‘[…] I bring one call from my home, it is the call to save the Sepik River. I stand with Sukundimi, the spirit of our river, carrying the voices of my ancestors, unborn children and more than 400,000 people who depend on the River itself. The Sepik is not just water, it is our mother, our soul and our lifeline. Yet the proposed Frida Gold and copper mine threatens, with plans to build onoe of the largest dams in the world. A collapse would poison our water and destroy our food system, erase our culture and our memory, This is not just an environmental threat, it is a human rights crisis. We refuse to become victims. We are in solidarity, and we have rejected this mine openly.’ (Shayanne Waide, Save the Sepik)
These words echoed in the halls of the Palais des Nations, two weeks ago at the 60th Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. They were spoken by Shayanne Waide, a human rights activist from Project Sepik who, in partnership with Jubilee Australia and other organisations, have been fighting to protect the Sepik river, its environment and its people from the threat posed by the proposed Frieda River Mine and Tailings Dam at the Sepik headwaters.
Out of more than 20,000 applicants, Project Sepik was one of only 13 indigenous led organisations selected and facilitated by the UN Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples and to be given the privilege to speak in this global platform. It is a testament to the urgency of this issue to protect one of the Asia Pacific region’s last remaining pristine, undammed and unpolluted river systems.
The mine in question is being pursued by PanAust, a Brisbane-based, Chinese-owned company. PanAust plans to build a huge dam, which would function both as a tailings storage dam and a hydroelectric facility. The dam, twice the volume of Sydney harbour, would be held in by a 100m high concrete structure that would extend across a large gorge - in an area of extremely high rainfall and seismic activity. Tailings from copper/gold deposits are potentially toxic; if released into the environment, exposure to air results in chemical processes that would see toxic heavy metals flood the ecosystem.
It is in the communities along the Sepik River, downstream from the proposed mine site, where concern about the project has been greatest. Around 100,000 people live along the river and 4 times this many in the entire catchment area: 400,000 people who ultimately owe their food intake and livelihoods to the river. Project Sepik asserts and maintains that the downsteam communities who live along the river from Iniok to Kopar are in solidarity and openly reject the mine - an assertion clearly amplified by the Supreme Sukundimi Declaration on May 29, 2020.
Jubilee Australia joined Project Sepik in this work because of our assessment that the plans for the Frieda River Mine do constitute a threat to the river over the planned operation of the mine and, even more so, in the centuries after the mine stops operations.
The Save the Sepik campaign has been running for seven years (even longer in the case of Project Sepik’s advocacy), and yet this presentation at the UN Human Rights Council and other simultaneous developments have helped raise the issue to a prominence not seen before in PNG. The same week that Shayanne Waide spoke in Geneva, the Governor of East Sepik Province, made a facebook post expressing his scepticism about the mine going ahead.
Governor Bird’s post reflected that the mine ‘sits on a mountain of challenges as high as Everest’. Without a monumental breakthrough, he contended that it lacked the ore grade, location and social acceptance to be as viable as other new mines globally. He went on to say:
‘While I wish Frieda River was an easier project for the benefit of Sepik people and our country, my analysis tells me something different. […] I am confident our analysis is similar to the analysis that PanAust’s own engineers are telling them.’ (Allan Bird)
All this recent activity appears to have elicited a response from the company. Dr Joel Hamago, the Country Manager of Frieda River Limited, PanAust’s PNG subsidiary, gave an interview to the Post Courier in PNG last week claiming that the Australian National Contact Point ‘rejected’ a complaint against PanAust. This is a significant mischaracterisation of the actions and status of the AusNCP complaint.
The Australian National Contact Point on Responsible Business Conduct (AusNCP) is a government body that has been set up as part of Australia’s obligations as an OECD member to handle complaints by communities affected by the actions of Australian businesses. Jubilee Australia and Project Sepik lodged a complaint to the AusNCP in December 2021 about the Frieda River mine. The complaint was NOT rejected - it was in fact accepted in June 2022, and an independent examiner was appointed to handle the complaint.
In October 2023, after a series of submissions and countersubmissions by the notifiers and the company, the independent examiner released a ‘Final Statement’. Although this Final Statement found the company in breach of several OECD guidelines, it was nevertheless a disappointment to us notifiers for two reasons: first, it avoided addressing our concerns about the deficiencies of the projects Environmental Impact Statement (EIS); second, it did not necessarily agree (although it did not disagree) that the river communities in whose name the complaint was made deserved full rights to be consulted about and if necessary to veto the project (in the jargon, that they were deserving of Freer, Prio and Informed Consent, or FPIC). The complaint did agree that certain documents relating to the project, specifically the ‘dam break analysis’, should be released.
A 12 month ‘follow up statement’ is soon to be released by the examiner. Although this has not yet been finalised or released, it may indeed conclude that, PanAust has now taken steps (including the release of the dam break analysis) that mean it is no longer in breach of the OECD guidelines, according to the independent examiner.
Although we have been disappointed as to the handling of this complaint, it is important to emphasise two things: first, the complaint was not rejected, it was accepted and a process was followed which did result in important changes by the company, most importantly the release of the dam break analysis. Second, the process has revealed the limitations of the AusNCP as it is presently constituted, in that it has proven incapable in this instance of applying itself to the substance of the concerns we have raised when it comes to assessing the validity of the EIS and whether or not the Sepik river commmunities were deserving of FPIC.
All of the above activity, especially Shayanne Waide’s appearance in Geneva and the intervention of Governor Bird, has seen a huge up tick in interest in the issue. PNG students on campus are organising independently of the campaign, and there has been a significant increase in social media engagement. The mine has yet to receive, to our knowledge, either the necessary environmental permits from the environmental regulator nor the mining license from the PNG Mineral Resources Authority.
While the campaign to protect the Sepik River continues, it is now driven more than ever by collective action of the Sepik people and their allies in PNG and abroad. If you care about the river, remember, your voice and your support could make the difference!