Bob Burton – While BHP's proclaims that "prevention is better than cure", the company is pressing ahead with investigations into dumping in the ocean wastes from the proposed Gag Island nickel project, 150 kilometres west of West Papua in Indonesia.
In 1996, BHP hired Natural Systems Research (NSR), a Melbourne-based environmental consultancy, to advise it on the Gag Island project. NSR has previously worked for BHP on its ill-fated attempt to defeat legal action by PNG landowners affected by tailings disposal from the Ok Tedi mine.
Gag Island is approximately 10 square kilometres and home to 450 people who are mostly reliant on fisheries and food gardens. BHP manager of environmental and community affairs, Ian Wood, told Mining Monitor that the southern two-thirds of the island is mineralised with nickel, while the northern end is used for food gardens by the local population.
A conventional tailings dam, Wood said, is one option for the northern section of the island, but would affect the food gardens. An alternative option is a temporary tailings dam in the north and then backfilling the pits. The third option is ocean disposal, which avoids impacts on the gardening areas and the costs of backfilling.
While BHP's managing director, Paul Anderson, has ruled out any new projects dumping tailings into rivers, the company is prepared to consider projects that discharge tailings into the ocean.
In order to proceed with a feasibility study on the $2.4 billion Gag Island nickel project, BHP announced it is hoping to team up with the second biggest nickel producer, Canadian-based Falconbridge. Falconbridge has tentatively confirmed it is at an advanced stage of negotiations to buy a 37.5% interest in the project for US$75 million, leaving BHP with an equivalent stake in the project.
NSR is recommending that BHP proceed with "deep seat tailings placement" (DSTP) of mine wastes. According to NSR (November 15, 1999), "The preferred options processing on Gag with DSTP are under intensive investigations".
"Environmental management proposals for the mining component of the project will based on the standard requirements placed on existing nickel operations by the New Caledonian authorities and the results of an NSR case study of the PT Aneka Tambang mine at nearby Gebe Island", NSR wrote.