International Water Day

MEDIA RELEASE

Wednesday 22 March 2006

Talking Cyanide

Today twentyfive Lake Cowal activists converged on Hyde Park today for

International Water Day.

Supported by Greens MLC, Lee Rhiannon, Cyanide Watch, Friends of the Earth

and Lake Cowal local Wiradjuri man, Steven Coe, they raised banners and

flags in Hyde Park and outside the office of the NSW Minister for Natural

Resources.

With colour and PA, they made their presence felt and demanded the NSW

government release information about route that the trucks will take

carrying cyanide to the Barrick Gold mine at Lake Cowal near West Wyalong

in central NSW from the manufacturing plant in Gladstone, Queensland -

6090 tonnes a year for 13 years.

“The government has to come clean with this information. This cyanide

transportation is not a one off event. The mine has a life of 13 years and

will consume more than 80,000 tones of sodium cyanide,‰ stated Lee

Rhiannon.

“Citizens have a right to know the scale and the nature of the hazard

their government has exposed them too,” said Graeme Dunstan of Cyanide

Watch. “The refusal of the Iemma government to release the details of

their approval for the cyanide transport is a case of government by the

corporation for the corporation.”

Barrick Gold, a Toronto based multi-national, will start up its Lake Cowal

mine on 27 March and they are already carting cyanide.

The NSW government has also granted licenses to Barrick to pump and

permanently poison up to 3659 mega litres of water a year for 13 years

Many environmental groups and local Wirdjuri elders are deeply concerned

about the ecological impacts of this vast pollution of water by cyanide

leach mining on ground water, the native flora and fauna and future

generations.

The action was part of the growing campaign to protect Lake Cowal and to

ban cyanide gold mining forever.

Come Easter, 14-17 April, Wiradjuri Traditional Owners and local community

will be hosting a Corroboree for Lake Cowal activists outside the mine

gates at the Lake. Supporters will be coming from all around the country.

For more information:

Natalie Lowrey

0431 194 083

Graeme Dunstan

0407 951 688

Further Information: