More Merciless Mining in Africa's National Parks

[Morkel Erasmus]

This almost seems like a good April First joke. But it's not.
Imagine someone seeing a beautiful piece of wilderness and saying this: "This part of Africa is so beautiful, it makes me want to open a mine here!"

An Australian mining company has been granted the right to open an open-pit/open-cast copper mine in Zambia's Lower Zambezi National Park. This park lies on the edge of the Zambezi river and directly across the UNESCO World Heritage site of Mana Pools! In fact, the LZNP is also under consideration for UNESCO World Heritage status...before this came along. The EIA was properly done and the recommendation was to ABANDON the project, but the EIA was overturned by the appropriate minister in the Zambian government...

More info on my blog: http://blog.morkelerasmus.com/2014/02/this-part-of-africa-is-so-beautiful.html
The protest action website: http://nomininginlowerzambezi.com/

You can see on the photo above where they will actually mine. Effluent and pollution from this mine will directly impact all animals and humans living along the banks of the Zambezi for hundreds of kilometers downstream until it reaches the Indian Ocean in Mozambique...:Whoa!:.
Facepalm...with a 2x4...

[Derek Willcox]

Morkel i can understand your Frustration they have been doing it here for years our NP and the reef are under threat by these mining tycoons now they trying to grab out your way too

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Well better stand up against it then like many people do in Australia. Though it probably won't sway the dumb-a$$ governments in place.
It's not just Australian mining companies that rape our land here Down Under, but a lot of Asians. And guess what?
The Australian government is too short-sighted to do anything about it, because they love to export coal to China, even have the balls to sell the gas BEFORE mining exploration licences are granted to FOREIGN companies in my country.
The Piliga forest on the Liverpool plains in NSW is now open to Santos to go and search for coal seam gas. Nice. One of the most pristine wilderness areas in my state is getting raped with government approval.