More Misinformation in the Media

4. Mining activities have changed in Costerfield
In our first post providing examples of lies and misinformation in the media we recounted how:

On 11 September, 2014, an anonymous "government spokesperson" told the Bendigo Advertiser (seems everyone lies to the Addy!) that

"Suggestions that an expansion of the Mandalay mine activities at Costerfield led to increased dust deposition levels are unfounded.

"Mandalay Resources have not substantially changed their underground mining activities or production rates from the approvals granted in 2006 under the former Labor government."

We called that a lie. Such suggestions are not unfounded at all, we said. It is precisely this expansion and the fact that it has been left unexamined for years, that was the cause of increased dust levels in Costerfield earlier this year. No one was watching except the locals. And that's exactly where the dust was deposited: in the locals. In their water tanks. And their livestock.

But wait there's more.

The subsequent statement that "Mandalay Resources have not substantially changed their underground activities" doesn't appear to bear up under scrutiny either. According to information about Mandalay's Costerfield Operations on mininglink.com.au (presumably posted by the mine itself):

Changed Mining Methods Double Production Output
The underground mining method used at the Costerfield Project's Augusta Mine is carried out using cemented rock fill and blast hole stoping technology. This change in mining methodology has been the main reason of the almost doubling of throughput between the last quarter of 2011 and the fourth quarter of 2012.  

That would appear to have been a rather substantial "change" in underground mining activities. It certainly increased production rates.

That is an anonymous "government spokesperson" just before an election.

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5. The water being removed is toxic and dangerous  
On 14 November, 2013, the Bendigo Advertiser printed a story in which Mandalay Resources General Manager Mr Andre Booyzen states - and his statement is repeated and emphasised in big blue letters - that he was "100% positive the water is safe". The "water" here is the groundwater removed during the dewatering process to enable underground mining to continue.

This was in the wake of  the Bendigo Council's approval of the Splitters Creek Evaporation Facility. The "chemical elements such as arsenic, copper, calcium and lead in the 1.4 megalitres a day pumped from the mine, were not at toxic levels," the community was assured. (Oddly, there is no mention of the levels of antimony, the heavy metal being mined for...)

And, quite rightly, Mr Booyzen also told readers that he could "only go on what the authorities are telling us". It is the regulatory authorities' responsibility to ensure that conditions are safe and that the public is not placed at risk.

Residents remained concerned about the impacts of the evaporation facility. And the quality of the water. And with good cause it would seem. Even before the evaporation facility had been approved, local farmer Mr Steve Harris had been featured in, once again, the Bendigo Advertiser, on 12 November, 2013.  

"Salty contamination was an issue already" Mr Harris was quoted as saying. And then:

"During the drought he gave Mandalay mine water to his sheep and 42 wethers died, he said."

Because of construction delays caused by the ongoing objections and then the VCAT process, Mandalay Resources was forced to find an alternative method for the disposal of its waste water. The ever-attentive EPA issued a Pollution Abatement Notice to enable the trucking of this heavy metal contaminated water to the Heathcote Pit, a disused open cut mine.

In the ensuing months dozens of trucks a day hurtled back and forth, fifteen kilometres along the Heathcote-Nagambie Road and the McIvor Highway through the town of Heathcote, carting load after load of waste water for disposal in the Pit. Here is a summary of the "discharge" to July 2014.

By the time this dumping was ended in August of this year, the water level in the Pit had increased by 7.7 metres. This sign was placed on the fence.

And last year the authorities told Mr Booyzen, and so Mr Booyzen told the media, that this water was 100% safe. Positively.

We don't reckon there'd be too many fish in there anyway. There are no frogs in the creek.