Marcoper Mining Corporation

Christian Palomares
JUS 444
Critical Essay
April 21, 2013

Marcopper Mining Corporation

The residents of Marinduque Island in the Phillippines have suffered from environmental injustice for the past 40 years. The toxic waste from the Marcopper Mine, have devastated the environment and the health of nearby communities. Due to poverty, corrupt local government and multinational corporations and the disinterest of the international community, the environmental negative effects of the region, have affected local residents the most without any punishment to the people that cause this natural disaster. In 1969 the Maricopper Mine Corporation began mining for copper, silver and gold at the Mount Tapian ore deposits. In 1990, the extraction of these minerals depleted and the Maricopper mine move to the community of San Antonio. In the process of extracting the minerals, large amounts of dirt had to be mixed with water and chemicals to be able to separate copper from it. This process leaved millions of tons of tailings and waste that were dumped in local rivers and coast, polluting everything on its path. According to the “Mining Ombudsman Case Report: Marinduque Island”, the Marcopper corporation dumped more than 200 million tons of tailings into the waters, at a surface level on the coast of Calacan Bay from 1975 to 1991. These toxic wastes contaminated and destroyed 80 kilometers of the seabed area, along with corals, sea grass, and fish. In 1996, the Mine was forced to shut down its operations when the government of the Phillippines called it a “state of calamity” after one of the drainage tunnels broke and four million tons of mining tailings got into the Boac River. The heavy metals that were dumped into the ocean and rivers have polluted the soil and the underground water as well, making it almost impossible to grow anything in the area. The population of Marinduque Island is one of the poorest communities in the Phillippines that relied heavily on fishing and agriculture. When the Marcopper Corporation came to the island, everyone was excited about it. The corporation employed more than 1000 locals, spent more than 30 million dollars a year in good and services for the local community and provided electricity for some of the communities. Little did they know how much this corporation was going to affect the environment and their lives for the years to come. Local villagers depend on farming and fishing the natural resources and the pollution has caused from the crop yields to decrease and the fish to disappear. Many people have died from cancer from breathing the red dust produced by the copper extraction. Fishermen have gotten body parts amputated due to the high levels of arsenic in the water. They have to travel longer distances to be able to catch some fish to feed their families, but it stills hard to catch anything because most of the fish have left the area. The Marinduque population has suffered from environment injustice because since they are the poorest of the poor in the Phillipines’s society, it is really difficult for them to seek justice. Corrupt governments in partnership with multinational corporations are the ones responsible from this environmental disaster. The Marcopper Corporation during its most polluting days was own by the Phillippines’s President Ferdinand Marcos, Placer Development Limited and the Phillipine Public Shares. This partnership allowed for Maricopper to violated many local and state environmental laws to maximized its profits. After Ferdinand Marcos was overthrown, the Phillipines government owned most of the company shares (49 percent) and in 1997 the company was privatized. Today, it is very difficult to know who really owns the Marcopper corporation and who is responsible for the compensation of the local people, cleanup and rehabilitation of the environment and affected communities

References

http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/toxic-ch.htm

http://this.org/magazine/2009/05/29/canada-philippines-gold-toxic/

http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=1276

http://cpcabrisbane.org/Kasama/1998/V12n2/Marcopper.htm

http://www.preda.org/en/news/environment/marcopper-mining-disaster/

“Mining Ombudsman Case Report: Marinduque Island”. Oxfam, Australia. www.oxfam.org.au/campaings/mining

“Reckless Lending”. The NGO Working Group. March, 2000.

References: http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/toxic-ch.htm http://this.org/magazine/2009/05/29/canada-philippines-gold-toxic/ http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=1276 http://cpcabrisbane.org/Kasama/1998/V12n2/Marcopper.htm http://www.preda.org/en/news/environment/marcopper-mining-disaster/ “Mining Ombudsman Case Report: Marinduque Island”. Oxfam, Australia. www.oxfam.org.au/campaings/mining “Reckless Lending”. The NGO Working Group. March, 2000.