Can rehabilitation of Mamut transcend survival politics?

The earthquake that hit Ranau district, Sabah on June 5 this year, claiming 18 lives, including children from Singapore on a school trip to Mount Kinabalu, has also shaken loose a long-dormant issue in the area.

Ranau is the site of the Mamut copper mine, which ceased operations in 1999 after 24 years, leaving a RM200 million toxic legacy that haunts Sabah to this day.

The problem centres around acid mine drainage (AMD), the highly acidic, metal-contaminated leachate which is the most prominent pollutant that emerges during the post-mining phase.

The Mamut mine, which generated an export revenue of RM3.4 billion from copper, gold and silver concentrates while it was in operation, has left behind 20.6 million cubic metres of untreated AMD in a 4,800-acre wasteland that continues to threaten the community and the environment.

Earlier this month, the Sabah Legislative Assembly was told that the state government planned to close up the open pit to prevent its acidic water from flowing into the river system, Bernama reported.

Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said there was no special pond to treat the AMD.

"Our worry is that the wall of the open pit might break causing its water to flow out and be utilised by residents," he said in responding to a question from an assembly member.

Fortunately for the state and the people in Ranau, the Sabah Minerals and Geoscience Department has reported that the wall of the open pit had not been damaged by the quake last month.

While that was a close call, it gives new urgency to the state's ongoing efforts to clean up after the messy mining operation.

Late last year, Masidi had told the legislature that the cost of rehabilitating the disused mining land was about RM200 million or about the same amount of revenue that the state government had earned from the mine while it was in operation.

This makes the Mamut mining operation yet another costly experience for the taxpayer, where a private investor makes the most of a lax regulatory environment, reaping a healthy profit from our natural resources and leaving the public to pick up the rehabilitation costs.

According to Assistant Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Pang Nyuk Ming, a study conducted by the Sabah Minerals and Geoscience Department had resulted in the development of the AMD Management and Rehabilitation Plan.

His ministry would be requesting for a RM200 million allocation under the 11th Malaysia Plan to undertake the rehabilitation work which will take a decade, the Daily Express newspaper had reported.

Universiti Malaysia Sabah researchers Prof Marcus Jopony and Prof Felix Tongkul have reported a range of adverse environmental outcomes from the mining operations both in research papers and media interviews.

When the mine was fully operational, large amounts of solid waste were generated, including overburden material, waste rocks and tailings. Overburden, which is the material that lies above the mineral deposit, and waste rocks are dumped in four sites near the mine pit, while some 150 million tonnes of tailings were piped 16km to a tailing dam, according to the 2007 report "Poisonous wasteland" in The Star newspaper that lays bare the project's environmental impacts.

Jopony said the operation, particularly in its early years, had degraded water quality and silted up agricultural land. Silt had washed into the Mamut, Lohan and Bambangan rivers, affecting water use and aquatic life.

Recounting the history of environmental disasters involving the mine, Jopony recalls that in 1975, the tailing pipe system leaked tailing slurries into some 800ha of paddy fields in the valley.

Overburden materials and waste rocks clogged Sungai Lohan in 1977, affecting agricultural land along river banks, Jopony had told The Star.

The 400ha tailing dam was a constant source of dust pollution to surrounding areas, especially nearby Kampung Bongkud. Mitigation measures like slope stabilisation and rehabilitation were taken to minimise run-offs from waste dumps, but were insufficient, Jopony said. Moreover, they stopped completely after the operation ceased.

No doubt that when the mining licence was issued, environmental protection rules were far less stringent than they are today. The beneficiary was the Japanese-Malaysian joint-venture firm Overseas Mineral Resources Development Sabah Sdn Bhd, which was sold to Mega First Bhd in 1991 and renamed Mamut Copper Mining Sdn Bhd (MCM).

The Federal Mineral Development Act, enacted in 1994, stipulated conditions for mine operators to observe before, during and after mining is carried out. Among other things, this law provides for the rehabilitation of mining land and a Mine Rehabilitation Fund.

In Sabah, however, the Act became the State Mineral Enactment 1999, coming into force after the mine was shut. MCM is, therefore, not legally bound to provide the remedial actions prescribed in the enactment.

Apparently, the environmental costs of the Mamut copper mine have resulted in heightened official awareness about the need to balance the economic argument with a sustainable development model, if Masidi's comments to The Star can be used as a yardstick.

"No doubt the project created jobs but the irreparable effects to the environment is catastrophic. Many rivers are polluted and the land cannot be tilled. It will be years before the whole area can be classified as safe. Future projects must clearly adhere to conditions," Masidi had said.

Besides awareness, the quest for a responsible model of environmental stewardship requires thinking anew about our role as guardians of Nature's resources. Will our political leaders be able to transcend the survival instincts that guide their power games just when they decide on development options?

How the rehabilitation of Mamut is handled could hold the answer. – July 18, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.