No immediate plans to shut down bauxite mining operations in Pahang

The Pahang government has no plans to immediately shut down bauxite mining operations here despite reports of the hazards to public health and environment.

Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob said a shutdown order could not be issued as “issues like loss of income for landowners, mining workers, including lorry drivers, needed to be considered too. But our main concern is to protect the health of the people and the environment.”

Adnan said the state Department of Environment (DoE) had, on Monday, sent samples of earth, water and bauxite to the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) headquarters for analyses to verify the radiation levels.

“The result will only be known in a month. We cannot say for certain now whether the radioactive levels are safe. For the time being, we allow the mining operations to continue.”

Asked if the mining operations would be closed down if the result from AELB showed hazardous levels from radiation, Adnan said, “we will cross the bridge when we come to it. We may need an in-depth study if the findings from AELB show a high level of radioactivity from the bauxite mining.”

Adnan said the state government had earned RM37 million from the five per cent royalties imposed on the revenue from bauxite mining.

The NST had run a series of articles over the past three days based on surveys and laboratory findings of contaminations in a stream and sea waters off here.

Among the findings were elements of heavy metals, arsenic and radiation, which were tested to be above permissible levels when water samples from areas near mining operations were analysed at an independent laboratory. However, the quantity of contamination has been reported to be dropping.