Mining company faces legalaction over toxic flood


13 August 1998


Mining company faces legal
action over toxic flood


BOLIDEN is facing legal proceedings for the rupture of a tailings dam in Spain this year which polluted farmland.

The Canadian mining company took a US$34 million (£20.9m) special charge in its second-quarter results for the failure in April of the dam at the Los Frailes zine mine, operated by its wholly-owned Apirsa subsidiary.

Some 4m m3 of acidic water and more than 4m m3 of tailings were discharged into a nearby river.

Legal proceedings are under way to determine responsibility and liability for damages.

See more