News Reports on tailings spills

Boliden says court clears it of Los Frailes crime

Sweden: November 20, 2001

Swedish mining and metals group Boliden said yesterday an appeals court in Spain had upheld a lower court decision clearing it of any crime in connection with an ecological disaster at its Los Frailes mine.

Boliden's share jumped on the news, closing 4.7 percent up at 2.23 crowns, having hit a three-month high of 2.24 crowns. A provincial court, the Audiencia Provincial de Sevilla, announced that the lower court's ruling remained in force, Boliden said in a statement.

"The accident was caused by construction deficiencies and flawed conclusions in the preparatory geological studies and hence not by the activities of Boliden Apirsa," the company said, referring to its Spanish subsidiary.

A Boliden Apirsa spokesman said that the appeals court's decision meant the company had once again been cleared of criminal charges.

However, a civil lawsuit remained a possibility, the spokesman said.

The lead-and-zinc mine Los Frailes became the scene of Spain's worst environmental disaster in April 1998 when part of a waste reservoir collapsed, spilling almost seven million cubic metres of toxic waste just outside the Donana National Park, Europe's largest natural reserve.

In the statement, Boliden's Chief Executive Jan Johansson said the new ruling paved the way for Boliden to claim compensation from those who built the dam. (Additional reporting by Chris Brown in Madrid).

Reuters News Service

© 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

Hungary claims $100 millon over cyanide river spill

Hungary: December 4, 2001

A Budapest court will on Tuesday start hearing a $100 million damages claim by Hungary over an industrial cyanide spill that devastated rivers and fish stocks.

A government spokeswoman said Hungary was claiming 28.56 billion forints ($101.9 million) in damages against Aurul, a gold smelter half-owned by Australia's Esmeralda Exploration Ltd and in which the Romanian government has a 45 percent stake.

Early last year, about 100,000 cubic metres (3.5 million cubic feet) of cyanide-tainted water spilled from a dam at an Aurul gold smelting plant in Romania.

It wiped out millions of fish and prompted fears of long-term ecological damage to two of central Europe's biggest rivers, the Danube and the Tisza. Hungary says the Tisza has still not recovered.

Eva Montsko, spokeswoman for the Hungarian government commissioner for the Tisza, said there was no guarantee a similar disaster would not happen again.

"In addition to...damages, the state demands Aurul be banned from further activities that could harm the environment until it has the appropriate technology to prevent that," she told Reuters.

Montsko said Hungary had not been officially informed of what measures Aurul took as part of an "upgrading" before restarting its smelter in the summer of 2000.

The case will open at Budapest's Capital Court and could last several months, although an out-of-court settlement is possible.

Montsko said experts from countries affected by the spill, including Romania, will open talks later this month in Strasbourg, France, under the auspices of the Council of Europe, on a "Tisza agreement" to build a regional framework to prevent further environmental catastrophes.

Both Hungary and Romania are negotiating EU membership. Hungary has closed talks on the sensitive environmental policy "chapter". Romania has not.

Story by Krisztina Than

© 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.