THE SOCIAL EFFECTS
OF MINING AND THE CMC MINE PROBLEM
Leonard
A Stone
The objective of this paper
is to stress the significance of a local environmental problem n Lefke, and in
particular its social effects. A foreign firm has created the Lefke
environmental problem. Existing laws and regulations, as well as the willingness
of the present generation seems, thus far to be incapable of solving the
problem. A clear cut definition of the property rights of the CMC site and sound
management policies about solid waste problems form an important starting point
for the solution of this specific problem. The social effects of this mining
problem on the local community is of paramount importance and is especially
assessed with regard to the concept of eco-consciousness; as is the role of
regional institutions, and in particular the European Union. The paper concludes
by noting an interrelated range of topics for analysis within the field of
environmental politics.
MINING
This is the age of science
and technology. The establishment of the CMC mine was the result of an
industrialisation process. Solutions to the abandoned CMC mine problem require
the correct application of science and technology; it also requires a
postindustrialist approach. But it is within a literary context that I can begin
by offering a visual description of the poisoned site.
I have landed on a toxic
planet. Its toxic, dusty surface is littered with tiny pieces of shiny rock
illuminated by the heat of the sun. It is a colourless face, save for patches of
orange, scarred with mounds topped with dark pockmarks and craters indenting the
folds of its skin. Welcome to the disused copper mine in Lefke.
Life on earth without mining is as inconceivable as life on the moon. Since the beginning of time mining has changed the face of humankind. The ancient Roman and Greek writers depicted mining as an abuse of mother earth. Notwithstanding, the use of minerals has also been linked to notions of 'progress'. From the Stone and Iron ages to the current age of technology, consumption of the products of mining has been seen as a sign of development. From 1750 to 1900 the world's overall use of minerals has increased tenfold while its population doubled. Economic progress has seen this leap at least thirteen-fold again last century. (1) Colonialism was fuelled by the same quest for 'progress' as industrialised nations invaded the South and squabbled over its natural resources. Companies spread economic dependence while their governments asserted political dominance. It is ironic that countries, which experienced colonialism at first hand, are now the same ones spreading a new contagion. American companies are at the forefront of this process, as are Australian companies which first explored and exploited Papua New Guinea. Canadians, furthermore, travelled down to South America. Today, Canada and Australia together are now responsible for most mining worldwide. (2)
Mining is being experienced
on the largest scale in history. Since 1900 half of the world's states have
opened their doors to international companies and are actively encouraging them
to invest. In their panic to unearth more lucre, companies are always on the
move. In their wake they leave environmental degradation, dependency on primary
exports and foreign capital, human rights abuses and displaced indigenous
people.
It may surprise most people,
even those involved in the technology of copper mining, to learn that many of
today's mining methods were introduced as early as 1865. (3) In an age when some
of the world's most powerful industries scarcely existed three decades ago,
mining's technology is the 'Grand Old Man' of the modern economy.
The environmental stress
caused by mining contorts the face of the earth. The industry gobbles a tenth of
the energy in the world every year and churns out enough waste to dwarf the
planet's total accumulation of municipal garbage. The mining and smelting of
metals, furthermore, accounts for the second-largest source of greenhouse
emissions.
In short, the extraction and
beneficiation of metals produce significant amounts of waste and by-products.
Total waste produced can range from 10 percent of the total material mined to
well over 99.99 percent. The volume of total waste can be enormous: in 1992, for
instance, gold mining alone produced over 540 million metric tons of waste. (4)
Commodity/ No. of Mines/ Total Commodity/ Tailings /
Other Waste
Produced
Generated
Handled
(I,000 mt) (1,000
mt) (1,000
mt)
Copper
50
1,765
337,733
393,332
Gold +212
0.329
247,533
293,128
Iron Ore
22
55,593
80,204
106,233
Lead
23 398
6,361
---------
Silver
150
1.8
2,822
---------
Zinc
25
524
4,227
---------
(Source: US Bureau of
Mines, Mineral Commodity Summaries 1994 and Minerals Yearbook, Vol.
1: Metals and Minerals, 1992)
European Union environmental
policy talks about protection of the environment. Interrelated with this policy
is the EU’s specific social goals: eg for a ‘fair’ distribution of income, and
the development of recreational facilities. EU policy makers, moreover, are
aware of the social effects of environmental degradation. However, there has
been little, if no empirical research conducted into the social effects of
mining in the Southeastern Mediterranean region. Future research, for example of
assessing the impact of mining activity on local political changes, would have
to take into account the various positions on what actually constitutes the
social. From one perspective the political, economic and cultural can be
subsumed under the umbrella term ‘social’.
From a Green political perspective, either moderate or radical, an
integrated approach to the social effects of mining on the community – almost
all of which are negative – would place the safety of the planet first. The
social in one important Green sense, cannot exist if it does not coexist in
harmony with the earth and its fragile resources, it is an integral part of that
relationship. Hence, it is of utmost importance for Greens that the
environmental impacts of mining remain central to any understanding of the
social effects of mining on communities worldwide. Potential environmental
impacts of mining on the environment include poisonous air emissions, fugitive
dust blown to surrounding area, non-reused overburden (usually surface oils and
vegetation) waste rock, run-off sediment, tailings (slurry which contains a
mixture of impurities, trace metals, and residue of chemicals), loss of plant
population from dust and water pollution, reduction in localised groundwater
recharge resulting from increased runoff, and loss of fish population from water
pollution.
HISTORY OF MINING IN
LEFKE
The Lefke region, situated
in Northern Cyprus, has been host to both agriculture and heavy industrial
activities for many years. It was the region where the best quality citrus was
grown and where the mining industry attracted people from other regions of the
island. Economic activity reached a crescendo towards the middle of the 20th
century, fuelled by the steadily growing mining and smelting activities of a
foreign company.
Cyprus Mines Corporation
(CMC) was a company established in 1916 according to the codes of New York
State. Although the copper mine in Foucassa Hill, a site near Lefke, started
operating in 1913, CMC formally started to employ workers in 1916. (5) Copper
Ore extracted from the mine was stored in another neighbouring site near
Yeţilyurt. In 1922, the company began building houses for its workers. For the
purposes of exporting the mineral ore, CMC constructed a jetty in Gemikonađi in
1924 and continued exploration of potential mines. It was successful in 1926 in
starting a new extraction process in Karadađ, a site to the southwest of Lefke.
After this year, the development process in the Lefke region accelerated with
the growth of CMC facilities. In 1928 a second village for workers was
constructed in Karadađ, and in 1930 the storage and smelting plant in Gemikonađi
was expanded. As a result the total number of workers in all CMC units reached
5,720 in 1937.
Increasing economic activity
in the region attracted workers from various parts of the island, regional
income increased substantially. Lefke soon became an important central town in
the northeastern part of the island. CMC built elementary schools and a hospital
in order to serve the educational and health needs of the local populace.
CMC had to limit its
economic activities during the Second World War, when unemployment subsequently
surged in the region. Soon after the war mining activities accelerated.
Unemployment began to fall.
Most significantly, social
and economic activities in the region fluctuated in parallel with Turkish-Greek
disputes after 1955. As a result CMC's employment policy was revised. Turkish
and Greek workers were concentrated in different mining sites. The mining and
smelting operations continued with this specific employment policy until 1974,
when the wide site of CMC operations was divided by the Green Line subsequent to
the year of the Turkish military intervention in Cyprus.
POLLUTION
In 1970, a Turkish
agricultural engineer from Lefke brought a lawsuit against CMC, after conducting
experiments around Lefke the mine. He concluded by emphasising the negative
effects of the ore dust on the productivity and the crop quality of nearby
citrus trees. (6)
A special committee was
appointed by the court to study the effects of the ore dust on crop production
in the Lefke area. The report of this committee stated that 'dust, presumably
ore dust, was observed on the leaves of trees at all sites but it was more
pronounced in orchards nearer the ponds and the open cast mines... [analysis of
water drained into the Marathassa River bed was] unsuitable for irrigation
purposes [and] contamination resulting from the operations of the Cyprus Mining
Corporation... with regard to production it has been visually estimated that the
number of fruit per tree of both Valencia and Jaffa was less than half the
number produced by trees of similar age elsewhere on the island. It was also
observed that the proportion of smaller and undersized fruit of Valencia oranges
was higher than that on normal trees in other areas.' (7) Analysis of these dust
samples showed that 30% of its contents were iron pyrites and 0.5-1.2% were
copper. (8)
This report was the first
direct evidence of air pollution, water pollution, and land pollution. It also
pointed the finger at the polluter: CMC. Subsequent reports have also emphasised
a high degree of toxic contamination of the area surrounding the mine. (9)
TODAY
This specific local
environmental problem has been analysed and discussed by different organisations
on various occasions, especially the Municipality of Lefke, the European
University of Lefke, and Lefke Cevre ve Tanitma Derneđi (Environmental Society
of Lefke). There is agreement on the sources of the environmental problem in
Lefke, which can be summarised as follows:
CMC's abandoned industrial site, covering an area around six square
kilometres, is composed of a variety of different minor sites, each of which was
used for different stages of the mining, loading, transporting, filtering and
smelting facility. The extended nature of the facility has left widespread piles
of tailing waste to the present generation. The polluting minor sites are mainly
three in total: the first one is composed of huge piles of tailing deposits
located alongside of the Gemikonađi-Lefkoţa roadway parallel to the seaside and
adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea. The deposits, containing residue of copper
refinery processes, are exposed to the environment, resulting in the
contamination of surface rainwater and also the nearby sea water (turning the
shoreline orange in colour). Furthermore, the moist sludge collected from inside
of the established facility at the same site, contains high amounts of arsenic
and selenium, both of which are hazardous to human health; the second site has a
number of large ponds which contain considerable amounts of copper porphyry.
These tailing deposits are rich in sulphur and when they contact with rainwater
and oxygen, sulphuric acid, a dangerous gas is formed. The result is air
pollution; the third site, finally, is just above the Gemikonađi Reservoir that
is very close to a prominent drinking well of Lefke. Precautions have been taken
against this particular threat, by digging drinking water wells above the water
level of the reservoir, and by ensuring that the water level in the reservoir
does not get higher than a secure level. Nevertheless, a wrong decision about
the location of the reservoir has resulted in an idle investment. Had there been
no piles of tailing deposits, the investment may not have been such a total loss
for the whole community.
The existence of these
tailing deposits has imposed serious constraints on possible investment
alternatives in Lefke. Acres of land devoted for storing the solid waste of an
old inactive mining industry, besides causing degradation of the area, is
creating serious problems for the whole ecosystem of the country and the
Mediterranean Sea as well. The contamination source is a serious direct threat
to the drinking water, crop chain and human health within the Lefke area and an
indirect threat for the whole country.
Some commentators on the
Lefke environmental problem have pointed an accusing finger at the inactivity of
certain authorities regarding the disposal, clearance and/or deep burial of
these tailing deposits. (10) The former polluter, so this line of thinking goes,
is CMC, and the latter one is the governing authorities since 1974. CMC was a
polluter by not taking precautionary measures against poisonous emissions and by
not enforcing the initial polluter to get rid of the hazardous deposits that it
left. This said, it should be born in mind that the complexities involved in
establishing liability for abandoned polluting waste is a real problem in
recovering the damages from the responsible parties. In other words, it seems
impossible to recover the cost of clearing the CMC site from its initial
polluter.
There is an existing
hazardous waste problem in Lefke. The cost of cleaning the area is enormous and
varies from 500 million US Dollars to 50 million Euros. These costs are well
beyond the affordable limits of the domestic authorities. But since the site is
a potential pollution resource of the eastern Mediterranean Sea and a potential
health hazard, international technical and financial aid and/or loans should be
obtained for solving the problem. The European Union has a significant role to
play here, on a NGO level. Thus, there could be possibility of a bicommunal
project that may facilitate EU aid.
SOCIAL
EFFECTS
In the broader historical
sweep of social and political phenomena, Lefke’s environmental problem is the
direct consequence of historical forces; namely the development of modern
economic modes of production, of industrialization. It is part of a past
capitalist industrial philosophy: production at any cost.
The
solution(s) to this environmental catastrophe, however, lay within a
postindustrial dialectic, where alternative eco-friendly, green, postindustrial
ideas are present. Such a solution as this can be located within a global
process: the greening of society.
And it is an integrated, green, environmentally sound approach within
which a solution to the Lefke environmental problem is found. This problem
itself has significant social effects.
There are a variety of
social effects resulting from the toxic, disused Lefke mine. The first concerns
land, water and the ecosystem. Land is a very scarce in a small island and land
is not really available for the storing of solid waste. Furthermore, water is an
even more scarce resource here, and pollution of the water supply will create a
problem of gigantic proportions. Fresh air and the Mediterranean Sea are
precious inputs for the health of the people and for recreational activities, as
well as for the eco-tourism industry. In brief, these resources have to be
protected by avoiding heavy industrial facilities as well as other
pollution-generating activities. Our ecosystem is the most precious resourse we
have and at the same time it should be the most precious wealth that we should
bequeath for the coming generations.
Immediate
government action is required. At minimum, cyanide in tailings ponds has to be
neutralised, the site has be cordoned off with 'wildlife-sensitive' fencing, and
with plenty of Hazardous Waste warning signs. Close and restore roads no longer
in use.
A second social effect of
the Lefke mine problem is the potentially negative effect of the toxic waste on
the health of the surrounding populace. Higher than usual levels of cancer rates
in some surrounding villages have been talked about, but the impact of hazardous
waste on public health has yet to be determined. (11)
A third social effect
is on job opportunities. An environmentally friendly regeneration of the site
could create a number of job opportunities in the region. Dwindling job
opportunities (compounded by political problems) have had serious social and
financial effects on the income of region, with many Turkish Cypriots forced to
leave for countries such as Turkey, Australia, England and Canada in search of
employment. Interestingly enough, a local sentiment is that a solution to the
'job problem' in Lefke is for another mining company to upgrade the mine and
bring it back to life. On the point of pollution, an answer is that since we
have the problem, a little more pollution will not make much difference. Aside
from the prohibited cost of such an operation, the addition of further pollution
at the site would have enormous environmental consequences, and not least on the
health of the local population.
The fourth social
effect of the disused mine on the local community is its negative impact on
farmers, particularly citrus and date growers, alongside crop farmers.
Suspicions have been aroused that any vegetables grown in the Lefke region are
unfit for human consumption. Land is the mainstay of the small community of
Lefke farmers. Poisoned land will be their ultimate downfall.
The fifth social effect
concerns eco-consciousness. A disused, toxic site on your doorstep, so to speak
is a demoralising site. D. H. Lawrence once wrote that the man-man is ugly. I
would like to add that that the disused 'man-made' is even more ugly, and in
this case is potentially highly dangerous, as the mine was in its working days.
(12) The presence of the mine has a deliberating effect on levels of political
consciousness, and not least environmental consciousness. This environmental
consciousness is now a building plank of civilising societies. It is all but
absent in the Lefke region.
Environmental
consciousness is thwarted in its growth as continonuous repetition of the same
lack of environmental stimulous - Lefke's environmental blight - can be
considered as the equivalent of no environmenatl stimulous at all. An
environmentally visual blight effects the inner self, for to perceive the
natural environment in its glory is inseparable from the struggle to gain one's
self. It is no surprise that Lefke's individual subjects whose environmental
consciousness is blighted by the disused mine, are deprived of environmental
stimuli, have become limited in their environmental consciousness, in their
ability to 'connect' with their surroundings. Such a consciousness can not evoke
in condensed form the eco-relationships continually thrown up by environmenatl
stimuli. A fusion of the rational with sensations arising from smell, taste,
hearing, vision and touch is thwarted: a process of dislocation, no less. A
consciousness deprived of its eco-psycho environmenal nourishment.
Human
beings are not rigid machines but living and variable systems, the functioning
of which is itself subject to variation. If a human's eco-sensory system is
exposed to a prolonged negative stimulous situation that has departed from the
natural environment, the system can be expected to to undergo a fundamental
change in its positive mode of operation: from an optimistic eco-consciousness
to one of a negative outlook.
Since
'fallen' eco-consciousness is based on 'environmental repression' and since one
of the keys for lifting 'environmenatl repression', at least for Lefke's
inhabitants, is the 'lifting' of repression, the cleaning of the CMC mine area
is paramount in the eco-liberation of Lefke's populace. The CMC mine is, in
short an environmental sickness, engendering a type of repressive, false
eco-consciousness. Unrepressed, the Lefke inhabitant will delight in the forces
of 'life', and in the process will drop his macabre fascination for the
'unbridled force' of industrialisation in favour of a sustainable eco-system. A
radical transformation from a negative environmental consciousness to one that
is liberated, one that sees beyond other types of political consciousness, one
that goes beyond and cuts across mass political ideologies such as socialism,
liberalism, nationalism, conservatism, and feminism. A uniting ecological
ideology, a true, eco-consciousness.
CONCLUSION
In
sum, the negative social effects of the disused CMC mine in Lefke encompass
green politics at the level of consciousness, the islands' ecosystem, public
health, unemployment and environmental aesthetics. The Lefke community cannot
solve the problem on their own. They require help at a regional level,
particularly from the European Union Environmental ministry, and indeed support
from environmental agencies and NGOs worldwide.
One worry is that if the
mine is cleaned up by the original polluter, the CMC company (now under a
different name), this would mean that the company would want their property
back, most notably the CMC-built miners' houses that are now inhabited by a
considerable number of local families. In such a scenario, the payment of a
reasonable rent to the aforesaid company should ease the worry of the families.
They would in all probability stay put.
On the other hand, commentators have noted that the CMC owners had broken
the contract they signed by not clearing up the site as promised. The due
process of law and the complicated legal wrangling involving the Environmental
Society of Lefke and the polluters has yet to run its course.
Notwithstanding,
returning the Lefke mine area, free of pollutants, to the local eco-system
ramains of paramount importance and requires sacrifice on the part of Lefke's
environmental vanguard. Such a sacrifice is at the heart of the answer to the
question as to how people should live. A passage from Marx is important here.
Marx displays in his very earliest writings a deep admiration for sacrificial
conduct, sacrificial conduct that derives from an emotive direction completely
opposite from the one in Das Kapital. In fact, the metaphor of sacarifice
informs one of the first expressions of Marx, composed during the formative
university years, on the subject of how men should live, on the subject of moral or
proper behaviour, the ideal ethical life. 'The greatest men', he says, 'work for
the universal', devote themselves to improving mankind's lot, making 'the most
people happy', ensuring the 'welfare of humanity'. One's own fulfillment as a
person comes soley from this charitable orientation, for other 'joys' are but
'meagre, limited, egoistic by comparison'. The best life, says Marx - and here
is the term we are looking for - 'sacrifices itself to humanity' in an effort to
promote the general good. (13) At the centre of the general good is the
eco-system. We are all part of it.
On a
final note, a Green perspective on Lefke’s environmental problem requires
further research: particularly in the area of environmental politics. Analysis
needs to focus on a range of interelated phenomena: from the institutional
responses of parliament, to the role of the local administrative system, electoral politics, and on to the more
informal politics of the Environmental Society of Lefke. The politics of
business as it responds to the greening of society need also to be taken into
account. All the technical knowledge in the world does not necessarily lead
societies to change environmentally damaging behaviour. Hence a critical
understanding of socio-economic, political and cultural processes and structures
is of central importance in approaching Lefke’s environmental problem. The Lefke
mine problem is after all part of a wider process: global environmental
degradation of our planet. Dealing with this problem is again part of a wider
process: effective local and international management of our world’s resources,
at the heart of which lies effective local and international environmental
diplomacy. This process is is yet once again part of a wider process: ie the
globalization of environmental concerns. Governments and organisations cannt
effectively act alone. Cooperation, rather than competition is
required.
11.
See A.M. Ertugrul et al, ‘Health Hazards’, An Overview of Environmental
Issues Associated with Gemikonagi Copper Mining and Refining Operations, January
2001, (A & M Engineering and
Environmental Services, Inc.), p. 14.
12.
Higher levels of throat cancer have been reported amongst former mine
workers, for instance, in the village of Bađlýköy, near to Lefke town.