Olympic Dam expansion 'environmental genocide'

Comment: Uranium mining and milling used lots of water, water is becoming rarer because of droughts! Uranium mining and milling does cause cancer, ruins the air, water and land! No to Uranium Mining and Milling!

Posted Thu Jul 9, 2009 2:01pm AEST
Updated Thu Jul 9, 2009 2:00pm AEST

A traditional owner of the land in and around Roxby Downs, in South Australia's far north, says an expansion of BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam mine would be environmental genocide.

Rebecca Wingfield is a Kokatha custodian and an international human rights campaigner for Aboriginal people.

Speaking at a protest in Melbourne yesterday against the proposed mine expansion, Ms Wingfield says BHP has the exclusive right to use 35 million litres of water daily from the Great Artesian Basin.

"It's no longer going to happen, we're going to do everything we can to stop the water being used," she said.

Ms Wingfield says the company and the State Government say her people do not have any scientific research to prove the environmental harm of uranium mining.

She has given BHP Billiton a copy of the Manila Declaration which summarises Indigenous people's concerns about mining and corporate responsibility, raised at a recent UN forum.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/09/2621336.htm