. Flexibility is provided by less regulation and no requirements for capitalization or number of shares issued. Some companies have since moved on to join the Main Market, although in the last few years, significantly more companies transferred from the Main Market to the AIM (The AIM has significant tax advantages for investors, as well as less regulatory burden for the companies themselves). In 2005, 40 companies moved directly from the Main Market to the AIM, while only two companies moved from the AIM to the Main Market.

The AIM has also started to become an international exchange, often due to its low-regulatory burden, especially in relation to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (though only a quarter of AIM-listed companies would qualify to list on a U.S. stock exchange even prior to passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act). As of December 2005 over 270 foreign companies had been admitted to the Alternative Investment Market.

Criticism

"Casino" environment

In March 2007, U.S. securities regulator Roel Campos suggested that AIM's rules for share trading have created a market like a "casino". Campos reportedly said: "I'm concerned that 30% of issuers that list on AIM are gone in a year. That feels like a casino to me and I believe that investors will treat it as such." The comment resulted in several angry retorts, including one from the LSE, which controls AIM, pointing out that the number of companies that go into liquidation or administration in a year is actually fewer than 2%.

AIM has since issued new rules requiring that listed companies maintain a website.

Langbar International Limited Fraud

AIM has come under additional criticism for allowing Langbar International to be listed. At £375 million ($750m) Langbar is the biggest share fraud on the Exchange to date. It is presently being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office and the City of London Police. It was discovered in November 2005, that Langbar had none of the assets it declared at listing and this was due in part to the failure of the Nomad (Nominated Adviser) to carry out Due Diligence and the Exchange failing to ensure that the AIM rules had been complied with. After the fraud was uncovered, the AIM changed the rules for Nomads in 2006 and on 19 October 2007 they fined Nabarro Wells £250,000 ($512,500)"Historic Currency Conversion" DCERATES.com 19 October 2007, and publicly censured them for breaches of the AIM rules

Gold Vs Human Life

2009-06-29T18:07:00.000-07:00

Original POst: http://www.malaysianmirror.com/homedetail/45-home/3070-gold-v-human-lives-
Stanley Koh

Monday, 29 June 2009 13:11

KUALA LUMPUR - During the Second World War, hydrogen cyanide was used in the Nazi gas chambers in the concentration camps of Auswitz and Maidanek that killed millions of people. When Germany was defeated, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, his henchmen including Himmler and Goering and mistress Eva Braun committed suicide by taking sodium cyanide.

Cyanide is so toxic and lethal to humans and the environment that many countries have either curbed its use in industrial mining or completely banned it.

Environmentalists and human rights groups across the globe lobbied against the industrial use of cyanide particularly in the mining of gold.

The contamination involving the Bong Mieu River in central Quan Nam, a province in Vietnam which was polluted by gold mining activities, is a recent infamous incident.

According to news reports in Vietnam, the Bong Mieu Gold Mining Company infringed environmental laws while using 9.5 tonnes of cyanide a month in its gold mining activities.

The company did not complete its waste treatment system and had not submitted documents for inspection of its facilities as required before a gold mining company could begin operations.

When local residents reported fishes and livestock died mysteriously and children fell ill allegedly because the air was poisoned, the local authority ignored the complaints.

“No one dared to bathe in the river because of fear of getting skin diseases and livestock that fell sick after drinking the water. The company’s plant often released thick fumes into the atmosphere around midnight,” said Ung Thi Tai, a resident.

When the disaster finally was acknowledged, officials found that the company had not only failed to build an air monitoring and treatment system for the dust particles produced by its activities but it had also secretly released untreated waste water into the river during rainy days.

Cyanide disasters

Another case that occurred in 2000 involved a Romanian gold mining company with Australian equity interest. Baia Mare Aurul Gold Mine released 100,000 cubic metres of waste water heavily contaminated with cyanide into the Lapus and some tributaries of the River Tisza, one of the biggest in Hungary.

The cyanide contaminated water was carried to the Danube river which flows through Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania. It caused extensive damage to the river’s ecosystem and its fauna.

The European Environment Agency described the Romanian case as the worst to affect the region’s river system.

In 1988, a toxic spill in southern Spain from the Boliden Apirsa zinc mine in Aznalcollar cost tax payers EUR 377.70 million (RM1.87 billion).

According to a Greenpeace International report, there are regular incidents involving cyanide in mining. The report explained “tailing dams”, where the contaminated waste water from the mining process is stored are a frequent cause of serious environmental disasters.

New technology

Cyanide “heap leaching’ refers to the use of highly toxic solutions to recover gold from large piles of low-grade ore or “tailings” left behind in gold mining as used in the United States in the late 1980s and early 1990s by making it profitable to recover even small amounts of the precious metal.

Since the 1960s when “cyanide heap leaching” was introduced in the mining process, the toxic impact of gold mining increased. The process involves pouring a cyanide solution over crushed ore. The cyanide solution percolates, dissolves the gold and carries it to solution ponds. This technique requires use of large quantities of highly toxic cyanide.

The cyanide solution is either re-used or stored in a dam or directly discharged into rivers or the sea. Toxic heavy metals and metalloids, such as arsenic, occur frequently in ores and can be released with crushing and leaching.

The killing ponds and dams

Heap leach gold mines, however, collect cyanide-laden waste water in huge ponds or “tailing basins”, some of which cover as much as 25 hectares. In the Romanian case, human negligence was discovered in the construction of the dam and the tailing basin.

The dam burst because a high amount of sand instead of rocky materials were used, making it unstable.

“Mining companies violate even minimal environmental standards all over the world and destroy large areas of nature,” the Greenpeace report charged.

“Habitats are destroyed and groundwater supplies and river systems are polluted, particularly in developing countries, where mining companies often ignore environmental standards,” the report added.

The blame game

A group calling itself Cyanide-Free-Romania concluded after the tragedy that, “It is standard practice that each time when an accident occurs at a mine site, the mining company claims that it is not responsible as its operation was authorised by the relevant national authorities.”

In the Vietnamese case, the Bong Mieu Gold Mining Company blamed the death of aquatic life on heavy rain and abnormal weather.

Greenpeace believes international rules should be established for the use of cyanide in mining including full liability by mining companies for all the potential damage both to people and the environment.

There should be a ban on mining in areas of special environmental interest or close to populated areas while stringent standards should be set for mining operations that cover transport, storage and treatment of waste and products, it said.

Following the Romanian disaster, the country’s government banned the use of cyanide in mining. Cyanide use in mining is also banned in some parts in the United States and provinces of Argentina.

Indeed, defending the use of cyanide in gold mining can never justify the high risk of human negligence and indifference of a government towards the right to a safe living environment.

Gold can never be valued higher than human lives.

SUNDAY READINGS JUST FOR YEN YEN & MURU.

2009-06-29T07:42:00.000-07:00

CYANIDE for Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn Bhd is transported by tankers. According to Blogger Caffeinbar, it will travel through a 144km route, passing through dense Klang Valley populated area. The route from Port Klang, will have to pass through Klang, Petaling Jaya, Kepong, Selayang, Batu Caves and then along the Genting Highland highway stretch before reaching Raub.

Unlike inflammable material, a breach of cyanide salt during transportation is a potential disaster. Grain of cyanide salt can be borne by winds to long distances.

If Yen Yen and Muru still dismiss this as frivolous, there is little we can do, except urge them to continue reading and judge for themselves.

1. SPILLS AND LEAKS

DECEMBER, 2006 Alaska: Cyanide was found seeping this winter from a hillside next to the dam that holds back waste from Alaska's largest gold mine, the Fort Knox Mine near Fairbanks. Read more.

JUNE 18 2006 Ghana: A cyanide spillage at Bogoso Gold Limited (BGL) tailings dam polluted Ajoo stream, killing fish and lobsters A joint on the main tailings returning pipe was disengaged and cyanide-laden tailings poured into the external environment. It has been reported that 30 community members who drank the water or ate the fish and lobsters suffered dizziness, headaches. stomach aches, loss of appetite, itching tongue and skin itches.

JANUARY 2006: Czech cyanide leak kills thousands of fish in Elbe

NOVEMBER 28, 2005, ROMANIA Cyanide Pollution from local mine risks reaching Hungary A cyanide spill from theBursa mining exploitation was expected to contaminate the Hungarian section of Tisza River...

OCTOBER 11 and 31, 2005, PHILIPPINES: Lafayette Mining's Rapu Rapu polymetallic project in the Philippines had two spills of process treatment water allegedly causing cyanide contamination of nearby waters with the first causing a small fish kill.

JUNE 20, 2005, LAOS: A cyanide spill occurred at the Phu Bia gold mine in Laos, operated by Australian company Pan Australian Resources. The cyanide killed fish in the nearby rivers and poisoned villagers within at least 3km of the mine site. Numerous sources in Laos, including government officials have reported that at least 60-100s of villagers fell ill as a result of poisoning after eating contaminated fish and drinking contaminated water. Despite confirmation by the government owned media that hundreds of villagers were poisoned from the cyanide spill, the company has claimed that no one suffered illness as a result of the incident. Read Mineral Policy Institute's report at:http://www.mpi.org.au/campaigns/cyanide/phubia_cyanide/

JANUARY 11, 2005, GHANA: Wexford Ghana Limited at Akyempim in the Western Region, a subsidiary of Bogoso Gold Limited and owned by Golden Star Resources spilled cyanide into River Kubekro

OCTOBER 23 2004, GHANA: A cyanide spill occurred from a new tailings dam of Canadian company Bogoso Gold Limited into the river Aprepre, which serves as drinking water for surrounding communities, as well as other rivers including Egya Nsiah, Benya and Manse. Villagers downstream found hundreds of dead fish, crabs, shrimps and other life forms floating on the river. Some members of the community harvested and ate the fish before they received information about the spillage. (Source:www.ghanaweb.com)

OCTOBER 2004 WESTERN AUSTRALIA: A report commissioned by the WA Government into the tailings dams at the Kalgoorlie Gold mine confirmed that the mine has been leaking cyanide into the surrounding groundwater which was contaminated by cyanide and heavy metals. Surrounding community members have been complaining of impacts for over a decade but the company had previously denied the allegations.

JANUARY 30 2004, AUSTRALIA: A report commissioned by the Western Australia Government into the tailings dams at the Kalgoorlie Gold mine confirmed that the mine had been leaking cyanide into the surrounding groundwater. Surrounding community members had been complaining of impacts for over a decade but the company had previously denied the allegations. (Media Release by Robin Chapple,MLC, WA Legislative Council)

AUGUST 7 2004 PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Cyanide was discharged from the Misima mine, a subsidiary of Placer Dome, during decommissioning of the minesite, polluting oceans around the small island. The discharge resulted in poisoning of marine life, with reports of dead fish found floating in the oceans confirmed by the company as linked to the discharge. (The National, PNG, 11 of August)

JUNE 25 2004 CHINA: The State Council of China reported seven cases of leaks of lethal chemical products in the past week, which claimed a total of 21 lives across the country. The latest was a hydrogen cyanide gas leak from a gold mining plant in Beijing's suburban district of Huairou that killed three people and left another 15 hospitalized. (Source: People's Daily Online, 25th June 2004)

MARCH 21 2004, GHANA: Villagers near Prestea Sankofa Goldmine, a concession own by the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) in the Western Region spotted a cyanide spillage in their river and reported the matter to the mine.
(Source:http://www.wildchild777.com/mambo/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=68&Itemid=2)

MARCH 24 2004, NEW ZEALAND: About thirty-five people were evacuated from a Lower Hutt transit depot as emergency services mopped up a toxic chemical spill. Two 180-litre drums of cyanide solution were damaged inside the Mainfreight depot, possibly by a forklift.

MARCH 18 2004, ROMANIA: Romania's Siret River, a tributary of the Danube, was reported to be contaminated by cyanide. The chemicals involved in the spill leaked from a deactivated chemical processing plant, where storage conditions may not have been up to international standards. Estimates are that "10 tons of toxic substances leaked into the river", according to Ioan Jelev, of Romania's Environment Ministry. A similar incident occured in 2001 in the same place, poisoning fish. (Source: Reuters).

MAY 29 2003, GHANA: A cyanide spillage occurred at Tarkwa gold mine in the Wassa West District, when the dangerous chemical spilled from one of three newly constructed pipelines.

JANUARY 14 2003, NICARAGUA: A cyanide solution spill took place at the Canadian gold-mining company HEMCONIC and/or Greenstone in Bonanza, in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region, dumping cyanide into the Bambana river. Health workers from local Indigenous communities reported the deaths of twelve children who are suspected of having been poisoned by drinking water from the Bambana River.
(Source: WRM's bulletin Nº 74, September 2003).

JANUARY 2003, WESTERN HONDURAS: A massive cyanide spill at the San Andrés mine, department of Copán, Western Honduras, contaminated the Lara River, which feeds into the river providing drinking water for the town of Santa Rosa de Copán. Even though local inhabitants reported witnessing company employees hauling away evidence, they managed to amass some 18,000 dead fish, a testament to the environmental destruction caused to the now lifeless river and to the ecosystems it nourishes. The chemicals killed off fish in the Lara River, which flows into the Higuito, the main supply of potable water for the Santa Rosa de Copan region, one of the cradles of the ancient Maya civilisation. Minosa was slapped with a 54,000-dollar fine for contaminating the environment after a cyanide spill was discovered.

DECEMBER 2nd, 2003 USA: A cyanide spill was reported near the Briggs Mine in Balleratt.

JUNE 18th 2002, GHANA: The residents of Togbekrom, a farming community near Akyempim in the Wassa Mpohor East district of the Western Region, appealed to the Minister of Environment and Science to come to their aid immediately. Due to the closeness of the mine to the village, the cyanide being used by the company in its operations is giving them a lot of health problems.
(Source: Emmanuel Akli, Akyempim Ghanaian ChronicleAccra, June 18th, 2002)

JUNE 9 2002, NEVADA, USA: Leaching process solution used at the Denton-Rawhide Mine, located in Mineral County, Nevada, overflowed containment structures from a ruptured pipe triggering the mine’s Emergency Response Plan. Approximately 40,000 gallons of dilute cyanide process solution spilled into the environment. The spill was caused by a failure of a weld on a 16-inch diameter pipeline that was carrying process solution from a lined storage pond to a lined heap leach pad. The process solution is at a concentration of about 140 parts of cyanide per million parts of solution, resulting in a spill of approximately 47 pounds of cyanide.

MAY 16 2002, NEVADA, USA: Twenty-four thousand gallons of cyanide solution were spilled at a mining facility, Twin Creeks Mine, owned by Newmont Mining Company. ANevada official said 10,000 gallons entered a creek. In recent years, the owner of the proposed Crandon mine spilled cyanide twice, including a 13,000 pound spill of cyanide in Arizona. In another accident, 300,000 cubic yards of mine wastes were spilled into an Arizona creek.
(Source: Humboldt County News - 16 May 2002)

NOVEMBER 2001, CHINA - Eleven tonnes of liquid sodium cyanide leaked into a tributary of the Luohe river inHenan province, China over the weekend after a traffic accident. The Luohe river is a shallow tributary of the Yellow River, the cradle of Chinese civilisation and a major waterway in northern China. Livestock Animals were poisoned and at least one person sickened by contamination.

OCTOBER, 2001, GHANA - Villages in the Wassa West District of Ghana's western region were hit by the spillage of thousands of cubic metres of mine wastewater contaminated with cyanide and heavy metals when a tailings dam ruptured at a mine operation owned by the South African company, Goldfields.. Virtually all life forms in the River Asuman and its tributaries were decimated, and people's livelihoods are endangered. Scientists fear the cyanide and heavy metal residue from the spill could remain for decades posing a health and environmental threat to the people and wildlife in the area.

OCTOBER, 2001, GHANA - Two weeks after the previous cyanide spill in Ghana, a second cyanide spillage occured in Ghana again, this time in a swamp area that provides the local people with mud fish, local medicines and bamboo for a wide range of uses.

JUNE 30 2000, PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Rio Tinto's Lihir mine spilt cyanide into the ocean. The Australian Government's Export Finance and Insurance Company (EFIC) provided $US250 million in finance guarantees to this mine. (The guarantees were provided after the United States Export Credit and Investment Insurance Agency OPIC rejected the Lihir project on environmental grounds.) The Lihir proposal approved by EFIC used 1800 tonnes of highly toxic sodium cyanide annually to extract gold at the mine site. The process leaves considerable cyanide concentrations in the tailings.

JANUARY, 2000, ROMANIA/HUNGARY - Thousands of tons of fish died in the Tisza and Danube rivers from a cyanide spill last year near Baia Mare in northwesternRomania. 130,000 cubic yards of cyanide-tainted water was discharged from a gold mine reservoir into river systems inRomania, Hungary and Yugoslavia. The incident is described as Europe's worst river pollution disaster in a decade. Biologists estimate that at least 5 years is needed to restock fish there, and 10-20 years for most river life to return. The upper Tisza was one of Europe's cleanest rivers and was home to at least 20 species of protected fish. Rare Osprey, river otters, fox, many other birds, mammals and wildlife are known to have died from ingesting poisoned fish.

DECEMBER, 2000, GUYANA: The Essequibo region of Guyana is again the victim of mine pollution that has caused widespread harm including rashes, diarrhoea, and vomiting among the residents after using the river water. This latest incident comes five years after the August 1995 gold mine disaster at Omai, where 3.2 billion liters of cyanide tainted waste contaminated the Essequibo river which also lead to discoloration and health problems. Communities downstream from the Omai gold mine have reported a "reddish, silty" discharge in the Essequibo making the river, which is the main or only source of water for many villages, unfit for use.

AUGUST 1995, GUYANA - More than 3.2 billion litres of cyanide-laden tailings were released into Essequibo river inGuyana when a dam collapsed at the Omai gold mine. Studies by the Pan American Health Organization have shown that all aquatic life in the 4 kilometer long creek that runs from the mine to the Essequibo was killed

2. TRANSPORTATION ACCIDENTS

FEBRUARY 7 2007 NT AUSTRALIA Spill of Solid Cyanide from a Road Train See alsohttp://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/02/08/1170524210059.html,http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200702/s1842682.htm andhttp://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200702/s1844854.htm

APRIL 5 2003, TAIWAN: More than 100 people inTaichung County were hospitalised after being poisoned by liquefied cyanide from an overturned truck. Environmental officials feared the cyanide, which flowed into a nearby sewer, could create an ecological disaster when it streamed into the sea through Taichung Harbour.

Transportation concerns pre-May 2002:http://www.alphacdc.com/treaty/security.html

FEBRUARY 2002, AUSTRALIA – 400 litres of liquid cyanide was spilled in the Northern Territory , Australia and killed over 500 birds, a dingo and some kangaroos.

MARCH, 2000, PAPUA NEW GUINEA - The Australian mining company Dome Resources contaminated an important water system in the Papua New Guinea rainforest. While flying from the capital Port Moresby to the Tolukuma mine, a Dome helicopter dropped a crate containing one tonne of sodium cyanide pellets the most concentrated form of cyanide into the rainforest.

MAY 20, 1998, KYRGYZSTAN - A truck transporting cyanide to the Kumtor mine in Kyrgyzstan plunged off a bridge spilling almost two tons of sodium cyanide (1,762 kilograms) into local surface waters. Local people have reported at least 4 deaths that may have resulted from the spill. Hundreds of people also checked into local hospitals complaining of health problems following the spill.

+++++

Probably these two will dismiss the above because it will never happen in Malaysia.

We too never expected to be affected by the tsunami, remember?

+++++

Malaysian Mirror has THIS story.

permitted original post

MEMORANDUM TO MINISTER OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT

2009-06-29T05:25:00.001-07:00

MEMORANDUM TO

MINISTER OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT

A THREAT TO THE RIGHT TO LIFE AND ENVIRONMENT

23 JUNE 2009

Bukit Koman Action Committee Against the Use of Cyanide in Mining of Gold

WE, the Bukit Koman Action Committee Against the Use of Cyanide in Mining of Gold (JawatanKuasa Bertindak Menentang Penggunaan Cyanide dalam Perlombongan Emas di Bukit Koman, hereinafter referred to as BKACAC) would like to bring to your attention the human health and environmental impacts already present at Bukit Koman, Raub due to the ongoing gold mining activities in close vicinity to our residential villages. The gold mining activities, conducted by Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn. Bhd. (hereinafter referred to as RAGM) is reported to use substantial amounts of cyanide compound during the extraction process of gold from ore.

The operation of RAGM in Bukit Koman, especially by using cyanide, has raised serious concerns on human health, ecological integrity, socio-economic well-being and potable water security on both local and regional level. In summary, we would like to highlight four crucial areas of concern as follows:

1. Human health - The life and well-being of at least 3,000 residents of Bukit Koman living within a 2km vicinity to the RAGM mining premises are seriously threatened by the increasingly worsening air quality in the area. At least 300 villagers, including the elderly and children, have complained of suffering from different medical symptoms since the operation started in February 2009;

2. Ecological integrity - The integrity of surface water catchment and groundwater aquifer are seriously compromised. Detoxification of cyanide containing mine tailings and implementation of environmental monitoring plans, if carried out by RAGM, have not been made known to the public. However, the results of laboratory analysis of water samples collected by State Local Government, Environment and Health Committee on 25 May 2009 at the tailing pond detected 0.03mg/L cyanide, which is well above the Recommended Permissible level of below 0.2ppm (Part Per Million) held by the U.S. Environment Protection Agency. Presence of cyanide-like odour in the atmosphere was sustained and evident;

3. Socio-economic well-being – Socio-economical risks incurred by the local government of Raub and state government of Pahang are potentially high, uncertain and poorly documented. Productivity loss, medical costs and welfare loss of potential victims of cyanide poisoning pose potential huge burden on government and hence the taxpayers, but very limited details were publicly disclosed;

4. Water and national security - Potential release of cyanide compounds to the atmosphere, water and soil could impact the water quality in the future Kelau reservoir located within 30km to the RAGM Production Plant of Bukit Koman. The interconnected water bodies and topography suggest such a scenario should not be ruled out. When completed, the Kelau reservoir will supply water to over eight millions domestic and commercial users in the Klang Valley. It is a serious concern for both water and national security.

Background

In August 2006, RAGM successfully obtained approval from the State Mineral and Geoscience Department of Pahang to use cyanide in its carbon-in-leach (CIL) plant located at Bukit Koman, Raub. This approval was granted based upon the findings and conclusion of the preliminary Environmental Impact Assessment (PEIA) conducted by the RAGM in 1996. The state Department of Environment has approved the PEIA on 13 Jan 1997, with conditions. The EIA procedure is a legal provision under the Environmental Quality Act 1974 (Amendment) 1987, and any gold mining operation is subjected to EIA as prescribed under Environmental Quality (Prescribed Activities)(Environmental Impact Assessment) Order, 1987.

The ground breaking ceremony of the CIL plant was held on March 2, 2007. As of February 2009, RAGM commenced operation of its CIL plant and an estimated amount of 1,500 kg of cyanide was used daily. The management of RAGM, when queried repeatedly by BKACAC, has failed on several occasions to produce sufficient proof that the storage, disposal and treatment of cyanide compounds and wastes are in full compliance with established local and international standards.

Based on formal documents and informal sources of data gathered by BKACAC, there is reasonable belief that cyanide used in RAGM CIL facilities was not properly handled and that cyanide detoxification has NOT been done properly. These claims are made based on:

1. Repeated statement found in the Admission Document submitted to London Stock Exchange by Peninsular Gold Ltd (the parent company of RAGM) dated 17 June 2005, that cyanide detoxification MAY NOT be required for its operation in Malaysia particularly at the Bukit Koman site. To quote directly from the document, section 8.4.3.12 reads,

“…informed by Peninsular that cyanide destruction is not required by either the local authority, or the lender. Provision has been made in the capital cost for a detoxification plant, although its operating cost has not been included as it may not be required”.

(Imprima de Bussy, 2005)

2. Persistent and strong cyanide-like odour detected by the majority of Bukit Koman residents, since the RAUB CIL plant started operation in February 2009. More than 400 cases have been reported. Such odour has never been present in Bukit Koman in prior times. Various medical symptoms suffered by the residents after detecting the presence of such odour includes insomnia, vomiting, dizziness and skin rashes, with total number of reported cases exceeding 200.

3. Laboratory analytical results of water samples collected at May 25, 2009 by State Local Government, Environment and Health Committee and tested for total cyanide concentration. The results was 0.03mg/L which is well above normal background concentration in natural water bodies
4.

Furthermore, two internationally reputable environmental scientists, Dr. Mark Chernaik and Dr Glenn Miller, when engaged by BKACAC to provide their expert opinion have concluded that:

“the operation of the proposed gold mine tailings processing facility would impose an unreasonable risk to the health and safety or persons residing in Bukit Koman”,

and due to the lack of information

“residents of Bukit Koman can reasonably apprehend that their groundwater and surface water supplies would be contaminated by the migration of toxic substances from effluent in the standing pond”.

Dr Glenn Miller visited Bukit Koman during June 2008 and both of they sit on the Steering Committee of International Cyanide Management Code which is partly an United Nations initiative to establish guidelines for the mining industry.

Our Demand

With utmost respect, we would demand that your office take immediate action to address both the short and long term impact of the ongoing mining activities. Our demands are stated as follows:

1. To issue a stop work order immediately to all ongoing mining, extraction and processing activities at the RAGM premises located at Bukit Koman, Raub pending a comprehensive investigation conducted by an independent panel of experts. The stop work order is essential following numerous complaints by local residents and the failure of RAGM to respond promptly to queries on the presence of cyanide-like odour since RAGM started its CIL operation in February 2008;

2. To conduct an immediate and comprehensive health screening to all residents living within a 2km radius from the boundary of the RAGM CIL facilities and other residents suspected suffering from the symptoms of cyanide poisoning. Residents identified with compromised health conditions should receive medical treatment immediately;

3. To set up an expert panel whose responsibilities include but are not limited to:

1. Investigating the sources of reported strong cyanide-like odour detected in Bukit Koman village since February 2009

2. Assessing the validity of the claims by RAGM that its mining operation including the use and disposal of cyanide has been conducted in full compliance with all prescribed legislation of Malaysia and other applicable international guidelines.

Members of the expert panel should consist of appointees from all major stakeholders including the government, RAGM and the BKACAC to ensure the investigation process and findings are beyond partial view and doubtful conclusion. All findings and working progress updates are to be made accessible to the public at different stages of work; and

4. To revoke the approval granted to RAGM based on the PEIA submitted to DOE Pahang in 1996. The conditions in which the EIA approval was granted are likely breached by RAGM. Much evidence that has surfaced in recent months has sufficiently suggested that there are significant discrepancies between the actual ongoing mining operation and the proposed work described in the 1996 PEIA document. A new and detailed EIA process should be reinitiated.

Finally, we urge the government to consider a total ban on extensive use of Cyanide in all industrial activities including gold mining. We are of the opinion that when economic, social and environmental impacts of cyanide use are huge, detrimental and irreversible, then the precautionary principle should apply. As with every other citizen of Malaysia, it is our right to live healthily without the fear of cyanide poisoning. It is also our responsibility to leave an environment that is healthy and worth living in for our future generations of Bukit Koman, Raub, Pahang and Malaysia.

Penduduk selamat, kilang guna sianida

2009-06-28T08:25:00.000-07:00

Fikirkan jika ini kampong halaman anda?
Penduduk selamat, kilang guna sianida

Jun 25, 09 4:32pm

Projek lombong emas di Bukit Koman, Raub tidak membahayakan kesihatan hampir 3,000 penduduk walaupun ia menggunakan bahan kimia beracun sianida.

Timbalan Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri, Senator Datuk T Murugiah berkata keputusan itu dicapai dalam mesyuarat beliau bersama pegawai Jabatan Alam Sekitar (JAS) dan Jabatan Kesihatan Pahang di Kuantan hari ini.

Pertemuan itu diadakan susulan aduan penduduk Bukit Koman mengenai bahan kimia, yang digunakan oleh kilang Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn Bhd dalam aktiviti melombong emas, membahayakan kesihatan mereka, lapor Bernama.

Selasa lalu, beliau menerima memorandum daripada Jawatankuasa Bertindak Menentang Penggunaan Sianida Bukit Koman di Parlimen.

"Aduan itu menyatakan gangguan bunyi bising dihasilkan oleh kilang itu mengganggu mereka namun hasil kajian JAS, yang meletakkan alat ukuran bunyi bising itu mendapati bunyi yang dikeluarkan adalah hanya 48.7 desibel iaitu masih di bawah paras yang ditetapkan JAS iaitu 55 desibel," Murugiah dipetik berkata.

Tambahnya, bau kurang menyenangkan seperti dakwaan penduduk juga tidak benar kerana sisatan JAS menunjukkan ia di bawah paras yang ditetapkan JAS.

Murugiah juga berkata air Sungai Koman selamat untuk kegunaan manusia setelah didapati hasil kajian ke atas sampel air sungai itu serta sungai-sungai berdekatan tidak mengandungi sianida.

"Bagaimanapun pemantauan berkala ke atas sampel air masih dijalankan oleh JAS dari semasa ke semasa bagi memastikan keadaan di sekitar lombong itu selamat diduduki manusia," katanya.

Hasil kajian Kementerian Kesihatan mengenai tahap kesihatan
penduduk sekitar kawasan itu, Murugiah dilaporkan berkata, menunjukkan tiada kesihatan penduduk terjejas akibat bahan kimia sianida.

Beliau berkata pada Mac lepas, jabatan kesihatan negeri menemubual
153 orang tentang tahap kesihatan mereka, 93 orang diperiksa dan hasilnya mendapati enam daripada mereka mengadu sakit kepala dan pening.

"Enam orang ini telah dihantar ke klinik kesihatan berdekatan dan
pemeriksaan doktor mendapati sakit kepala dan pening yang dihadapi mereka tidak berkaitan dengan bahan kimia itu namun Jabatan Kesihatan negeri akan terus jalankan pemantauan sekiranya terdapat kes dilaporkan ada kena-mengena dengan sianida," katanya.

original post:malaysikini

Raub gold mine is safe, says Yen Yen

2009-06-27T02:49:00.000-07:00

what you think?

Raub gold mine is safe, says Yen Yen

Tarani Palani | Jun 27, 09 12:44pm

Raub MP Ng Yen Yen today said that there is no cause for concern for the villagers of Bukit Koman adding that she had already looked into the matter three years ago.

MCPX

“I met the residents, I met the committee, I brought up the specialist to see them, everything had been done (three years ago),”

She added that she had maintained her silence on the matter because when “people refuse to listen to scientific facts, one cannot talk reason”.

Villagers of Kampung Bukit Koman are facing health and environment problems after a gold mine operator started using cyanide in the extraction method in February.

The villagers reportedly began experiencing headaches, breathing difficulties and skin irritation after the company, Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn Bhd (RAGM) began using cyanide in their operations.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, T Murugiah, on Thursday had given the green light to RAGM for the usage of cyanide in the mining process.

Ng said that the matter was closed with Murugiah’s statement.

She said despite her consultation with the residents, “they still went on and on and on”.

Environmental hazards

“First, they brought some environmentalist, and spoke about the environmental hazards. Then, they focused on health issues. I have already spoken to the hospital in Raub and there are no cases (caused by cyanide effects)”

Citing an example of the resident’s unyielding attitude, she said that she had taken the residents to Banjong in order to observe a gold mine there. There were various live forms around the area such as fish and plants.

“There were some fish in the area. If there are traces of cyanide, the fish will die first. But the fish were still there.”

When Ng had pointed this out to the residents, they had answered: “(We think) the fish were just placed there (a moment ago), as a gimmick to mislead the residents.”

The Star had reported on Thursday that during Murugiah’s meeting at the state Public Complaints Bureau headquarters in Teruntum complex on Thursday, a few opposition representatives were present rather than the affected residents themselves.

Responding to this, Ng asked why there was a need to politicise a scientific matter.

When pressed further on the matter, she asked journalists to speak to the affected residents themselves and suggested they do their own neutral research.

THAT WAS REALLY FAST!

2009-06-26T11:17:00.000-07:00

THAT WAS REALLY FAST!

Early this week some residents of Bukit Koman sent a memorandum to Deputy Minister Murugiah on their fear of cyanide poisoning. Today, Malaysia Insider reported that Murugiah said that it was OK for the Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn Bhd (RAGM) to carry on their business as the DOE gave the green light. But I remember that the people wanted a DEIA and not even an EIA report. (

“We urge the government to scrutinise the developer’s Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment report in full and for this document to be released to residents and the public.”)

A doctor seemed to brush aside as one of those things, complainst by the residentsof side effects that they have been experiencing since February.

Earlier villagers of Bukit Koman in Raub failed in their bid to stop a goldmine from carrying out its activities which were causing environmental damages and health concerns.

Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Lau Bee Lan dismissed their application on the grounds that the application was made out of time.

"We have nothing else to do but wait to die," said some of the residents who packed the court room.

I am suggesting that Senator Murugiah take another serious look at this impending danger. He should demand for a DETAILED ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT. (DEIA) The danger may not be so apparent now but the villagers LIVE there and they will continue to be there. It is the future we must WORRY about.

SO HOW NOW MURU?

Raub, Pahang : Gold for me, cyanide for you...

2009-06-26T11:05:00.000-07:00

Friday, June 26, 2009

Raub, Pahang : Gold for me, cyanide for you...

"It is possible for cyanide to leak during the transfer if sufficient precautions are not taken. And if that happens, water supplies in the Klang Valley will be affected" - Tan Hui Chun (Environment and safety consultant)

"Hasil kajian Kementerian Kesihatan mengenai tahap kesihatan
penduduk sekitar kawasan itu, menunjukkan tiada kesihatan penduduk terjejas akibat bahan kimia sianida." - T Muruhiah (Timbalan Menteri, Jabatan Perdana Menteri)

Zorro unmasked started probing on this a few weeks back and Malaysiakini reported on 25th June 2009 that Murugiah announced that the health of 3,000 residents of Bukit Koman, Raub is not in danger of cyanide poisoning. That is fast when Bernama broke the news on 23rd June 2009 quoting Murugiah's pledge that he will investigate the matter.
I didn't say this but I remember in one movie...
"Look, I don't know shit about shit but I know right from wrong!" - Erin Brockovich
Just because Bukit Koman's residents are simple folks in out of town Raub does not give the license for Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn Bhd (RAGM) to do what they pleased.
The residents had listed their complaints of :-
- Cyanide-like odour in the place;
- Headaches, breathing difficulties and skin irritation;
- noise pollution etc
Now, let us go back to the reports and see what Murugiah said. On noise, Jabatan Alam Sekitar (JAS) reported that they measure noise produce by RAGM at 48.7 Db which is lower the allowed 55 Db.
Let's say that the readings are correct. When is the readings taken? Is RAGM operating at normal production during the readings? How far are the sound meters placed? Is it aimed at the source (noise) ? What is the height of the meter? Who witness the tests? Are the results independently verified ? Are the sound meters calibrated?
On cyanide issue, this is no joking matter. Cambodia and Vietnam have cases of cyanide poisoning in rivers where the effects is 10 years down the line. In certain parts of Cambodia, the natural cyanide caused cancer since there is no proper water treatment system.
In history, there is questions whether Napoleon Bonarparte died of arsenic poisoning. Even in Malaysia, the one time Deputy Prime Minister also accused someone of administering him with cyanide poisoning. What this tells you is that cyanide poisoning is difficult to detect and if it happens in Bukit Koman, what hope is there that the authorities will trace down the culprits? The most taht will be done will be mass relocation of the population on some pretentious issue like SARS, maybe?
About headache, the report mentioned that 93 are sampled and out of 93 samplings, 6 claimed headache. That will be 6.5%. Is that normal for Malaysians? Is it a normal standard? If it is, then all is well and fine. If not, then what has the Jabatan Kesihatan has to say about it? Is it their diet? Is it their style of living? Is it the air? Is it the water? If this is an issue, then investigate the root cause. Saying that it is normal and acceptable limit must be validated with data. You just can't say it's OK when it's not!!
Another blogger, Antares mentioned that one of the important share holder is a Pahang VVIP. To this scribe, everybody needs to make a living. But it must be honest living. Putting a VVIP in the board does not absolve the company from its social responsibilities. In fact, companies with VVIP shareholders should be more responsible than responsible. They are supposed to be the model companies in terms of social responsibilities and sensitive to the surounding needs and problems.
Touching on social responsibilities, the Bukit Koman issue should be closely monitored by Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM). Is SAM aware of RAGM? Is SAM aware of the EIA? What is SAM's stand on this? If SAM has been persistently monitoring the EIA reports for the Pahang-Selangor water tunnel project, then SAM should be equally persistent in monitoring Bukit Koman issue.
It is always been the case of Malaysian authorities. When a project is new, it will always come up with proposals on waste disposal and monitoring. A case of example is the Tioxide plant in Terengganu. International companies will be presenting the authorities with sophisticated plans on how they dispose toxic waste, how they manage toxic waste, how they store toxic waste etc etc. On paper, it will be the best, the most innovative, the most up to date at par with world's standard. In practise? Who will monitor the waste disposal? Who verify their management system? Who recorded their toxic waste storage? This is more so critical for Bukit Koman residents as Bukit Koman is way too rural to be noticed. There, RAGM may be "king" to do what they please.
Planning and executing are 2 different things. RAGM may have the best plannings, but who will monitor their planning and execution? RAGM may claim that they have safety officers under them but paid safety officers may be subject to the whims and fancies of RAGM.
Remember Lubok Mandi? During the "gold rush" fever, some died when their makeshift tunnels collapsed. That was a tragedy but in was instant. You can see and watch it. Here in Bukit Koman, arsenic poisoning is slow and sure. It will not be instantaneous. It will be slow and painful. So my qquestion - who will monitor RAGM's activities? Will it be on regular monitoring? Will it be done by independent third parties? Will it be carried out by JAS? Frankly, this scribe is suspicious of government authorities because with "kopi", everything jadi.....
Murugiah should not be too fast in declaring Bukit Koman as safe. It needs continous monitoring. Do we have the expertise? Do we have the labs? Do we follow international standards?
To be fair to Murugiah, he did called for special hearing on 25th June 2009 but none of ukit Koman residents turned up. The reason given by the residents is that they have a prior engagement with other parties, set up 1 month ago and Muru's hearing was called last minute. The residents claimed that they have called to explain their absence.
Gold mining in Bukit Koman is fine but we surely hope that Bukit Koman will not hit international news as a kampung devastated by arsenic poisoning. That said, can Murugiah guarantees no arsenic poisoning in Bukit Koman for at least another 8 years? Heck, I don't think Murugiah can give the assurance because he may be gone from PM's department soon if Kayveas get his way. If Kayveas fails to oust Murugiah from PM's department, maybe the rakyat will when GE 13 comes around....

Till then...G'nite M'sia...wherever u are...

according with the author we need to clarify the real event:

Thanks for your posting and concerns. All Malaysian deserved greener and safer living place.

SAM has been actively assisting the BK villagers since 2 years ago, including technical and legal assistant. The anti-cyanide committee will continue the legal battle and have appeal the case on 9/6/09.

The last water sampling gathered in May 09 at the mining waste water pond has shown cyanide level of 0.03mg/l (Limit is 0.05mg/l at water catchment area under Malaysia law; but way above recommended permissible level set by the US Environment Protection Agency that is below 0.2ppm ). If 3 months cyanide gold mining operation can accumulate this concentration, can’t imaging the damage in 1-2 years time, if RAGM continually don’t take any action on the cyanide detoxification process (According to their EIA Report, they are recycling the water in a so call “closed-circuit” operation).

Repeated statement found in the Admission Document submitted to London Stock Exchange by Peninsular Gold Ltd (the parent company of RAGM) dated 17 June 2005, that cyanide detoxification MAY NOT be required for its operation in Malaysia particularly at the Bukit Koman site. To quote directly from the document, section 8.4.3.12 reads,

“…informed by Peninsular that cyanide destruction is not required by either the local authority, or the lender. Provision has been made in the capital cost for a detoxification plant, although its operating cost has not been included as it may not be required”.
(Imprima de Bussy, 2005)

This is an environmental issue that involves public interest. I urge RAGM to demonstrate their social responsible by allowing independent parties to assess the validity of the claims by RAGM that its mining operation including the use and disposal of cyanide has been conducted in full compliance with all prescribed legislation of Malaysia and other applicable international guidelines, and also sign the International Cyanide Management Code.

http://www.cyanidecode.org/about.php

Tan Hui Chun

All that glitters in Raub is cyanide

2009-06-26T10:38:00.000-07:00

All that glitters in Raub is cyanide

Wong Pheak Zern | Jun 24, 09 4:10pm

Villagers of Kampung Bukit Koman near Raub are facing a serious health and environment problem after a gold mine operator started using cyanide in the extraction method in February.

Results of laboratory analysis of water samples collected by the Local Government, Environment and Health Committee on May 25 at the mine tailing pond showed that there was 0.03mg/L of cyanide.

This is well above the recommended permissible level of below 0.2ppm (parts per million) set by the US Environment Protection Agency.

The report also noted the presence of cyanide-like odour in the atmosphere.

The villagers reportedly began experiencing headaches, breathing difficulties and skin irritation after the company, Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn Bhd (RAGM) started using cyanide in their operations.

Since the committee's findings about a month ago, the villages have sought leave from the High Court to stop RAGM from continuing its operations.

The High Court however, turned down the residents' applications on June 1.

Last night, the villagers got together in Kuala Lumpur to voice their grievances and fears at a gathering organised by Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall.

Speakers urged the villagers to continue with efforts to stop RAGM from using poisonous chemicals in the extraction process.

Political analyst Tang Ah Chai, one of four speakers, said "this will be a long and difficult process, because we, as a group are fighting against those with great powers and high financial abilities".

He said that the villagers could succeed in their fight as there have been similar cases worldwide where the people won their battles by not giving up.

More than 300 people from around the country were at last night's talk to listen to the problems facing the Bukit Koman villagers.

Deteriorating health conditions

The villagers formed a Bukit Koman Action Committee in 2006 after they found out that RAGM had been given permission to use cyanide in their operations.

When a pungent odour began to permeate the vicinity, about 200 villagers began complaining of various medical ailments.

"About 20 of them have been admitted to hospitals for further treatment," said Wong Kin Hoong, chairperson of the action committee.

Choong Siew Onn, the assemblyperson for Tras Pahang, said he had been summoned by the police and asked to produce evidence supporting the claim that the health and environment problems were caused by cyanide in gold mining.

"They (the police) said that if I could not show any proof, I would be hauled up for lodging a false police report," he said.

"Fortunately I was able to prove my claim by producing the complaints filed on the illnesses suffered by the villagers."

Klang Valley residents face risk

Tan Hui Chun, an environment and industrial safety consultant, said the use of cyanide could seriously harm the environment - not only in Bukit Koman but even the Klang Valley, threatening the health and safety of eight million people.

Tan said RAGM would need to import a large quantity of the hazardous cyanide and then transport it from Port Klang to Raub, a distance of 144km.

"It is possible for cyanide to leak during the transfer if sufficient precautions are not taken. And if that happens, water supplies in the Klang Valley will be affected," he said.

She said a method known as cyanide leaching is used to remove the remaining 30 percent of fine gold particles after the debris has been mined.

This method has to be handled with great care as it requires the storage and handling of cyanide and disposal of the by-products after the mining operation is completed.

Tan said underground and lake water supplies would be severely polluted through seepage if advanced equipment is not used in the waste disposal process.

"I doubt if RAGM is willing to invest a huge amount of money in purchasing high-tech equipment for waste disposal in Bukit Koman as there is not much gold particles left there," she added.

She said RAGM should instruct the villagers on what needs to be done in the event that something goes awry in the handling and storage or if there if there is major cyanide leak.

Tang added that cyanide use by RAGM should not be seen as a localised problem involving only Bukit Koman.

"All we ask for is an unpolluted environment for all, so that people can lead happy and healthy lives. We are not just fighting for the benefits of Bukit Koman villagers, but for the benefits of all Malaysians," Tang said.

Meanwhile, the Bukit Koman Action Commitee against Cyanide submitted a memorandum on behalf of the villagers to Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department T Murugiah, seeking government intervention.

They want the government to "issue a stop work order immediately pending a comprehensive investigation to be conducted by an independent panel of experts".

Raub villagers protest potential cyanide use

2009-06-07T06:50:00.000-07:00

Raub villagers protest potential cyanide use

Soon Li Tsin | Jan 24, 07 3:56pm

Some 3,000 residents of Kampung Baru Bukit Koman in Raub, Pahang, are questioning a state agency’s decision to allow the use of cyanide in a gold-mining operation in Bukit Koman.

MCPX

A statement released yesterday by the residents’ committee pointed out that serious health and environmental hazards are associated with the use of cyanide.

They claimed that the Pahang Mineral and Geoscience Department had issued a letter of authority to the developer, Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn Bhd dated Aug 21, 2006 permitting cyanide use to mine gold.

“We have been denied our rights because we weren’t given a chance to respond despite the fact that we’re the nearest residents to the project site,” the four-page statement reads.

“We urge the government to scrutinise the developer’s Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment report in full and for this document to be released to residents and the public.”

About 70 percent of the gold in Bukit Koman has been mined using the gravity separation process to date.

The developer, with the help of a South African company at the Bukit Koman quarry, has since decided to switch to cyanide leaching which involves using electrolysis to extract the remaining fine gold particles.

“We were shocked by the decision (which was made) without including us in the discussion. The only time when a meeting was arranged, it was a mere rubber stamp to say we were part of the decision making process,” the statement says.
Contacted today, committee secretary Mustapha Hussin said the villagers are not against the mining operations, but the use of cyanide.

“We are not sure if they will use it (cyanide) but we know they have the authority to. We’re only an ad hoc committee, we’re leaving it up to our state (elected) representative to resolve this after the Batu Talam by-election (on Sunday),” he said.

He said cyanide use would affect the residents “whose kitchen is right next to the mine” as well as villages within a 2km radius. It would also pollute Jelai River and connecting rivers.

Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn Bhd chief executive Andrew Kam Tai Yeow was said to be abroad. His assistant, only identified as Liew, declined to comment on his behalf.

The residents cited incidents elsewhere, including one in 2000 when a dam at a goldmine reprocessing facility in Romania released about 100,000 sq metres of wastewater contaminated with heavy metal sludge. Up to 120 tonnes of cyanide were released, polluting 400km of the Tisza and Danube rivers.

from malaysiakini

Nonsense to claim someone can get sick from cyanide

2009-06-04T09:20:00.000-07:00

Kit Lee | Jun 4, 09 4:47pm

I refer to the Malaysiakini report Bkt Koman residents fail to stop goldmine.

I have been involved in exploration and mining for 40 years around the world. Half my experience has been in gold mining including in the former Raub Gold Mine (1986 to 1987), the centre of this dispute.

Cyanide was first ever used in gold mining in Bau, Sarawak at the turn of the 20th century by the Borneo Company. Cyanide (sodium cyanide) is used to dissolve gold (including silver) as gold cyanides (cyanide/cyanades/thiocyanides). In the old days, the dissolved gold is recovered with zinc dust (Merrill Crowe Process) and then smelted into gold bars.

In the 1950s, resins were used to absorb the dissolved gold cyanides and gold could then be recovered by electrolysis. This was replaced by activated carbon (most of which is being produced in Malaysia from coconut shells). The cyanides/cyanides/thiocyanides will remain in the tailings water as stable metal complexes.

Internationally, to meet environmental compliance, these are require to be denatured using chlorine, iodine and common hydrogen peroxide before discharge. In fact, these are more harmful to the environment as they will kill plant life and increase BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand).

But all environmental agencies insist on this antiquated law. The regulations also insist in denaturing free cyanide radicals (unused sodium cyanide). These could cause death if a sufficient quantity is consumed.

But all mining operations use a very low concentration of cyanide at 110 to 150 ppm (parts per million) and tailing waters are further diluted by other waters especially storm water many fold. Environmental protection agencies should ensure that cyanide concentrations be kept at such diluted levels.

Cyanide is not a poison as it is a carbon-nitrogen compound and will disintegrate in UV light. It would, however, prevents the blood from absorbing oxygen and anyone consuming too much will die of suffocation. Cyanide occurs naturally in many roots especially unripe tapioca. The indigenous people have been using these to ‘poison' fish and yet the fish is edible.

For more than 100 years since cyanide had been used for gold mining, there have been only two instances of accidental death reported due to cyanide poisoning. Such dangers can be limited by the following:

1. Tight control of the circuit of mine water with safety ponds properly constructed to prevent any overflow due to surges in mine waters during floods. These safety ponds must be constructed and maintained to meet strict safety codes.

2. All mine waters be re-circulated (this is a common practice to use up all the free cyanide as cyanide is expensive) so that only small amounts of concentrated inert cyanide solutions require de-naturing

3. The biggest danger from cyanide is hydrogen cyanide gas that is odourless but deadly (used for gas chambers). Hydrogen cyanide gas will result if cyanide occurs in an acidic environment.

All mines should ensure all mine waters are alkaline and cyanide monitors installed at strategic areas especially enclosed areas. Once in the open, the concentration of hydrogen cyanide gas is so diluted that it will never pose a threat

4. If required, the mine could be operating with zero discharge. There is also technology available to recycle cyanide. This strategy is in the interest of the mine operator as it would save cyanide consumption as the cyanide is recycled.

Several saleable metals (eg, arsenic, copper, lead, zinc) would be recovered as well instead of being discharged. These normally cause serious environmental pollution.

5. The concentration of cyanide solutions used in the mining operation must not exceed 150 ppm. At this concentration, an adult requires to drink 10 Coke cans of the cyanide solution to be affected. So the risk of accidental deaths is minimal.

Some miners use higher concentrations thinking it will speed up the gold dissolution process. Actually, it does not help and even at low concentrations it would soon reach a equilibrium and the kinetics of the chemistry will not improve.

6. Adequate monitoring must be installed to avoid any accidental spills into the environment.

The current concerns by the Bkt Koman villages are due to misinformation, fear-mongering and emotion. It is nonsense to claim someone can get sick from cyanide.

If you consume too much you just ‘suffocate' and die, you do not get sick. I had operated a small ‘Heap Leach' operation in Kelantan in the 1990s with no cyanide hazards. There are so many gold mines using cyanide being operated around the world with no danger or health hazard.

Bukit Koman is immediately downstream from the mining operations. But the mining operations can be designed to minimise any risk. In this case, the environment authorities should insist on a zero discharge of liquid waste and all solid waste must be stored in proper, waterproof, non- biodegradable storage areas that could be rehabilitated effectively at the end of mining operations.

I will be happy to supply any interested party detailed information on cyanide and gold mining operations and cyanide recycling and safety practices.

Villagers fail to get judicial review of gold mining report

2009-06-02T09:22:00.000-07:00

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/6/2/courts/4025540&sec=courts

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has dismissed a leave application by four residents of Kampung Bukit Koman in Pahang for a judicial review of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) report on a gold mining project in Raub.

High Court judge Justice Lau Bee Lan dismissed in chambers the residents’ application for a judicial review against the Department of Environment director-general’s approval of the preliminary environmental impact assessment report dated Jan 13, 1997, for the proposal to mine gold with the use of cyanide in Bukit Koman.

She said the application, which cited the director-general of the Department of Environment and Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn Bhd as respondents, was “out of time” as it was filed in March 21, 2008, more than 11 years after the EIA report had been approved.

She said there had been an inordinate delay in filing the application for a judicial review.

The judge also pointed out that the applicants had six instances to file the application but had failed to do so. The court also dismissed an order against Raub Australian Gold Mining to present a new and detailed EIA report before continuing their mining activities.

The residents’ counsel, Jessica Ram Binwani, said she would file an appeal this week after receiving a resounding “yes” from about 50 residents who were present in court, when asked if they wanted to appeal the decision.

The leave application was filed on March 21 last year by Wong Kin Hoong, Chong Sow Pin, Hue Fui How, and Mustapha Hussin, in representing the residents of Kampung Bukit Koman, who claimed that mining using cyanide to extract gold had damaged their health.

Datuk Cecil Abraham, S.Nathan-Balan and Sunil Abraham appeared for Raub Australian Gold Mining; Nizam Zakaria from the Attorney-General Chambers represented the director general; while Karina Yoong and Jessican Binwani appeared for the four applicants.

Bkt Koman residents fail to stop goldmine

2009-06-01T09:22:00.000-07:00

Hafiz Yatim | Jun 1, 09 1:21pm

Villagers of Bukit Koman in Raub today failed in their bid to stop a goldmine from carrying out its activities which were causing environmental damages and health concerns.

The 3,000 plus villagers, represented by the Action Committee Against the Use of Cyanide, had wanted to seek leave from the High Court to pursue their claim against Raub Goldmining Sdn Bhd.

They had wanted the company to provide a detailed environment impact assessment report and to stop the project.

However Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Lau Bee Lan dismissed their application on the grounds that the application was made out of time.

The judge ruled that the Department of Environment had already approved the preliminary environment impact assessment report in 1997 and had issued a license to the company to operate.

"The court also cannot force the company to make a DEIA now as the time frame had elapsed," Lau ruled. She did not make any orders as to costs.

About 50 residents came in a bus, expecting a decision favouring them.

"We have nothing else to do but wait to die," said some of the residents who packed the court room.

The villagers filed the application on March 21, 2008, while the factory had began its full operations using cyanide since February 2009.

We will appeal

Following today's decision, the villagers' chairperson Wong Kim Hong indicated that they will appeal against the ruling later this week.

Earlier this month, an environmental activist Chong Sow Pin, 63, from Kampung Baru Bukit Koman, died at his orchard, some eight kilometre from the village parking.

His death sparked fear over the potential hazardous gold-mining activity with the used of cyanide.

On March 21, Bukit Koman residents led by Wong, Chong, Hue Fui How, and Mustapha Hussin filed their judicial review application on behalf of the residents where they named the Department of Environment (DOE) and Raub Goldmining as the respondents.

This follows the residents complaint over the concern in the use of cyanide in extracting gold leftover and is seeking several declarations namely:

* They want the court to declare that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report submitted by the mining company to the DOE in 1996 did not comply with certain requirements of the Environment Quality Act;

* They are also seeking a certiorari (to quash) the DOE's approval of the preliminary EIA report;

* They want a DEIA done be ordered on the company;

* A declaration that the developers must obtain a detailed EIA before proceeding with gold-mining works.

* The residents also want the court to order the company to cease its operations until a DEIA is made.

The villagers are up-in-arms on concerns over the project because they are living in close proximity, about two metres from the gold-mining area. They even questioned how the authority could approve such a project.

The residents were represented by Jessica Ram Binwani, while the Australian company was represented by Cecil Abraham. Senior Federal Counsel Nizam Zakaria.

Residents living in haphazard health

When met following the decision, Wong (left) claimed that the residents were not aware of the project until they discovered the use of cyanide.

“The residents do not know that this toxic was being used and we are extremely upset that the company has been allowed to use it in close proximity to our village.

“This is also a danger as the project is located near the Sungai Koman river with the possibility that the toxic may seep into the waterways.

"Since the project had commenced in February, the residents’ health deteriorated due to the effects of cynanide,” he said, adding that the authorities should have consulted and briefed the residents on the potential health risks involved.

Following this, Wong is hopeful of a favourable outcome when they file the appeal at the Court of Appeal.

“The courts should be protecting the people due to such public hazard,” he said.

An independent report on the project had found that the greatest environmental and health risk of the project was the potential release of heavy metals which could contaminate groundwater and surface water supplies in the vicinity of the project area.

Activist's death sparks more fears in Bkt Koman

2009-05-02T09:24:00.000-07:00

Andrew Ong & Kuek Ser Kuang Keng | May 2, 09 5:17pm

The death of an environmental activist in Kampung Baru at Bukit Koman, Raub, has heightened residents’ fears over controversial gold-mining activities taking place near this village in Pahang.

Chong Sow Pin, 63, was found dead on Tuesday at his orchard some 8km from the village where about 300 families call home.

He is among the founding member of the ad-hoc Action Committee Against the Use of Cyanide in the mining operations.

Officially, Chong’s death has been classified as a heart attack by the Raub district police based on a post-mortem, but residents are convinced that the goldmine contributed, at least indirectly, to his death.

To stress this point, 300 residents turned up for the funeral procession yesterday led by a large banner in Chinese which loosely reads: “Anti-cyanide struggle remains uncompleted and must continue”.

Chong’s wife, Chin Lean Thay, 59, said the deceased was a healthy man with no major illnesses and recently have been spending nights in the orchard to avoid fumes from the goldmine.

Several residents who knew Chong echoed Chin’s sentiments.

They claim that Chong had stayed in his orchard to avoid fumes believed to be emitted from the goldmine which have been causing nausea, eye and skin irritation among villagers.

Weed killer-like ordour

Malaysiakini videographer had a first hand experience of the fumes yesterday when he visited a home which sits only a few metres away from the lake which forms part of the goldmine.

His eyes began to water while his throat became irritated and he started choking, in what he describes as effects similar to a milder form of tear gas.

Residents are unsure of the source and substance which makes up the mysterious fumes. The odour is described as similar to weed killer, but they are certain that the fumes only became apparent when the goldmine started operations in February.

Committee secretary Hue Fui How believes that the fumes may be sulphur dioxide, a poisonous gas which is used to treat the cyanide.

“The fumes is usually felt around the evenings after the sun goes down, depending on the wind direction,” said Hue.

No proper investigation done

The state assemblyperson for Tras, DAP’s Choong Siew Onn, said that over the past few months, he had received 350 complaints from the villagers after the fumes first surfaced.

He showed journalists a handful of the documented complaints - many were accompanied with doctor’s notes and receipts for skin problems and respiratory related illnesses.

“What is even more disappointing is that when the Department of Environment officers came to inspect the area (in March), they were only here for a few hours.

“Instead, they should station their investigators here for a few days and conduct a proper study and take air samples,” Choong told Malaysiakini at the sidelines of the funeral.

Choong said that the residents have complained to almost every relevant government department about the fumes to no avail.

According to Choong and Chin’s eldest son Chook Sang, 36, the once abundant small animals, most monkeys, which used to roam the lush forest surrounding the village have also gone missing over the past few months.

Residents are also complaining that their crop and cottage industry food products have suffered a drop in demand following doubts from purchasers over possible contamination.

All this problems had resulted in a sizeable number of Bukit Koman residents moving away from the area.

In the case of Chin, she divides her time between the village and her children’s home in Kuala Lumpur.

Residents’ suit pending

Chin said that her husband had no reason to leave their large hilltop bungalow house and stay in a small hut in the orchard if it were not to escape the fumes.

“Since December, when the goldmine was in trial runs and when we first felt the fumes, he began developing rashes and skin blisters in various parts of his body,” said Chin.

Several expensive visits to the doctors did not manage to resolve the problem, she said.

Asked if the sudden death of her husband could be avoided if the goldmine was not in operation, Chin replied: “No, It definitely would not happen.”

A suit filed last March by the committee on behalf of the residents against the goldmine operator, Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn Bhd, is pending at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

Among others, the applicants are seeking a declaration that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report submitted by the mining company to the DOE in 1996 did not comply with certain requirements of the Environment Quality Act.

The committee is also seeking an order to quash the DOE’s approval of the preliminary EIA issued in 1997 and a declaration that the company must obtain a detailed EIA before commencing gold-mining works.

Cyanide is used to dissolve residual gold from the Bukit Koman mine that was shut down in the 1970s.

The waste is then flush into the lake, known as the tailing pond, for the cyanide to break down naturally.

Residents are up in arms over this process, as there have been several disasters involving such mines leading to cyanide poisoning of neighboring communities in the United States, Romania, Kyrgyzstan and Papua New Guinea.

SAM seeks probe on activist's death

2009-04-30T09:24:00.000-07:00

Apr 30, 09 12:11pm

The police has been urged to thoroughly investigate the death of farmer and environmental activist Chong Sow Pin who was found dead in a plantation estate Tuesday.

Environmental activist group Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) president SM Mohd Idris said Chong was found dead in his plantation in Raub under mysterious circumstances.

"He was missing for two days before family members and committee members mounted a search for him," Mohd Idris said in a statement yesterday.

Chong is among the key figures in the ad hoc committee formed by community members of Kampung Baru Bukit Koman, located in Raub, Pahang to stop a nearby gold mine which uses the deadly chemical cyanide in its activities.

It is learnt that Chong, like many villagers in Kampung Baru Bukit Koman, was fearful for his health since the gold mine started operations in February this year and stayed alone in the plantation, which is 8km from the mine.

According to Mohd Idris, the Bukit Koman community had suffered from "bad odour and noxious fumes" at least four times since February.

"The odour caused residents to suffer from breathing difficulties, nausea, vomiting and headaches," he said.

'Police harassment'

In a related development, Mohd Idris also claimed that Chong and three fellow community activists - Wong Kin Hoong, Hue Fui How and Mustapha Hussin - were subject of police harassment.

The four are applicants in a suit against the gold mine operator.

bukit koman gold mining cyanide 010207 villageIn his statement, Mohd Idris listed four instances of alleged harassment in the form of telephone calls about their whereabouts and movements, repeated questioning on whether the committee would hold demonstrations and late night detentions.

On April 20 and 21, a total of six committee members were detained at night, purportedly for trespassing at the gold mine. The six have been ordered to appear in court on May 8, said Mohd Idris.

"The said persons are retirees whose families have lived in Bukit Koman for generations and are respected members of the society. They have at all times cooperated with the police.

"The manner in which the police acted was unnecessarily harsh and serves only to intimidate the community. What is more important is that the police reports filed by the community regarding the mining operations have been ignored," he said.

The gold mine is within close proximity of Kampung Baru Bukit Koman and residents claim that the Environmental Impact Assessment report for the project did not comply with the
Environment Quality Act.

Political and royal links

bukit koman gold mining cyanide 010207 company signThe Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn Bhd is a company which enjoys strong political and royal links.

The chairperson of the company is Andrew Kam, son of former MCA secretary-general Kam Woon Wah.

Pahang princess Tengku Nong Fatimah Sultan Ahmad Shah and her ex-husband Mohamed Moiz JM Ali Moiz are shareholders.

Mohamed Moiz is also a non-executive director of the company, according to the company's website.

Meanwhile, the company is also collaborating with the Pahang Development Board in prospecting and goldmining operations in the state.

Official cause of death

In a related development, the police today said Chong did not die due to cyanide poisoning but instead it was a heart attack that had killed him.

Raub police chief Wan Mohd Samsuddin Wan Osman said the cause of death was confirmed by the Raub Hospital.

He said that Chong was found dead in a seated position in his durian orchard in Tranum, near Raub on Tuesday night.

"The police then brought him to the Raub Hospital for post-mortem which revealed that he died as a result of a heart attack," he was reported as saying by Bernama.

The police officer also revealed that Chong was detained by the police on April 21 for an investigation into an alleged trespass into the gold mine. He was released the same day.

Absolute no to use of cyanide in gold mining

2008-03-26T09:26:00.000-07:00

Dr Wong Ang Peng | Mar 26, 08 4:58pm

I refer to the Malaysiakini report Poisonous goldmine row: Residents file suit.

The residents of Bukit Koman are seeking legal recourse over gold mining operation within their vicinity which involves the use of cyanide. The Malaysian Society of Natural Health fully supports the Bukit Koman villagers with an absolute ‘No to Cyanide’ in gold mining.

I learned early in my naturopathic medicine training that cyanide is the most deadliest poison on earth. Imagine the spy thriller movies when one bite of the capsule produces mouth-foaming and death within seconds. Imagine the gas chamber for Death Row prisoners. Imagine Auschwitz where Zyklon B pellets were used for mass murder via toxic gas. The common denominator is cyanide.

The cyanide compound, when dissolved in water, produces toxic gas. Cyanide binds readily to haemoglobin, preventing oxygen from reaching the cells, hence it kills by asphyxiation, or inhibiting tissue oxidation.

As cyanide readily bonds with gold, it is usually used to extract gold through a leaching process. Cyanide solutions are sprayed over dug out soil to bond with the minute grains of gold ore, and thereafter separating the cyanide solution and gold.

One can imagine the threat posed to the environment and public health by such a gigantic scale operation as in Bukit Koman, Raub – the toxic gas, ground and aquifer contamination, wastewater runoff flowing into river and sea, deaths to animals and birds, toxic accumulation of cyanide in marine life and plants will come back to haunt us.

Toxic accumulation in humans that can kill if the dose is fatal, or kill slowly over a few years depending on the level exposed to. Children born to parents exposed can have defects.

Surely the villagers of Bukit Koman do not need such gold-mining activities in their vicinity. As the operation grows in scale, more and more people will get sick due to cyanide exposure. Early signs and symptoms to low concentrations are dizziness, lethargy, nausea, palpitation, eye irritation, and difficult breathing. Prolonged exposure can cause nervous disorder, cardiac arrest, seizure, severe asthma, and premature death.

Furthermore, it is not the local people of Bukit Koman who will get rich out of this gold mining operation. Perhaps the only fitting place for such cyanide gold-mining is the Great Australian Desert. Or perhaps the locals in Putrajaya do not mind such a mining operation if gold is discovered in one of the lakes there?

The officials responsible who approved this mining project in Bukit Koman and its EIA report have made a wrong decision. A dead wrong decision. Period.

I would like to pay tribute to a great friend, Edward Hagedorn, the mayor of Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines. He does not allow any mining activities, logging, cyanide fishing, nor any form of gambling within his city jurisdiction. Yet, the more than 400,000 population in the city live in harmony, businesses are thriving, there is a low crime rate, a very clean environment, a pristine sea despite the city being also a port, tree planting becomes an annual festival, there are no beggars, a booming tourism industry, peaceful and harmonious coexistence of the Christians and Muslims.

Above all, Puerto Princesa won several UN environmental awards, and boasts having two World Heritage sites. Yours truly is honoured to have been invited to launch the ‘Zero Heart Attack Project by 2012’ in Puerto Princesa.

When asked in 2007 why he disallowed mining activities in his city, he answered, ‘I have traveled to many parts of the world. In all cities where mining operations occur, the local people are not the ones who get rich. The investors exploit the land, but leave behind diseases like TB and cancer’.

Are there any Malaysians, from among the government, equal to Edward Hagedorn?

The writer is president, Society of Natural Health, Malaysia and director, Dr Rath Health Foundation for South East Asia.

Poisonous goldmine row: Residents file suit

2008-03-21T09:27:00.000-07:00

Mar 21, 08 6:31pm

Residents of Kampung Baru Bukit Koman, in Raub, Pahang today filed a court application in a bid to stop work at a gold mine located a kilometre away from their village.

As a first step, the residents, represented by residents committee chairperson Wong Kin Hoong and three other applicants, filed a leave application at Kuala Lumpur High Court to hear their suit against the Department of Environment and Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn Bhd.

bukit koman mining lake 310107The residents are complaining the use of cyanide in gold-mining operations by the mining company.

They want the court to declare that the Environmental Impact Assessment report submitted by the mining company to the DOE in 1996 did not comply with certain requirements of the Environment Quality Act.

They are up in arms over the project because they are living in extremely close proximity with the gold-mining area.

In a press statement today, Wong said the DOE had approved the project based on the preliminary EIA report in 1997.

Wong said that the application argued that the EIA was outdated and that the residents of Kampung Baru Bukit Koman had only learned of the DOE approval of the EIA report in early 2007.

Residents worried

Wong said that he would also try to impress upon the court that the DOE had wrongfully refused to ask the developer to seek a fresh EIA.

Among others, Wong is seeking the following from the High Court:

• A declaration to quash the DOE's approval of the preliminary EIA issued in 1997
• A declaration that a detailed EIA is required
• A declaration that the developers must obtain a detailed EIA before proceeding with gold-mining works

Wong said that their application also stated that there was an overall lack of information on what precautionary or preventive measures that the developer has taken to mitigate potential impacts of project.

"The residents are not assured that the use of cyanide would not be detrimental to their health and the environment," added Wong.

The suit marks the resident's last resort at seeking recourse after failing to convince the state government to intervene in the gold mining operations.

Fed-up villagers to act against cyanide use

2007-08-08T09:28:00.000-07:00

Kuek Ser Kuang Keng | Aug 8, 07 10:34am

Tired of waiting for action, residents of Bukit Koman new village in Raub will sue the Pahang government if it renews a gold mining licence that allows the use of cyanide by the concessionaire.

Their anti-cyanide committee has been appealing to Pahang Menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob and MCA leaders to take up their concerns and allay their anxiety, with no results to date.

Chairperson Wong Kin Hoong told malaysiakini that Adnan, at a meeting in March, had promised to bring in experts “soon” to assess whether cyanide use at the gold mine nearby could be harmful to human health.

The state government has issued a mining licence to Peninsular Gold which also allows the use of cyanide, but this is due to expire on Aug 21.

“If the state government renews the permit, the committee will definitely take the matter to court to seek justice,” Wong said.

“The Broga anti-incinerator case and others have shown us that those affected can obtain victory through the courts.”

The committee was formed last year to protest the use of cyanide in extracting gold from an old mining site beside the village.

It is estimated that about 2,000 villagers live in the affected area.

Construction of the RM60 million mine is expected to be completed within a year. The main processing plant will use carbon-in-leach technology to extract gold from tailings (remnants of mined deposits). The main chemical used in this process is cyanide.

MCA blames villagers

When contacted, MCA Tras assemblyperson Chan Choon Fah said party representatives have brought up the matter in the state assembly and are waiting for the menteri besar to make a final decision.

Chan admitted that the delay is due to the appointment of an expert and blamed the villagers for not proposing an independent candidate to conduct the evaluation.

“If state government appoints the expert, the villagers will think the (report) is biased and will not accept it. However, they haven’t found a suitable person either.”

Wong, however, denied this, claiming that the state government has not contacted the committee over the last five months.

“Whether we agree with the government’s appointment or not, they should at least contact us to discuss the choice,” he said.

“His (Chan) statement is illogical. As a state assemblyperson, he should approach us first, but until now, no discussion has been initiated by either MCA or the menteri besar,” he said.

Under the circumstances, Wong felt it best to let the federal government, state environment department and an independent chemistry expert to jointly conduct the environmental impact assessment, in the interests of neutrality.

When contacted yesterday, Adnan said he would issue a response by this afternoon after getting an update on the situation. However, in a SMS message received today, he refused to comment on the issue.

Signatures collected

In an earlier development, Pahang state exco Hoh Khai Mun had led Wong and other villagers on a study tour to another operating gold mine in Penjom last month, to get first-hand information on mining operations involving cyanide use.

The visit, which was intended to placate the villagers, backfired instead and only strengthened their determination to continue protesting the use of cyanide.

According to Wong, there were no signs of life in the vicinity of that gold mine (photo).

Wong also said the committee has collected more than 10,000 signatures to back their protest, including those of 10 committees from Chinese-based new villages nearby.

Over the past few months, the committee has written to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and MCA president Ong Ka Ting, seeking a meeting to submit the signatures and a memorandum.

There has been no reply to date.

Experts to check on cyanide use in gold mine

2007-03-02T09:31:00.000-08:00

Bede Hong | Mar 2, 07 7:30pm

Over a cigar and several cups of coffee, Pahang Menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob placated Bukit Koman residents with promises that experts would be brought in soon to assess whether cyanide usage in a nearby gold mine would harm them.

Adnan met representatives of the Bukit Koman anti-cyanide committee at the Raub rest house this afternoon for an hour and promised that an independent assessment would be carried out, but did not indicate when.

The village committee, formed last year, is protesting the use of cyanide by Peninsular Gold in extracting gold from an old mining site near Raub.

The MB met committee representatives after villagers protested at the official launching of the mine this morning.

Construction of the RM60 million mine is expected to be completed within a year. The main processing plant would use the carbon-in-leach (CIL) technology to extract gold from old mining deposits, also known as tailings. The main chemical used in the process is cyanide.

Present at the meeting were Tras assemblyperson (MCA) Chan Choon Fah, Peninsular Gold non-executive director Mohamed Moiz JM Ali Moiz, Raub district officer Abdul Kadir Abu Bakar as well as several members of the committee.

Reasonable requests

A memorandum was presented to Adnan during the meeting.

It contained demands for a detailed environment impact assessment (EIA) be carried out, that Peninsular Gold lists out the safety measures taken to ensure that cyanide does not leak, and to make public its cash reserve to prove it has enough money to clean up any spills.

“I will raise this matter in the next state meeting. The committee made reasonable requests. I will call the developer (Peninsular Gold) and the committee at a later date,” said Adnan.

“We are calling in experts, most likely from the academia and from abroad,” he told reporters later.

Committee members said they were satisfied with the meeting and are keeping their fingers crossed.

“We are happy. We will wait for the experts that the menteri besar promised. Our disagreement is with the cyanide usage, not the mining itself,” said its acting chairperson Wong Kin Hoong.

Earlier, some 200 villagers marched from a commercial lot to the mine’s entrance during an official launching this morning, which Adnan officiated.

They chanted “Tak mahu racun! Tak mahu cyanide! (We don’t want poison. We don’t want cyanide)” as vehicles headed into the mining compound.

Present at the launch were Peninsular Gold chairperson and chief executive Andrew Kam. Also present were Tengku Hajjah Nong Fatimah and Batu Talam assemblyperson Abd Aziz Kiram.

During his speech, Adnan expressed the state government’s full backing for the mine and that the mine would provide immediate job opportunities for about 200 people.

“The foreign investors who are here are assured that the construction of the mine will go ahead as planned,” he said.

Economic opportunities

At a press conference later, Kam assured that Peninsular Gold took every precaution to ensure the safety of residents.

He said in 1997, an EIA report stated that it was alright to use cyanide for mining if the process is carried out properly.

Kam said the residents were aware this. However, Wong disputed this later and said that the report did not mention anything about cyanide.

Meanwhile, Kam said the mine would bring economic opportunities to the area.

“This is a democratic country. Everybody has the right to voice their opinions, but they are the minority of the majority.

“The majority are looking for jobs, for food, for development and such. You have to look at the majority. You just cannot cater for the interest of a small group,” he added.

Commenting on the protest, he said: “What do the people know? Some of the people may not have been briefed properly. Some of the people don’t understand. They just talk about the cyanide.”

“In 2001, we won the national award for factory safety. We are very proud of our safety record. I don’t believe we intend to harm the community here,” he stressed.

In a related development, Wong said they have collected 6,000 signatures for their campaign protest the use of cyanide. The committee’s aims to obtain 10,000 signatures before making their case to the Prime Minister’s Department.

Bukit Koman folk stage protest

2007-02-13T09:31:00.000-08:00

Tuesday February 13, 2007 - The Star By SIMON KHOO

RAUB: A group of residents in Bukit Koman renewed their protest against the move by a local joint-venture company to extract gold from the mines here using cyanide.

The group comprising about 70 residents staged a protest outside the company here recently.

The spokesman for the group Wong Kin Hoong said some 3,000 residents in Bukit Koman would be directly affected as their houses were located about 300m from the mining site.

He said in June last year, they had held several discussions with Raub MP Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen and Teras assemblyman Datuk Chan Chong Fah.

One voice: Residents staging a demonstration against using cyanide in gold mining activities in Bukit Koman recently.

“We hope the matter will not be swept under the carpet as our health is at stake.

“All in, over 50,000 people residing in Raub district will be at risk if the firm extracts gold using cyanide,” he said.

Cyanide is an extremely harmful chemical substance and may result in premature death.

Those exposed to the chemical may develop headache, nausea, dyspnoea (breathing difficulty), confusion, seizures, coma and cardiovascular collapse.

Wong said based on information he received, the company had been given approval
to use the substance by the state Environment Department (DOE).

“If this information is correct, we hope the DOE will consider retracting the approval for the sake of the people.

Wong said several studies also revealed the wide usage of cyanide had caused considerable damage to the health of the people in Canada, Romania, Guyana, Kyrgyzstan and Papua New Guinea.

He urged the authorities to conduct a new Environment Impact Assessment on the viability of the project and its mining activities.

“Let us stress that we are not against gold mining activities if it is being conducted using conventional methods.

“The old method is not harmful to humans and the environment but will bring out about 20% of yields as compared to some 80% using cyanide,” he elaborated.

Raub is synonymous with gold mining activities and has a history dating back some 200 years.

The company in question, Raub Australia Gold Mining Sdn Bhd, started operations in the 1890s and ceased work in 1960.

However, in the 1980s, the firm resumed its operations after making a substantial investment.

The firm’s top management could not be reached for comment.

Villagers want new EIA report for gold mine

2007-02-08T09:32:00.000-08:00

Soon Li Tsin | Feb 8, 07 2:45pm

Villagers of Bukit Koman, Raub are shocked to find out that the approved project to mine gold in their area using cyanide was based on an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) conducted 10 years ago.

The residents’ action committee found out about this disturbing fact when Pahang Department of Environment sent a letter dated Jan 8 to environment watchdog Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM).

“The letter explained the mining project and gold processing of 300 acres on Bukit Koman by Raub Australian Mining Sdn Bhd was based on the EIA approved on Jan 13 1997.

“We are shocked because the EIA report made 10 years ago is based on completely different circumstances,”read the statement released yesterday.

The committee noted that in 1997, gold mining was done using gravity and chemical methods.

“Using cyanide is also very different from the use of gravity and chemicals and could potentially cause negative effects on the environment and the health of the villagers,” the statement said further.

Some 2,000 residents of Kampung Baru Bukit Koman have been questioning a state agency’s decision to allow the use of cyanide in a gold-mining operation in Bukit Koman since early this year.

The potential cyanide use in Bukit Koman was first discovered when letters of enquiry were exchanged between Pahang Mineral and Geoscience Department and SAM.

The correspondence revealed that the department had issued a letter of authority to the developer, Raub Australian Gold Mining dated Aug 21, 2006 permitting cyanide use to mine gold.

An estimated 70 percent of gold have been mined using gravity separation process. To extract the remaining gold, cyanide leaching, which involves using electrolysis, will be used.

The developer, a subsidiary of London-based Peninsular Gold Ltd, has been given the task to extract gold from tailings (waste material from previous mining) and oxide deposits.

It’s director Andrew Kam Tai Yeow could not be reached for comments.

Not available to public

The committee then said they had tried to acquire the 1997 EIA from both the Putrajaya and Pahang DOE offices.

“We have also gone to DOE in Putrajaya and called the DOE in Pahang in search of the EIA but both of them could not find that document,” it said.

Contacted, Azuri Azizah Saedon senior assistant director of Kuantan DOE said the document is not available to public. It can be acquired through a formal request to the director general.

The committee has also urged for the letter of authority to be retracted so to disallow any cyanide use in Bukit Koman.

Furthermore, the committee demands for a new EIA report be done.

“A new EIA must also be done. If possible, a detailed EIA should also be done to allow the public to provide feedback on this matter,” read the statement.

Fears of cyanide poisoning grips village

2007-02-01T09:32:00.000-08:00

Bede Hong | Feb 1, 07 4:45pm

THEY live next to a gold mine. While many would rejoice at such a prospect, the villagers of Bukit Koman in Raub feel that it is more of a curse than a boon.

Why?

Because a mining company has set up shop in the tiny hamlet and proposes to use cyanide for the gold extraction process.

“We are not against mining. Miners are businessmen. They earn their living. But to use cyanide...,” fumed pensioner Hue Fui How, who has been living in the village all his life.

Hue’s concern is not without basis. Cyanide's toxity is legendary. Exposure to high levels of cyanide is harmful to the brain and heart, and is known to cause coma or death.

Residents of the Chinese-majority rural enclave near Raub, Pahang, who spoke to malaysiakini recently on the prospect of residing by a humdrum of mining activity, have started a petition in an effort to stop cyanide usage.

It is estimated that about 2,000 villagers live in the affected area.

Bukit Koman, located just outside the boundaries of the Batu Talam constituency, was the mining hotbed until the 1960s, when gold prices collapsed.

Miners then had used the placer mining technique, which while creating large amounts of silt, did not involve the use of cyanide. A lake has since formed at what remains of the site.

Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of London-based Peninsular Gold Ltd, has been given the task to extract gold from tailings (waste material from previous mining) and oxide deposits from the bottom of the lake.

An estimated 70 percent of gold have been mined using placer mining. To extract the remaining gold, cyanide leaching, which involves using electrolysis, will be used.

The company has obtained environmental and mine approvals, and barricades have since been set up around the lake, with guards cordoning off area.

Company officials could not be reached by malaysiakini for comments.

Wells connected to mines

In a written response last December to queries by environment watchdog Sahabat Alam Malaysia, the Pahang Mineral and Geoscience Department confirmed that a letter of authority to mine the area was approved in Aug 21 last year, and that the company was permitted to mine gold using cyanide.

The department found the methods to be used by the mining company as safe. Villagers however say the department’s assurance is not enough.

“This cyanide use is the last thing residents here want,” said Hue.

Since the closure of the original mine, the area, located just minutes away from Raub town, has been a tranquil locale. He said many homes of Kampung Bukit Koman are located near the banks of the lake.

“How can you grant a licence? They’re only two metres from the nearest house,” he added.

Including Taman Sentosa and Kampung Sg Lui, some 400 families reside in areas adjacent to the lake, from which the mining operations will take place.

Scattered through the area also are abandoned mining wells. The wells, part of the tunnelling efforts by previous miners, are interconnected and permeated with water.

Three of the wells run under the lake, while the rest are scattered near the district hospital, a school and both Kampung Bukit Koman and Kampung Sg Lui.

Villagers say that water wells, which are frequently used, share the same water source as the mining wells.

“If any cyanide found itself into the ground, it will seep into the water source. Cyanide is so toxic that micro-organism does not break it down. So it can make its way deep into the ground. Villagers might end up taking in the chemical,” said Gan Chew Yan, a postgraduate chemistry student who grew up in the area.

“Cyanide is extremely soluble in water and the effect long lasting. Any spill would mean an environmental disaster for the area,” she said.

Villagers have begun collecting signatures to be presented to the Prime Minister’s Department.

So far some 3,000 signatures have been collected, said the committee chairperson Voon Kim Soon. Voon said the committee is confident that it would get an additional 7,000 signatures.

He said the priority was to stop the use of cyanide, not the closure of the mine: “There are too many people living too near the lake where the mining will occur.”

Still awaiting reply

In an interview last September, with Australian business magazine Resourcestocks, Peninsular Gold director Andrew Kam Tai Yeow, said the processing plant is estimated to cost US$8-10 million.

The company expects a general cash flow of US$7.5 million from the Raub site annually. Operations is expected to begin late this year.

Andrew Kam’s father, Kam Woon Wah, had formerly served as MCA secretary general. His last post with the party was as the disciplinary board chairperson.

Kam could not be reached for comments.

Last week, the committee released a media statement, lamenting government approval was given without consulting local residents.

"We have been denied our rights because we weren’t given a chance to respond despite the fact that we’re the nearest residents to the project site,” the four-page statement reads.

“We urge the government to scrutinise the developer’s detailed Environmental Impact Assessment report in full and for this document to be released to residents and the public,” it continued.

According to villager Mustapha Hussin (left in pic)of Kampung Sg Lui, who serves as committee secretary, villagers had approached local MCA leaders to raise the issue to the Pahang state government.

The committee had also sent a letter appealing MCA deputy president Chan Kong Choy for help and is still awaiting reply, said Mustapha.

“My personal concern is the cyanide. It is a potent chemical. The Nazis used it when they had a go at the Jews in World War Two,” said Hue.

“Millions. Millions killed! Do you want us to end up as statistics?” he decried.

The Plight Of Bukit Koman Residents Unfolds Here..

2006-08-21T06:41:00.000-07:00

The Plight Of Bukit Koman Residents Unfolds Here..

There has been no coverage by the mainstream media on issue that was affecting the Bukit Koman residents. Until of late, Malaysiakini ran a report on Bukit Koman residents failure to stop the goldmine from operating. Read 'Bkt Koman residents fail to stop goldmine' here.
A fellow blogger emailed me requesting that we, bloggers, should help carry their side of the story in our blog to make more people aware of the events that have been haunting the residents and endangering their lives. But it doesn't stop there. Very soon, this potential hazard has every chance spillover into Selangor once The Pahang-Selangor Inter-State Raw Water Transfer Project is completed.
The Story Unfolds Here...

Cyanide And Raub

Brief Introduction

Raub is a peaceful town blessed with nature's wealth. Due to recent emergence of Cyanide, the valley has deeply submerged into a terrifying state. Raub is the place where we live and grow up. Our home and lives are confine here in this little valley. There is no reason for us to move to other places. Mining processing facilities are located just two kilometres away from residential area. Just across the street to be exact and why is the Pahang Mineral and Geoscience Department still approving the use this lethal chemical, Cyanide, to extract the gold?

Bukit Koman is a small and old village , located inside Raub county , consists of approximately four hundred families with a total of close to 3000 residents. It is situated right in the middle of the gold mining area and is indeed a 'gold plated’ village.

The mining activity started in 1898, but ceased operation in 1963. During this period, the mine was fully controlled by the Australian. In 1970, thousands of hectares of mining land had been sold and transfered to Gan Mun Wah group. After purchasing the land, the group cultivated most of the land with palm oil, reserving two plots totaling 600 hectares, for mining purposes. In the 1980’s, the group rented out the reserved mining land to Chinese miners to mine for gold through the gravity separation approach. And in the year 1990, the company took back the land and set up a company to mine the gold on their own.

Andrew Kam, the son of GMW founder, set up Peninsular Gold Limited company, which is listed in London Exchange, and wholly own Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn. Bhd., is fully responsible for the mining activity. The other shareholders including Pahang royal Princess, Tengku Puteri Seri Lela Manja and her ex-husband Mohd Moiz. Pahang Development Board (Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Pahang) is also one of their partners.

Chronology of Events

21st August 2006

Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn. Bhd. successfully obtained approval from Pahang Mineral and Geoscience Department to use Cyanide in the mining area inside Bukit Koman.

4th December 2006

After the villagers got to know the lethalness and impact of the Cyanide, the villagers formed a 'Objection of Cyanide use in Gold Mining in Bukit Koman' committee, This commitee have been aggressively sending the SOS signal to all people for help, gathering help to start the bitter war against Cyanide to save the villagers. At the same time, a petition was launched and 10 thousands signatures were collected.

2nd March 2007

Pahang Menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob officiate the break soil ceremony of the Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn. Bhd. Carbon-In Leach factory. VIP of the event including Pahang Princess ex-husband Mohd. Moiz and Raub Parliament YB Dato Dr. Ng Yen Yen.

May 2007

The committee submitted letter to Prime Minister YAB Dato Abdullah Badawi, Minister of Ministry of Energy, Water and Communication YB Dato Lim Kim Aik and President of MCA, YB Dato Wong Ka Ting and request for attention in this matter, meet the committee for further discussion as well as presenting the memorandum including the signed petition of 10 thousands signatures. The memorandum also submitted to Raub Parliament YB Dato Dr Ng Yan Yan, Pahang MCA State Chief, YB Dato Chan Kong Choy, Chief of MCA Youth cum Bentong Parliament YB Dato Leow Chong Lai. But no respond was obtained.

July 2007

Committee meet with President of Friends of the Earth Malaysia, Meena Raman in Penang for legal assistance.

21st March 2008

Committee file a law suit with high court of Kuala Lumpur, requesting the court revert the approval of Pahang Mineral and Geoscience Department to Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn. Bhd. to use Cyanide in the process of mining of gold in Bukit Koman. Malaysia Ministry of Environmental has been named first defendant and Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn. Bhd. as second defendant.

February 2009

Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn. Bhd. started the mining process with Cyanide. Residents started to notice stinging smell. Since then, many residents started to experience insomnia, vomiting, dizziness and other abnormal symptoms. The total number of report of abnormal symptoms has rose to more than 200 cases.

8th March 2009

Hundreds of villagers attended the Anti Cyanide Gathering and put up banner to reflect their determination to say NO to Cyanide. Some of the villagers opt to migrate away from Bukit Koman to stay away from this lethal village.

23rd March 2009

Pahang Exco Dato Ho Kee Mum published the report after cursory investigation by department of environment, saying no smell of Cyanide was detected.

25th March 2009

Committee and ADUN Raub, Mr. Chong Shao Aun reported the event to Anti Corruption, requesting them to interfere with the process of gold mining using Cyanide of the mining company.

Properties and Characteritics of Sodium Cyanide (NaCN)

Physical State; Appearance

- White, hygroscopic crystalline powder, with characteristic odour. Odourless when dry.

- Cyanide solutions readily bond with gold, silver and other metals

- Usually stored and transported as a solid. It is stable when dry.

- Dissolve in water to produce toxic cyanide gas. HCN (Hydrogen Cyanide)

- Cyanide may also result in deforestation, soil erosion, land slides, and contamination of underground water.One teaspoon of a 2% solution can kill a person.

- The substance decomposes rapidly on contact with acids, and slowly on contact with water, moisture or carbon dioxide producing hydrogen cyanide

- Cyanide is a powerful solvent that breaks down heavy metals – such as mercury, cadmium, chromium, and lead – that end up as waste products that need to be dumped.

Chemical Dangers

- One teaspoon of a 2% solution can kill a person.

- Cyanide is highly toxic, rapidly acting, potentially deadly chemical

- The substance can be absorbed into the body by inhalation, through the skin and by ingestion.

- Prevents the cells of the body from using oxygen. When this happens, the cells die.

- Causea effect on the cellular respiration, resulting in convulsions and unconsciousness

- More harmful to the heart and brain than to other organs because the heart and brain use a lot of oxygen.

- 20ppm/ per cubic meter in air (mg/m3)

- Cyanide is the killing agent used in gas chambers.

- When the density of HCN is 20 ppm, after few hours human will experience symptoms of poison dead

- Total Cyanide composition on surface water must not be more then 0.2mg/L, when the Cyanide composition is more than 0.5mg/L, 20% of the fish will be dead in two hours, all fish will be dead in 24 hours.

- Notorious chemical weapons used in Second World War, has been widely used by Nazi in the detention facilities and channel the gas to chamber which is a counterfeit bath room. The weapon has kill millions of Jews.

- Has been considered potential terrorist weapon.

- Potassium Cyanide has been used in mercy killing. Subject will be dead in 10 seconds after the drug has been injected or taken via oral.

In a letter replying to Friend to Earth Malaysia by Pahang Mineral and Geoscience Department, En. Zulkifly Abu Bakar confirmed that the department has issued letter of approval on 21st of August, allowing the mining company using Cyanide in their mining process. This letter of approval is based on 10th clause of 1994 Mineral Development act. The duration is 1 year. The company can renew the approval after 1 year.

According to the reply, the mining company will use concentration of 350mg/L Cyanide solution to extract gold from the ore. Gold will be reclaimed via electrolysis. The solution in the vats will be recycled. Only purified water will be discharged to abandoned pond left over from previous mining activity.

The reply also pointed out that “once discharged to the abandoned pond, the pond water will contain approximately 0.008% of Cyanide. In the present of sunlight, the Cyanide percentage in the water will be less and less and become totally degraded. The water of the abandon pond will be recycled for subsequent extraction process.”

The reply again pointed out “Cyanide extraction has been widely use in mining industry, including developed country”

Pahang Minerals And Geoscience Department Versus Facts

A: Purified water will be channeled to the abandoned lake of previous mining activity. The abandoned lake contains approximately 0.008% Cyanide.

F: According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), composition in natural water should be controlled below 0.2 ppm. The Cyanide discharged to abandoned lake is 80ppm, which has exceeded the safe level over 400 times!

A: Cyanide can breaks down in the presence of sunlight.

F: 1. In-order to breakdown into other substances, sufficient sunlight and oxygen in the air are needed. Unfortunately, presence of sunlight is always absence due to reasons such as overcast and haze, whereby the process of gold extraction is running 24 hours in 365 days. Cyanide content discharged into pond will accumulate day after day.

2. Both cyanide and acid-mine drainage can find their way into streams and rivers through accidental spills, discharges, dam overflows, and water runoff. It can also seep into groundwater. Leftover cyanide in very small concentrations can harm birds and other wildlife that drink mine pond wastewater.

3. Purified water container Cyanide discharged from the plan contains NH3-N. High concentration of this chemical will provide more nutrient to aquatic organism. This will in turn the increase production of algae which will in turn decrease the penetration of sunlight or visibility of the water. This will decrease the dissolve of oxygen in the water and directly threat the survivor of fish and other organism inside the water. The end result of this situation is that the water will be stink and form of ‘red tide’ or ‘algae bloom’.

4. According to the Mineral Policy Center, “mining and regulatory documents often state that cyanide in water rapidly breaks down in the presence of sunlight into largely harmless substances, such as carbon dioxide and nitrate or ammonia. However, cyanide also tends to react readily with many other chemical elements and is known to form, at a minimum, hundreds of different compounds.” Many of these breakdown compounds are generally less toxic than the original cyanide, but are still known to be toxic to aquatic organisms.

5. These breakdown compounds may persist in the environment for an unknown period of time, and there is evidence that some forms of these compounds can accumulate in fish and plant tissues.

A: If managed properly, mining with Cyanide is absolutely safe

F: In case of any mismanage or neglection, the consequence will be fully transferred to all the innocent villages, furthermore, there is no any party dare enough to guarantee that no accident is going happened. We trade the life of thousands of villages for the profit of certain private organization does not sounds like logical and fair.

A: Operation of Cyanide is in a closed environment. Chances of leakage or contamination is neglectable

F: The above figure shown an open pit Carbon in Leach process. Content in the vat is mixture of crash ore and sodium cyanide, which the process will generate a very toxic gas, Hydrogen Cyanide. The gas will waft in the air.

Since February 2009, the air around the mining facilities is floated with stink chemical smell. Within a month, more than 200 abnormal symptom is reported. The quality of air has triggered the alarm to the people.

A: Mining facilities will bring more job opportunities to Raub

F: Most of the workers are foreign workers. According to the employed local people, after a period working in the mining facilities, there will be problem with the skin.

A: Water resources will not be contaminated

F: From year 1898 to year 1963, the mining company has dug seven interconnected mining well. These wells have depth ranging from 600 to 1200 feet, which has formed a network of underground water. Three of the wells are located right below the abandoned lake which the purified water containing Cyanide will be discharged. Furthermore, the Koman river, which runs across the mining will also poses great threats if leakage or contamination. Once that happened, the underground water would not be get away from it. (as figure show)

A: Gold Cyanidation (also known as the cyanide process or the MacArthur-Forrest process) are widely used even in developed countries.

F: Montana , The Czech Republic has banned the use of cyanide in mining, and both Turkey and Greece have made significant court rulings against issuing permits to mining interests whose projects propose the use of cyanide. The Mining Amendment (Cyanide Leaching) Bill 2000, which would prohibit ore processing by cyanide leaching in gold mining, was entered into the Parliament in New South Wales, Australia, in June 2000.

Accidents keep on occurring even in developed countries, how can we judge that the approval for their license is accurate?

A: The mining facilities is two meter away from the residential area, in fact only across the street from residential area

F: Any form of industry must have distance more the 5 km

The mining facilities and the adjuncture residential area, does not even have any buffer!

How the approval can be obtained by mining facilities which uses first grade poison material, Cyanide, to process which is only few meters away from residential area? In fact close to 1.5 tan of Cyanide is used daily inside the facilities.

Is the rules only applicable to certain people but exception can be applied to certain people?

A: Some of the villages and most of the people in Raub have been ignorant on the criticality of the issue. Some assume that this is the trick of someone who wanted to get to the top.

F: Protection of home was never a political or races or religious oriented. When the home is gone, health is gone and conscious is gone, who is in power is not relevant anymore.

A:Gold Cyanidation Process in Bukit Koman will never affect the village’s health and wealth.

F: Exposure to high levels of cyanide harms the brain and heart, and may cause coma and death.

Exposure to lower levels may result in breathing difficulties, heart pains, vomiting, blood changes, headaches, and enlargement of the thyroid gland, redness and pain to the skin.

Exposure to very low concentration of cyanide may cause cancer in people or animals. Can cause skin problem.

Enviromental disaster caused by cyanide mining

Colorado, Nevada, Montana, Idaho, California, South Dakota, South Carolina, Romania, Guyana, Canada, Kyrgyzstan, Papua New Guinea, Bulgarian, Resulting in massive fish kills and contaminated drinking water; and, no matter what processing method is used at the mine site, we cannot risk the release of even tiny amounts of cyanide into our waterways and fisheries.

Cyanide Mining Disasters

1. Zortman-Landusky Mine, Montana, 1982: Fifty-two thousand gallons of cyanide solution poison the drainage that supplies fresh drinking water for the town of Zortman. A mine employee discovered the accident when he noticed the smell of cyanide in his tap water at home.

2. Summitville Mine, Colorado, 1992: Summitville gold mine was responsible for contaminating 17 miles of the Alamosa River with cyanide and other contaminants.

3. Kumtor Gold Mine, Kyrgyzstan, central Asia, 1998: A truck carrying 2 tons of sodium cyanide crashed into the Barskoon River. Two thousand six hundred poison cases and 4 deaths were reported in the aftermath.

4. Aural Gold Plant, Romania, Eastern Europe, 2000: A cyanide-laden tailings spill sent a toxic slug of cyanide and metals rolling down the Tisza River and into the Danube, killing aquatic wildlife and poisoning water supplies as far as 250 miles downriver.

5. In May 1998, six to seven tons of cyanide-laced tailings spilled from the Homestake Mine into Whitewood Creek in the Black Hills of South Dakota, resulting in a substantial fish kill.

6. The Dakota Mining Company bought the land from the federal government for just $5 per acre (under the General Mining Law of 1872), extracted about $69 million worth of gold over ten years, then filed for bankruptcy in 1998, leaving taxpayers with an estimated $40 million cleanup bill.

7. Before a voter initiative banned the use of cyanide in open pit, cyanide-leach mining in November 1998, Montana landowners downstream of the Golden Sunlight mine were forced to sell their property to Placer Dome Corporation after their drinking water was contaminated with cyanide.

8. The Kendall mine near Lewistown, Montana, has contaminated neighbors’ streams with toxic mine waste since 1995. Reclamation efforts at the mine have also depleted water supplies downstream from the company. Eight neighboring landowners have filed water rights complaints against the mining company.

9. The Golden Maple mine near Lewistown, Montana, was ordered to provide a neighboring rancher with an alternate water supply for both domestic and stock water needs after 77,000 gallons of cyanide contaminated the neighbor’s groundwater.

10. In a 1997 lawsuit settlement against Pegasus Gold, the company agreed to spend $34 million to study environmental damage to the groundwater surrounding the Zortman/Landusky mine, to construct an additional water treatment plant, to conduct a public health study, and other measures.

11. 1995 Omai Guyana Collapse of tailings dam.

12. 2000 Baia Mare Romania Collapse of tailings dam.

13. 2000 Tolukuma Papua New Guinea Helicopter dropped crate into rainforest.

The question now is: Should Our Government Expose Us To Such Mining Method?

For Relating Article: Visit Sanjiun's Blog and Bancyanide (Mandarin version)