Hall-of-shame company AREVA re-activates operations in Mongolia

Cogegobi, the Mongolian subsidiary of AREVA, a nuclear group based in France, has activated its uranium exploration in Mongolia again after a temporally halt due to local resident opposition.

In April this year COGEGOBI LLC announced an estimated 55,000-ton uranium deposit in Ulaanbadrakh sum in Dornogovi province (East Gobi). Around the same time, local media reported the strange deaths and deformities of a number of young livestock in Ulaanbadrakh sum. Over 300 households’ livestock were affected by the uranium related operations by Cogegobi LLC in the area.

Local herders and residents launched an anti-uranium exploration campaign in order to stop the Cogegobi drilling at the site. Cogegobi ended up halting the drilling operations and closed its camps due to the local residents and herders protests.

The Central Geological Laboratory, State Central Veterinary and the Sanitary Laboratory determined the reason behind the sudden death of dozens of calves in Ulaanbadrakh sum in Dornogovi aimag. After testing samples it was found that the deaths were caused by heavy metal poisoning. But the expert team appointed by Prime Minister N.Altankhuyag to conduct further inspection released the conclusion that the strange deaths and deformities of the young livestock was caused by chemical selenium not from uranium.

Local residents and herders are against Cogegobi uranium exploration and activities but the French uranium explorer Cogegobi has intensified exploration and set six drilling stations in the Zuuvch-ovoo uranium deposit.

Since the company arrived in Mongolia, it brought over 120 million US dollar and almost 60-70 percent of it has been spent over the past three years. Currently the company owns 15 exploration licenses in Sukhbaatar and 12 in Dornogovi provinces. The company has discovered the Dulaan-Uul deposit with an estimated 7,000 tons of resources and the Zuuvch-ovoo deposit with an estimated 54,000 tons of resources.

The Public Eye Award ("Anti-Oscar"), a derogatory award by Greenpeace, a non-governmental environmental organization, for worst company behavior was given to the French Uranium mining company AREVA for its worst-of-all behavior towards workers and people in the area in regard to its uranium mines in Niger in 2008. AREVA now sits in the Hall-of-shame for corporate social responsibility.

SOURCE OF THIS ARTICLE : News.mn

Comments

Popular posts from this blog