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Second toxic mine spill threatens Hungary
MPI media release
11 March 2000
Yet another mining disaster is today unfolding in Romania, Hungary and the Ukraine, where a new spillage of heavy metal laced toxic mine waste is threatening the only unpolluted upper section of the Tisza river with new contamination.
According to Romanian authorities, approximately 20,000 tons of waste containing lead, zinc, copper and small quantities of cyanide have escaped from a 25 meter breach in a dam at the state owned Borsa mine in Maramures region, Romania. The spill occurred around midday on Friday, with an undetermined quantity entering the Vaser River, a tributary of the Tisza and Danube rivers. The Romanian authorities notified Ukranian and Hungarian authorities of the water quality alert at 16:00 p.m. yesterday.
Romanian officials promised to stop the continuing escape of waste by tonight Australian time, meanwhile the Hungarian ministries of environment and water, and the government commissioner for the Tisza are holding emergency meetings.
This accident follows the cyanide spill five weeks ago at Australian mining company Esmeralda's Baia Mare mine, and occurred a mere hundred kilometres away from the previous accident. Tragically, the latest spill threatens the upper part of river Tisza river - the little which was saved from the deadly impacts of Esmeralda's cyanide spill and which was the greatest hope for "seeding" the dead river downstream.
"The mining accidents which have destroyed the environment and livelihoods along the Tisza and Danube are a tragedy, yet sadly they are not really a surprise. On our own doorstep in PNG, Indonesia and the Philippines, Australian mining companies continue to create the same problems", said Mr Geoff Evans, Director of the Sydney based mining watchdog the Mineral Policy Institute.
"The death of our rivers is too great a price to pay. Disasters such as this will continue until the mining industry is forced to comply with strong, safe and consistent environmental standards wherever they operate", Mr Evans concluded.
For media enquiries, call:
Geoff Evans 0418 261 404, or
Igor O'Neill (02) 9387 5540
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Unfolding environmental disasters: 
The Tiszavirág (Palingenia longicauda) one of the many unique species exterminated by the Roumanian mine spills.