Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

Chapter 1.3: Indigenous Peoples, Mining and Climate Change
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Central America, Southern USA and the Caribbean. Recent
Philippine experience suggests that the eastern coastal region
and Sierra Madre Mountain regions of Luzon and the eastern
Visayas, which face incoming typhoons, may be particularly
vulnerable. 54
Additionally according to Citigroup, “At higher latitudes,
high rainfall may require some operational adjustments, with
the integrity of tailings dams being an issue for consideration,
and the potential for consequential environmental damage.”
The analysts also asserted that “critical infrastructure such as
ports may be at risk from small sea level rises particularly if
combined with storm events.” 55
Other forms of tailings containment may also require a rethink
or a ban. Unpredictable weather shifts may also require
additional safety measures and expenses in arid and semi-arid
regions. Greater weather extremes including flashfloods and
wind storms could widely scatter dry heaped mine waste.
In high mountain areas, there have been some recent
attempts to manage and divert glaciers or even store mine
wastes—including potentially toxic materials—in glaciers. In
the Andes and Central Asia, however, global warming has exposed
the short-sightedness and irresponsibility of such plans.
Melting glaciers are already posing problems of containment
of potentially serious pollution. 56
One resulting issue for the extractive industries is that
current or abandoned mines at or near sea level may themselves
be subjected to both more extreme weather events and
inundation because of rising sea levels. Few such mines have
management plans that consider or can adequately protect
them from such inundation and such mines may generate
new and damaging acid drainage and other environmental
problems as ore bodies become exposed to sea water that may
have severe impacts. It may require a ban on new mining in
low lying coastal zones. Past experiences where sea encroachment
can flood open-pit and underground workings shows
the serious threat of the activation and release of toxic materials,
including the generation of acid drainage effects. 57