Phichit residents accuse gold mine over chemical leaks

[Lite Beer]

Phichit residents accuse gold mine over chemical leaks
The Nation

PHICHIT: -- Residents in Phichit's Tab Khlor district yesterday lodged a complaint with police accusing a goldmine operation of discharging chemical leaks that have sickened them for many years.

The leader of the group, Suekanya Theerachartdamrong, said an initial diagnosis by university academics had found that residents had been sickened by leaks of arsenic and manganese, which are carcinogenic and caused them rashes, muscle weakness and cancers in certain cases.

The goldmine covers a 3,000-rai area and was operated in 2001. Suekanya said the mine had also contaminated water and harmed the environment.

Wutthiphong Fangsanoh, a former mine worker, said an examination of his body had detected arsenic in his blood, which proved that the mine had covered up a report, which falsely said the operation had not discharged heavy metals.

-- The Nation 2014-05-17

[chainarong]

If the goldmine at Phichit is discharging chemicals , the residents should complain to the relevant authority , Mines Department and the Environmental protection Department, these are the departments that handle this kind of complaint, not the police , any breach of regulations , the company should be taken to court, and if no satisfaction from these government departments , take the matter to the news outlets and show the people of Thailand , just what these departments do for your BHT.

[ATF]

Sounds like Kingsgate Consolidated an ASX listed company.

[aussieinthailand]

Having worked in a gold mine for several years (not in Thailand) I know how the mines department work, also the health and safety departments are not beyond reproach, the manipulation of facts and figures is common, such LTI (lost time injury) MTI (medically treated injury)

and so forth.

ie, an oil spill of 20 liters or greater is a reportable incident, therefor the oil spills were almost always 19 liters or less!!!

Tailings dams that leak, poisoning of flora and fauna incidents either not reported or distorted, any workers that pushed to follow the reg's were subsequently passed over for promotion and givern the sh*t jobs for the day and as long as you worked there.

The same thing for safety breaches under orders from a shift boss, ie the ( orange IT) (men working out of the bucket of a loader) to do work at heights instead of using an IT ( integrated tool carrier ) which has a basket with railing and use of fall restraint and lanyards, If a worker refused then you would not be working for long, if there was and accident the shift boss denies any such order given. FACT!!!

All the while enough cases of written warnings given out and documented to show they are doing their job correctly