Statement by Papua New Guinea groups on Ok Tedi

Date: August 1999

This is the position of the Environmental Law Centre PNG, NANGO, NGO Environmental Working Group, Pacific Heritage Foundation, Partners with Melanesia and Greenpeace Pacific on the closure of the Ok Tedi mine.

To contact or get comment from Papua New Guinea groups Phone Brian Brunton: +675 326 0560

1. River systems should not be used to dispose of mine waste
2. Environmental rehabilitation is very important for future generations. BHP should be prepared to post a bond [assessed by an independent expert] that will cover the cost of mine rehabilitation. All environmental damage should be cleaned up during the rehabilitation on the closure of the mine.
3. If mining at Ok Tedi continues BHP should:
   1. Deal with the overburden of the pit. It should not continue to be pushed into the Ok Tedi river.
   2. A new safe way should be found to deal with tailings, even if this means the mine should be smaller, and new technology found to extract greater metal content.
   3. BHP shareholders should bear the environmental cost of mine closure, and should not be allowed to offload their environmental responsibilities onto the PNG taxpayer and the government of PNG.
4. If mining finishes early, BHP shareholders should carry any cost of social dislocation to the affected people of the Fly River, by developing alternatives to ensure that those people have sustainable livelyhoods in future. In any case, BHP should maintain its existing community, commercial, agricultural, and infrastructural maintenance capacity until such time as local people can be considered self sustaining.