The Ok Tedi Mine operates to extract copper-gold porphyry from an open pit mine in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea. The Ok Tedi environmental disaster associated with it, due to the annual discharge of millions of tons of mining waste, has harmed the environment and livelihood of 50,000 people who live on or near the Ok Tedi River.
This mining pollution, due to the collapse of the Ok Tedi tailings dam system and the lack of a proper waste retention facility, has been the subject of class action litigation, naming Ok Tedi Mining Limited and BHP Billiton and brought by local landowners. Villagers downstream from Ok Tedi in the Fly River system in the Middle Fly District and the southern and central areas of the North Fly District, in particular, believe that the effect on their livelihood from this disaster far outweighs the benefits they have received from the mine's presence in their area.
Read more about Ok Tedi Environmental Disaster: Environmental Impact, Aftermath
Famous quotes containing the word disaster:
“The disaster ... is not the money, although the money will be missed. The disaster is the disrespect—this belief that the arts are dispensable, that they’re not critical to a culture’s existence.”
—Twyla Tharp (b. 1941)