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Green Left – Traditional owner: don’t mine our land

Traditional owner: don’t mine our landJay Fletcher & Emma Murphy Green Left 4 February 2009 A multinational mining company that has been exposed for leaking uranium into Lake Ontario in North America is now exploring uranium deposits only a few kilometres from a significant Alice Springs water supply.Canadian resource giant, Cameco, has entered a joint venture with Australian Paladin Energy to explore and potentially mine the Angela Pamela uranium tenement 25 kilometres south of Alice Springs near the old outstation of Owen Springs.
Last year, Cameco was forced to admit to leaking uranium, arsenic and fluorides into Lake Ontario, one of the biggest lakes in North America. On May 23, ABC Alice Springs reported that the Port Hope refinery plant was closed when contaminated soil was discovered, but during the “clean-up” it is likely that tailings found their way into the harbour.

Moreover, the company has been ordered to pay a C$1.4 million settlement to the state of Wyoming for failing to comply with environmental standards at its uranium mine. Among the charges were problems with the pace of ground water restoration, according to Canada’s Calgary Herald.

Traditional owner Raelene Silverton from Urana Potara community — located on the West Waterhouse station near Owen Springs — told Green Left Weekly in December that mining the site would create serious risk to local and Aboriginal communities. “There are a lot of people saying not to mine in there”, Silverton said. “There’s a bore there and Alice Springs communities get their water from there, it would be too dangerous.”
Cameco-Paladin were granted an exploration permit by the Northern Territory government in 2007. A May 27, 2008 media release from the Central Land Council (CLC) said that negotiations were being conducted with traditional owners, yet local owners such as Silverton, who do not want the plans to go ahead, say they have been excluded from the process.

Green Left – Traditional owner: don’t mine our land

February 2, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | indigenous issues | AUSTRALIA