The category is feeling like Taylor, which is
also feeling like bad news. Oh, well, that brings
a lot of perspective into my life. It sure does.
This one is from AP news dot com. Not familiar
with AP news dot com, but this is by Richard.
That's the Associated Press. Oh, OK. But yeah,
they're really good. But I'm glad you don't have
other feelings about my source by Richard Kiel
Kiel. Is he any relation to John Keele? No, I
think it's Keeley. Okay. Jacob Zimba because
it's not Keele like Keele. I think it's Keeley.
It was updated 9 36 p .m. March 14, 2025. Title,
River died overnight in Zambia after an acidic
waste spill at a Chinese owned mine. Oh, I heard
about this. This one's real sad and people are
going to die. Yep, and I feel like being that
it's in Zambia might not get as much. It's gonna
get missed, yeah. Zambia and a Chinese -owned
mine, so it's not like we can actually report
on it. Let's get into this Taylor Lake vertical.
What about Zambia? Authorities environmentalists
in Zambia fear the long -term impact of an acid
spill at a Chinese -owned mine that contaminated
a major river and could potentially affect millions
of people after signs of pollution were detected
at least 100 km. Bill happened on February 18th
when a tailings dam that holds acidic waste from
a copper mine in the north of the country collapsed,
according to investigators from the Engineering
Institution of Zambia. Collapse allowed some
50 million liters of waste containing concentrated
acid, dissolved solids and heavy metals to flow
into the stream that links to the Kifui River,
Zambia's most important waterway, the Engineering
Institution said. really of catastrophic consequences,
end quote, said Chilekwa Mamba, environmental
activist who works in Zambia's copper pelt. Minite
is the dominant player in copper mining in Zambia,
a southern African nation which is among the
world's top 10 producers of copper, a key component
in smartphones and other technology. It is a
wonder how much of your smartphone comes from
Africa, slave mines basically. You know a great
deal has been coming to my attention lately of
all the rare earth minerals. Oh yes the rare
earths yeah from the Congo or Zambia yeah. We
even talked about it in episode that comes out
fairly close to this one. The whole fight over
the Congo was for Rare Earths. Especially in
governments that have problems. Well, they've
never been able to fully establish a government
because people who have been more well -off than
them for a long time want to take advantage of
them. Yeah, huge problem. I don't know maybe
if it's more the focus of certain people in the
world trying to exploit other countries very
publicly right now. Rare earth minerals and stuff
like that that other countries have that they
don't. I've been paying more particular attention
to it. But yeah, this is another one that I didn't
know. We did a fringy mini on rare earths with
Mexico probably about two years ago now when
Obrador, OMLO, he nationalized all their lithium,
which was a huge deal right yeah that was a while
ago now yeah but not everybody's taking the exact
same path of letting everybody just exploit them
like that like mexico did do that well And maybe
they're in a better position to not. Mexico is
a very interesting place because it's not quite
considered like first world, but it basically
is. I would consider it, yeah. Especially like
if you're just talking Mexico City. Very advanced,
very metropolitan. One of the best cities in
North America, honestly. Zambian president Hekinde
Pachelema called for help from experts and said
the league is a crisis that threatens people
and wildlife alone. along the Kufui, which runs
for more than 1 ,500 kilometers through the heart
of Zambia. Authorities are still investigating
the extent of the environmental damage. An Associated
Press reporter visited parts of the Kufui River,
where dead fish could be seen washing up on the
banks about 100 kilometers downstream from the
mine run by Sino Metals Leech, Zambia, which
is majority owned by the state -run China Non
-Ferrous Metals Industry Group. Ministry of Water
Development and Sanitation said the dead fish
Devastating consequences also include the destruction
of crops along the riverbanks. Authorities are
concerned that groundwater will be contaminated
as the mining waste seeps into the earth or is
carried to other areas. Prior to the 18th of
February, this was a vibrant and alive river.
In a country like that, probably rely on it for
crops, for drinking, for everything. Yeah, no,
most people live along that river. Like it's
incredibly important for their society. Most
civilizations do live along rivers. Oh, this
was a quote from Sean Cornelius who lives near
the Kafui and said fish died and bird life near
him disappeared almost immediately now everything
is dead it's like a total dead river unbelievable
overnight this river died about 60 percent of
zambia's 20 million people live in the kafui
river basin and depend on it in some way as a
source of fishing irrigation for agriculture
and water for industry river supplies drinking
water to about five million people including
the capital lusaka the acid leak at the Wow.
Oh, yeah. in Sino -Metals Leach Zambia would
bear the cost of the cleanup operation. Ang Pee
Win, the chairman of Sino -Metals Leach Zambia,
met with government ministers this week and apologized
for the acid spill according to a transcript
of his speech at the meeting released by his
company. Quote, this disaster has rung a big
alarm for Sino -Metals Leach and the mining industry,
he said. He said it will go all out to restore
the affected environment as quickly as possible.
The environmental impact of China's large mining
I will say criticize because it's China and not
the West. That's how often do you hear about
criticizing of European or North American mining
companies. No, that's actually very true. They
are very bad. There's a reason Canadians have
an incredibly bad reputation in Mongolia and
it's because we have mines there. We're just
talking about that, weren't we? It's come up
before. I feel like I wouldn't otherwise know
that. Chinese -owned copper mines have been accused
of ignoring safety, labor, and other regulations
in Zambia as they strive to control its supply
of the critical mineral, leading to some discontent
with their presence. Zambia is also burdened
with more than $4 billion in debt to China and
had to restructure some of its loans from China
and other nations after defaulting on repayments
in 2020. Wow. I wonder if that's why they're
there. doing this. No, the four billion would
have been in developing the mine. A smaller acid
waste leak from another Chinese -owned mine in
Zambia's Copper Belt was discovered days after
the Sino -Metals accident. Authorities have accused
the smaller mine of attempting to hide it. Local
police said a mine worker died at the second
mine after falling into acid and alleged that
the mine continued to operate after being instructed
to stop its operations by authorities. Two Chinese
mine managers have been arrested, police said.
Both mines have now halted their operations after
orders from Zambia. Authorities while many Zambians
are angry. Uh, yeah quote, it really just brings
out the negligence that some investors actually
have when it comes to environmental protection,
end quote, said Nini Mwinga, an environmental
engineer who attended the meeting involving saying
government ministers and others, quote, it don't
seem to have any concern at all, any regard at
all. And I think it's really worrying because
at the end of the day, we Zambian people, the
only land we have, end quote, end of article.
Pretty crazy. And especially when it's land,
their people are not on. and inhabiting. I mean
look at China though like it's the pollution.
I think this is a prime example and when these
things happen why extraction of resources should
be a national project. It shouldn't be some sort
of private investment that does it because at
the end of the day they don't care about the
land. They care about extracting the resource.
Profit. And if anything happens to the land,
the people who sit on the land have to pay for
it. That's how it works at the end of the day,
which is why it should be a nationally run project.
Yeah, that's a very good point because then you're
not looking at corporations doing it who don't
care about the earth, who don't care. Oh, look,
they went bankrupt so they can't pay for it.
because they extracted all the profit they can
and it's not profitable anymore so they're gone
and in some instances leaving a river that's
died and it's gonna affect the rest of the country
for only thousands of years who knows how long
this is ridiculous with no accountability because
they're in a country whose laws don't apply to
who's actually operating it and i just speculate
based on the enron case that we covered on chevron
Chevron. I even screwed it up in the whistleblower
one. I called it Exxon. It's Chevron. They all
have the same name basically, don't they? They
really do. Wrong name or not, the point is still
there. Giant corporations find ways to get around.
Oh, they will always do the bare minimum required
of them. Profits over people. Sorry, I almost
said that the wrong way and that's really wrong.
Well, and then they'll always find a way to privatize
the profit and socialize loss, which means if
there's going to be something that could hurt
something long term, then society will pick that
up. Whether it be cigarettes, oil, any of these
mines, that's the plan of the private industry.
Fuck those guys. Was that too political? Yeah,
probably, but I think we already lost all the
people who don't like us for our politics. But
anyhow, you got 48 hours to not like us for our
politics, so I hope I see you back here in 48
hours. I've got a good episode for ya. Anyhow,
bye. They'll be over it by then. Yeah, bye.