bauxite mining

Malaysia’s bauxite exports rise despite mining ban

Wei Meng Lim

Source:MalayMailOnline

An excavator fills a lorry with bauxite at the stockpile area at Kuantan port in this file picture. — Picture by Ahmad Zamzahuri

KUALA LUMPUR, July 6 ― A year and a half after banning bauxite mining to force miners to meet environmental standards, Malaysia’s exports to main customer China are again growing, raising public anger over illegal mining.

Residents and politicians in the east coast bauxite mining region are calling for a total export ban of the aluminium raw material, but industry figures and analysts say shipments are likely to continue.

Malaysia halted bauxite mining in January last year, but allowed exports to continue to deplete vast stockpiles at ports where run-off after monsoon rains had polluted waters and led to a public outcry.

But 18 months later, the stockpiles are the same size as they were at the start of the ban, even asMalaysia has exported more than 9 million tonnes of bauxite to China, according to Chinese import data. Read more →

Moratorium bauksit dilanjut hingga 31 Disember

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Sumber: FMT News

An excavator fills a lorry with bauxite at the stockpile area at Kuantan port in this file picture. — Picture by Ahmad Zamzahuri

KUALA LUMPUR: Kementerian Sumber Asli dan Alam Sekitar bersama kerajaan Pahang bersetuju melanjutkan tempoh moratorium terhadap perlombongan dan eksport bauksit sehingga 31 Disember tahun ini untuk mengurangkan jumlah bauksit dalam stok simpanan.

Menteri Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar dalam kenyataan hari ini berkata beliau berharap lanjutan tempoh itu akan membolehkan bauksit dalam simpanan dikeluarkan secara terkawal berpandukan garis panduan yang ditetapkan kementerian.

Beliau berkata lanjutan moratorium itu tiada kaitan dengan Pilihan Raya Umum ke-14 tetapi sebagai tindakan terhadap aktiviti perlombongan haram yang dilakukan di tanah persendirian serta oleh syarikat yang tidak mengikut garis panduan sehingga menyebabkan pencemaran alam sekitar. Read more →

MB: Moratorium bauksit dilanjut sehingga PRU14 tamat

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Sumber: FMT News

An excavator fills a lorry with bauxite at the stockpile area at Kuantan port in this file picture. — Picture by Ahmad Zamzahuri

KUANTAN: Tempoh moratorium aktiviti perlombongan bauksit di Kuantan yang sepatutnya berakhir 30 Jun ini, akan dilanjutkan sehingga selesai Pilihan Raya Umum ke-14 (PRU14), kata Menteri Besar Pahang, Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob.

Beliau menegaskan tindakan melanjutkan tempoh moratorium sehingga tamat PRU14 bukan “permainan politik” dan berharap masyarakat boleh melihat perkara itu daripada sudut lebih luas.

“Keputusan ini perlu ditetapkan kerajaan yang memerintah. Mandat yang kita ada ialah sehingga PRU dan selepas itu bergantung kepada kerajaan yang memerintah untuk buat keputusan. Sudah pasti kena tunggu PRU,” katanya kepada pemberita hari ini.

Beliau berkata, ketetapan itu dipersetujui bersama kerajaan negeri dan kerajaan persekutuan, memandangkan hal berkaitan bauksit bukan lagi “hak mutlak” kerajaan Pahang, ekoran isu pencemaran yang berbangkit sebelum ini. Read more →

Villagers concerned with ‘return’ of bauxite mining in Kampung Jeram in Pahang

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HAKAM Comment: What happened to the extended moratorium on bauxite mining of three months from the start of 2017 as announced by Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar in December 2016?

Source: The Malay Mail Online

An excavator fills a lorry with bauxite at the stockpile area at Kuantan port in this file picture. — Picture by Ahmad Zamzahuri

An excavator fills a lorry with bauxite at the stockpile area at Kuantan port in this file picture. — Picture by Ahmad Zamzahuri

KUANTAN, Feb 21 — The presence of two excavators in Kampung Jeram in Beserah here has left local residents in a quandary as they fear bauxite mining activities are taking place while the moratorium period is still on.

The People’s Movement to Stop Bauxite Pollution (Geram) chairman, Ali Akbar Othman said the villagers realised the existence of the machinery in the village yesterday evening and they were eager to get answers from the contractor today.

He said after discussing, the contractor claimed he received a letter of approval to load and clear the bauxite stockpile from the mine.

“However, a check at the site revealed several new digging sites. We also asked the contractor to show us the letter and permit which he claimed he had obtained but he said the documents are with the land owner.

“As such we want them to stop work and gave them until tomorrow to submit the documents to verify claims that approval from the authorities had been obtained,” he said when contacted here. Read more →

Bauxite mines are now death traps

Coordinator

Source: The Star Online

PETALING JAYA: They dot Kuantan and its outskirts – giant holes at places where bauxite was once mined. With the rainy season, the deep, gaping holes near housing areas and schools have become death traps for unsuspecting children who go there to play.

There are few fences and signages, if any, and these places are a “child magnet”, accor­ding to Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh. What’s worse is: nobody even knows just how many such pools there are in the Kuantan area.

On Friday, three children drowned in one such pool in Taman Sungai Karang Jaya, leading to even the Pahang Regent Tengku Mahkota Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, stepping in.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar has also ordered the Minerals and Geoscience Department – an agency of the ministry – to find out the number of such pools there are. Read more →

Government extends bauxite mining ban for another three months

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Source: The Malay Mail Online

Earlier this month when raising a petition seeking Parliament’s intervention on the issue, PKR’s Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh said an estimated 44 companies are exporting some 15 million tonnes of bauxite out of Pahang to China each month. — Reuters pic

Earlier this year when raising a petition seeking Parliament’s intervention on the issue, PKR’s Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh said an estimated 44 companies are exporting some 15 million tonnes of bauxite out of Pahang to China each month. — Reuters pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 22 — Malaysia today extended a moratorium on bauxite mining by three months, from the start of 2017, to allow remaining stockpiles of the aluminium-making commodity to be cleared.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar also said that high stockpiles, nearly a year after the ban was first imposed, suggested illegal mining may have been carried out.

“There’s an indication that there is illegal mining going on, otherwise there would be no heap (of bauxite),” Wan Junaidi told a press conference.

About 2.95 million tonnes of stockpiles remain around Kuantan, the capital of the key bauxite producing state of Pahang, he said. Kuantan had 3.6 million tonnes of stocks in April. Read more →

Pelancaran Buku : Selamatkan Malaysia Hentikan Lynas

GerakBudaya-LynasBookLaunch

Pelancaran Buku : Selamatkan Malaysia Hentikan Lynas

Tarikh: 17hb April 2016 (Ahad)

Masa: 2:00 petang
Tempat: Rumah Gerak Budaya
No 2, Jalan Bukit 11/2, 46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor

Tajuk: Lynas ke Bauksit: Perjuangan Yang Masih Belum Selesai?

Ahli Panel:

1. Prof Maketab, Bekas Presiden Persatuan Pencinta Alam
2. Prof Tan Ka Kheng, aktivis anti radiasi ARE Di Papan Dan Bukit Merah
3. YB Fuziah Salleh, Ahli Parlimen Kuantan
4. Hj Ismail, Naib Pengerusi SMSL

“Pada ketika itu, seorang insan yang berkopiah bangun menegur kewibawaan pengerusi yang membuat ‘ugutan’ untuk memanggil polis jika dialog itu terus diganggu. Dengan nada yang tenang dan sabar serta dengan logik yang amat manasabah, akhirnya pengerusi majlis terpaksa menarik balik ugutan beliau. Insan ini tidak lain dan tidak bukan ialah Haji Ismail!”

Tan Bun Teet,
Pengerusi Save Malaysia Stop Lynas (SMSL)

“Marilah sama-sama kita berjuang selagi mempunyai sedikit kudrat dan kemampuan untuk memastikan riwayat Lynas terkubur dan bungkam menyembah bumi di Tanah Air kita yang tercinta ini! Insya Allah.”

Hj Ismail Abu Bakar, Penulis

Klik sini untuk pendaftaran : http://goo.gl/forms/8ULjZ8fBBF

Masuk percuma, semua dijemput.

Gerakbudaya
www.gerakbudaya.com

Bauxite miners still waiting for word on procedures

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Source: FMT News

Excavators and lorries scramble to clear the ore stockpile at Kuantan Port before the moratorium is implemented. — Picture by Ahmad Zamzahuri

Excavators and lorries scramble to clear the ore stockpile at Kuantan Port before the moratorium is implemented. — Picture by Ahmad Zamzahuri

KUANTAN: Bauxite mining operators and lorry drivers are still confused about the standard procedures to be used after a moratorium on mining and exporting the mineral ends on April 15.

They claimed not to have received any official information nor given a briefing on transporting bauxite.

They are said they were unclear about the use of Pakamatic or rubbish compactor lorries required for transporting bauxite, as announced by transport minister Liow Tiong Lai recently. Read more →

Long-term damage hard to fix

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Source: The Star Online

The backlogged bauxite stockpile seen at Kuantan Port. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, February 17, 2016.

PETALING JAYA, 17 Feb 2016: While Kuantan may be seeing some improvement to its environment following the moratorium against bauxite mining, academics say the long-term damage may be much harder to fix.

United Nations University research fellow Prof Dr Jamal Hisham Hashim said unless the mining areas were rehabilitated, a temporary ban on bauxite mining would not be enough to fix things.

He said rehabilitation meant measures like refilling mines and repairing damage to roads and neighbourhoods near mines.

“Rehabilitation isn’t likely, especially not by illegal miners. They can leave it to the land owners to clean up the mess,” he said, during a forum on sustainable bauxite mining at University Malaya here on Tuesday. Read more →

Bauxite mining polluting Pahang’s drinking water, scientist warns

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Source: The Malay Mail Online

Unregulated bauxite mining in Pahang had caused severe environmental pollution and raised concerns over the health of those living in affected areas. — Bernama pic

Unregulated bauxite mining in Pahang had caused severe environmental pollution and raised concerns over the health of those living in affected areas. — Bernama pic

PETALING JAYA, Feb 17 — Poor practises in bauxite mining in Pahang have exposed the people in the affected areas to various health threats, say scientists and academics studying the issue.

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Assoc Prof Dr Maketab Mohamed said the mining had contaminated the people’s drinking water with heavy metals, which were dangerous to consume.

“Almost all the water for consumption in Kuantan is drawn downstream from the mines.

“The full impact of this is not appreciated as water samples drawn for testing by the Department of Environment were not from rivers used for drinking water,” he said.

Speaking at a forum on bauxite mining organised by Malaysian Academy of Science and University Malaya yesterday, Maketab warned that a rash of severe health conditions could break out.   Read more →