A highly successful roadshow was conducted locally over the last weekend in July, focussed on the social, environmental, cultural and economic threats posed by mining.
The events, held at Copmanhurst, Grafton, Drake and Dorrigo, were organised by the Clarence Catchment Alliance which had invited the Environmental Defenders Office to advise landowners of their rights when approached by a mining company requesting access to their properties.
Among the many threats that are posed by mining, is the potential, particularly in mountainous landscapes in high rainfall areas, of the pollution of waterways as a result of tailings dam failure. However, a lesser-known pollution threat comes from acid mine drainage (AMD), aka acid rock drainage.
AMD occurs naturally when sulphide minerals in the waste rock from mining react with air and water to form sulphuric acid. This acid leaches out metals in the rock, which can enter nearby waterways, or even seep into groundwater.
In the USA it’s been described as the largest environmental problem facing the mining industry, with the international organisation, Earthworks, presenting a stark picture of the impacts, describing it as “perpetual pollution”. This is because it can continue indefinitely, long after mining has ended. They point to a literature review that concluded that “no hard rock surface mines exist today that can demonstrate that large scale acid mine drainage can be stopped once it occurs”.
AMD also occurs across Australia, including here, in the Clarence River catchment. Drake’s Mt Carrington mine has long been known for AMD, and was responsible for polluting Sawpit Creek, a tributary of the Clarence, in the mid-1990s, and is likely still seeping into the river today, despite significant expenditure by both the mining companies responsible, and NSW taxpayers.
The NSW Derelict Mined Lands Rehabilitation Program spent $155,000 on AMD rehabilitation in the Drake area in 1996, with a further $100,000 budgeted for 1997, and ongoing expenditure ever since.
Now, following a string of failed mining ventures at Mt Carrington, Legacy Minerals, has acquired the mine, announcing yet more exploratory work.
Can we really afford the risk?
- John Edwards
Published in the Voices for the Earth column in The Clarence Valley Independent , 6th August, 2025.
