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MRF
> Environment > Incidents
> Los Frailes > Aftermath
Los Frailes Aftermath
NFORMATION ON THE LOS FRAILES INCIDENT
On 24th April 1998, an estimated five million cubic meters of mine tailings
(acidic water and solid materials) from the Los Frailes mine, 45km west
of Seville in southwest Spain flowed into the Agrio and Guadiamar Rivers.
Spanish authorities diverted the flows from there into the Guadalquivir
River to prevent the tailings flow from entering the Doņana National Park,
a World Heritage Site that is home to 125 bird species and is Europe's
largest national park. Between 2000 and 5000 hectares of farming
land were flooded in the incident. A report prepared for Boliden on the
tailings embankment failure has identified a slip in a clay formation
14 m below surface as the reason for the breach.
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For a more detailed account of the incident, information on rehabilitation
efforts, and news of the controversy surrounding it, read an article
that was published in the November 1998 issue of Mining
Environmental Management. Mining Environmental Management's
in-depth investigation
into the incident, covered in their July issue, is also available
on this website. A report
on the technical aspects of the incident and the media coverage
given to it is reproduced here courtesy of the Mining
and Environment Research Network.
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Additional links may be found below:
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The Spanish
Environment Ministry (Ministerio de Medio Ambiente) has information
(in Spanish), a LANDSAT picture and graphs showing changes in concentration
of various metals.
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For the company's point of view, see Boliden.
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For an NGO perspective, see Greenpeace.
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Several aerial and satellite photos may be viewed on the Aurensa
site (be patient!)
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For the World Heritage Site listing for Doņana National Park, see
UNESCO.
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For further information on tailings dams on this site, click here.
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