Location | |
---|---|
Location | Taolagnaro, Fort Dauphin |
Region | Anosy |
Country | Madagascar |
Coordinates | 25°02′40″S46°49′36″E / 25.044339°S 46.826710°E |
Production | |
Products | Ilmenite |
Type | open-pit |
History | |
Discovered | 1986 |
Active | 1986-present |
Owner | |
Company | (Rio Tinto Group subsidiary) QIT-Fer et Titane 80% Government of Madagascar 20% |
Website | www |
Local impacts | |
Pollution | uranium, lead |
Impacted | Lake Besaroy |
Mandena mine (also Mandena operation, Mandena concession, or the QMM mine) is an ilmenite mine operated by Rio Tinto subsidiary QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM). It is located near Taolagnaro, Fort Dauphin, Anosy region, Madagascar.
The mine was first discovered in 1986 in an environmentally fragile and important region. Mining activity has been met with mixed reactions from the local community, with some protesting in 2013 and 2022.
Pollution from the mine reached nearby Lake Besaroy in 2014 and 2015, before the mine's owners admitted there was no tailing dam on site. Rio Tino promised to improve the environmental protection at the mine in 2004, but walked that promise back in 2016.
Mandena is a titanium dioxide ore, and ilmenite mine on the Mandena concession, 5km northeast of Taolagnaro, Fort Dauphin. [1] [2] It is located in littoral forests, [3] near Andohahela National Park [2] and the Mandena Conservation Zone. [4]
The mine's initial capacity was projected at 750,000 tonnes per year, with future phases of development potentially expanding capacity to 2,000,000 tonnes per year. The mine is 80% owned by Canadian mining company QIT-Fer et Titane, a wholly owned subsidiary of the mining company Rio Tinto Group; the remaining 20% is owned by the Government of Madagascar. [5]
Rio Tinto discovered an estimated 70 million tons of ilmenite in what Scientific American magazine called "one of the most threatened ecosystems on the planet" in 1986. The mine's development created employment, roads and exacerbated ongoing deforestation. [6]
At the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s World Conservation Congress conference in Bangkok in 2004, Rio Tino promised to improve its efforts to protect the ecology, launching what it called a net positive impact strategy, with Mandena mine as the company's first priority. In 2016, after members of the company's Biodiversity Committee pointed out gaps between promises and action, Rio Tinto abandoned that promise, switching strategies towards what Scientific American described as "avoiding making things too much worse" and projected that the company was "poised to extinguish this biodiversity hotspot". [6] The committee resigned in October 2016, [3] issuing an open letter critical of Rio Tinto, that stated "mention of the environment is totally absent from the five stated corporate priorities of Rio Tinto." and expressing a "lack of confidence that adequate long-term resourcing and capacity will be provided for the biodiversity program at QMM." [7]
In January 2013, community protests about the mine were quelled by the Madagascar People's Armed Forces who used teargas to disperse the crowd. Rio Tinto attributed the protests to earlier cash compensation from the mine's owners, claiming that the community sought additional compensation. Local activists complained that mine employees were 90% not local, a claim rejected by Rio Tinto. [8] The mine's Independent Advisory Panel resigned the same year. [7]
Between December 2014 and January 2015, mining activity breached a buffer zones between their operations and Lake Besaroy. The National Office for the Environment described the impact as "negligible". Local organisations complained about not being able to see the assessment that led to the office's conclusion. News website Mongabay questioned the office's ability to regulate Rio Tinto. [8]
In 2019, analysis by the Andrew Lees Trust discovered uranium concentrations in the river downstream of the mine were 0.049 mg/L, 63% higher than the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines for drinking water, while Lead concentrations were 0.0256 mg/L, 256% higher than the WHO recommended maximum for drinking water. [1] The same year, Rio Tinto admitted there was no tailings dam on site. [9]
In 2021, Rio Tinto signed an agreement to buy electricity from an independent power producer. The facility will combine 8MW of solar, 12MW of onshore wind and a battery energy storage system to provide renewable power to the mine. [10]
In 2021, analysis by activists found that some sites downstream of the mine had uranium at 52 times the World Health Organization drinking water standard, and lead contamination at 42 times the standard. [11]
In 2022, the mine stopped operating for five days due to protests. Protestors linked a release of water from the mine to the death of fish, a claim denied by Rio Tinto. [12] Two tailings dams at the mine released one million cubic metres of mine water into the local waterways. [13]
The economy of Madagascar is US$9.769 billion by gross domestic product as of 2020, being a market economy and is supported by an agricultural industry and emerging tourism, textile and mining industries. Malagasy agriculture produces tropical staple crops such as rice and cassava, as well as cash crops such as vanilla and coffee.
Ilmenite is a titanium-iron oxide mineral with the idealized formula FeTiO
3. It is a weakly magnetic black or steel-gray solid. Ilmenite is the most important ore of titanium and the main source of titanium dioxide, which is used in paints, printing inks, fabrics, plastics, paper, sunscreen, food and cosmetics.
Rio Tinto Group is a British-Australian multinational company that is the world's second largest metals and mining corporation. It was founded in 1873 when a group of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tinto, in Huelva, Spain, from the Spanish government. It has grown through a long series of mergers and acquisitions. Although primarily focused on extraction of minerals, it also has significant operations in refining, particularly the refining of bauxite and iron ore. It has joint head offices in London, England and Melbourne, Australia.
The Ranger Uranium Mine was a uranium mine in the Northern Territory of Australia. The site is surrounded by, but separate from Kakadu National Park, 230 km east of Darwin. The orebody was discovered in late 1969, and the mine commenced operation in 1980, reaching full production of uranium oxide in 1981 and ceased stockpile processing on 8 January 2021. Mining activities had ceased in 2012. It is owned and operated by Energy Resources of Australia (ERA), a public company 86.33% owned by Rio Tinto Group, the remainder held by the public. Uranium mined at Ranger was sold for use in nuclear power stations in Japan, South Korea, China, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden and the United States.
Kennecott Utah Copper LLC (KUC), a division of Rio Tinto Group, is a mining, smelting, and refining company. Its corporate headquarters are located in South Jordan, Utah. Kennecott operates the Bingham Canyon Mine, one of the largest open-pit copper mines in the world in Bingham Canyon, Salt Lake County, Utah. The company was first formed in 1898 as the Boston Consolidated Mining Company. The current corporation was formed in 1989. The mine and associated smelter produce 1% of the world's copper.
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Fort-Dauphin is a city on the southeast coast of Madagascar. It is the capital of the Anosy Region and of the Taolagnaro District. It has been a port of local importance since the early 1500s. A new port, the Ehoala Port was built in 2006–2009. Fort-Dauphin was the first French settlement in Madagascar.
Mary Kathleen was a mining settlement in north-western Queensland, Australia. It is located in the Selwyn Range between Mount Isa and Cloncurry.
Madawaska Mine (previously known as Faraday Mine) is a decommissioned underground uranium mine in Faraday, near the town of Bancroft, Ontario, which produced 9 million pounds (4,082 tonnes) of U3O8 concentrate, at an average ore grade of 0.1074%, during its two periods of production.
Anosy is one of the 22 regions of Madagascar. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the eastern side of what was once the Toliara Province. The name Anosy means "island(s)" in Malagasy.
Andrew John Lees was a scientist, and environmentalist. He was born at Sandown Nursing Home, Great Yarmouth, the eldest of the four sons of Edward Andrew Lees, who was a Great Yarmouth Borough Councillor and Hotelier and his wife Beryl Lees . He studied zoology, botany and philosophy at the University of Wales in Cardiff receiving an honours degree in 1977. He then spent a period working for the Nature Conservancy Council (NCC).
QIT-Fer et Titane is a Canadian mining company located in Quebec. The company operates an ilmenite mine at Lake Tio in northern Quebec, and in southern Quebec operates refining facilities that produce titanium dioxide, pig iron, steel, and other metal products. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of mining giant Rio Tinto Group.
The uranium mining debate covers the political and environmental controversies of uranium mining for use in either nuclear power or nuclear weapons.
The Chemin de fer de la Rivière Romaine is a Canadian short line iron ore mining railway operating in eastern Quebec.
The mining industry of Madagascar is mostly on a small scale, centred mainly around remote locations with large mineral deposits. Mining potential is noted in industrial and metallic minerals, energy, precious and semi-precious stones, as well as ornamental stone. The mining sector was neglected by the government for decades prior to the mid-2000s. In 2013, the mining industry, a main source of foreign investment, was struggling due to "low metals prices and distrustful companies", attributed to a 2009 coup.
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