Buru Energy Limited

ABN 71 130 651 437

15 December 2014

Steve Holland - WA Today

Level 2, 88 William Street

Perth, Western Australia 6000
PO Box 7794, Perth
Cloisters Square WA 6850
Ph: +61 8 9215 1800
Fax: +61 8 9215 1899
www.buruenergy.com

By email:

Dear Mr Holland,
Article in WA Today on 15 December 2014
Earlier today, WA Today published an article headed WA gas explorer creates death trap for native
animals along with a photo of a dead animal that appears to be a dead dog or dingo.
Buru Energy considers the headline to be inaccurate and rejects any suggestion that through its
activities it has created a purported death trap for native animals.
In relation to the photo, Buru Energy does not know who took this photo or how it was sourced and
does not know whether it was taken at any of Buru Energys sites.
As far as the article is concerned, Buru Energy considers several of the allegations in the report to be
inaccurate, namely:
1.

2.

The allegation that a dingo was found in a poisonous plastic-lined pond. Buru Energy can
confirm that on 1 December 2014, a dead dingo was found in a lined pond at the Companys
Yulleroo site, 70km east of Broome. The relevant pond has an escape rope, is surrounded by a
live-stock fence and contains no poisonous substances. The particular pond has only ever been
used to collect and store water extracted from nearby shallow bore holes. Whilst the cause of
the dingos death and how it came to be in the retention pond is not known by the Company,
the Company is aware of the following:
a.

the station owner has been undertaking a baiting program to suppress the increasing
number of wild dogs and dingoes in the area;

b.

other dingo deaths in the area have been caused by the baiting program;

c.

there is a group of protestors camping on the access track into the Yulleroo site who are
preventing access to the site;

d.

a number of intruders believed to be from the protest camp illegally gained access to the
site last week;

e.

in the past, those opposing our business activities have attempted to place dead animals
on our sites and falsely alleged that our activities have caused the death of those animals.

The following allegations:

when the ponds are dry, they become death traps for animals
not just dingoes but also reptiles, birds and various small marsupials that have been trapped in
these ponds
native faunacontinue to die horrible deaths in their toxic ponds.

The Company has designed its ponds so that animals are able to get out of the ponds using
specially designed escape ropes. The Yulleroo pond where the dingo was found has only ever
been used to collect and store water and has at no time held any drilling or fraccing material.
The Company is not aware of any evidence that supports these damaging allegations.
3.

The statement that Burus fracking operations in the Kimberley should be immediately halted
until a proper and thorough environmental assessment of the companys activities has been
conducted. The Company is not undertaking any fraccing activities in the Kimberley at present.
The Company has not commenced any preparatory work for its proposed fraccing program at
Yulleroo.

4.

The allegation that These tailings dams contain a toxic mixture of chemicals from the fracking
process and also often include heavy metal traces and hydrocarbons drawn up from
underground as part of fluid recovery. In the Yulleroo area, the Companys ponds are not
tailings dams and do not contain chemicals.

Buru Energy is very concerned about the significant amount of incorrect information being published
about its activities in the Kimberley.
Yours sincerely

Eric Streitberg
Executive Chairman