Bkt Koman residents fail to stop goldmine

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.