6 December 2010

Community based campaign organization, ACT NOW!, has launched an email action against Harmony Gold and Newcrest Mining, owners of the Hidden Valley mine in Papua New Guinea.

ACT NOW! is asking the general public to send messages to the two companies through the ACT NOW! website, calling on them to ‘come clean’ about their acidification of the Watut river system.

“For too long foreign resource companies operating in PNG have been able to take advantage of our lax environmental monitoring and enforcement and ignore or cover up the problems they cause”, says Effrey Dademo, ACT NOW! Program Manager.

The email action is part of ACT NOW!’s wider campaign on corporate responsibility and the need to ensure all persons and organizations follow the Goals and Directive Principles in Papua New Guinea’s Constitution.

“If the government cannot, or will not, police these company’s operations then it falls on ordinary citizen’s to make their voices heard”, says Ms Dademo.

Members of the public can send their emails by going to www.actnowpng.org/action

“Papua New Guineans are sick and fed up with having to deal with the appalling environmental problems caused by foreign companies operating on our land,” added Ms Dademo.

Last week ACT NOW! organized a protest in Brisbane against Australian listed mining company Highlands Pacific, after its members had sent 500 emails to the company in protest at its involvement in the Ramu nickel mine which will dump millions of tons of waste into the sea.

Next year ACT NOW! will also launch a mobile telephone SMS service so people without an internet connection can participate in email actions and polls.

For further information and comment contact Effrey Dademo on (675) 7689 5266