Gold Campaign | Coalition | Cyanide | Lake Cowal |
Eco-Gold!? | Rainforest Information CentreNEWS AROUND THE WORLD
June 15, 2006 Protests Halt Work at Mongolian Gold Mine
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ULAN BATOR, Mongolia (AP) -- Canadian mining company Centerra Gold Inc. said Thursday it has temporarily halted work at its Boroo gold mine in Mongolia amid protests over the government's dealings with the company...
June 13 2006 Philippines Seeks to Reassure Mining Companies by Roel Landingin in Manila, Financial Times
11 May 2006 The World's Riches and the Poor: Dark Side of the Gold Rush
By Andrew Buncombe
The Independent UK
11 May 2006 Gold mining 'hits' poor countries - BBC News
Gold mining carries social and environmental costs for many developing countries, a British aid agency has warned in a new campaign...
April 27, 2006 Mine probers find heavy metals in villagers' bodies
By Inquirer
Mongolians end protests demanding resignation of government, president
Ganbat Namjil, Canadian Press
Published: Monday, April 24, 2006ULAN BATOR, Mongolia (AP) - Some 200 demonstrators - including 10 hunger-strikers - have ended their protests over alleged government corruption and the mishandling of mineral wealth in Mongolia after the country's leaders agreed to investigate their complaints.
The activists had been camped in a central square in the capital Ulan Bator for two weeks when their demonstration ended late Sunday. They were demanding that the government obtain favourable terms from a Canadian mining company's concession to mine huge copper and gold deposits in the southern Gobi region - or resign... read more and more
19 April 2006 - Federal judge dismisses mining company's lawsuit
By The Associated PressHELENA -- The federal court system has delivered another setback to a company challenging Montana's blockage of a proposed gold mine.
A U.S. District Court judge rejected a lawsuit by Colorado-based Canyon Resources Corp., less than two months after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by the company.
In Helena, U.S. District Judge Charles C. Lovell recently dismissed a lawsuit that Canyon Resources filed in 2000, challenging Montana's voter-passed, 1998 law prohibiting cyanide heap-leach technology in new gold
mining. Canyon Resources had planned to use that method of separating gold from ore at the company's proposed mine near Lincoln. Inability to use cyanide technology blocked the mine, the company said.Canyon Resources President James Hesketh said the company will appeal Lovell's decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Canyon Resources has argued the 1998 law effectively robbed the company of its opportunity to develop the Lincoln-area mine. The company said it was stripped of a property right and was owed money by Montana for forgone gold-mining profits, estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars.
State lawyers countered that Canyon Resources did not have a mining permit in 1998 and lost nothing when voters banned the cyanide technology as environmentally risky. The mere opportunity to develop a mine did not
constitute a property right, the state argued.In 2000, Canyon filed two lawsuits against Montana, one in state court and the other in federal court. Federal court action was put on hold pending a decision at the state level.
Canyon lost its state District Court case, then appealed to the Montana Supreme Court, which also ruled in favor of the state. In February, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the Montana Supreme Court's ruling. That decision revived the case before Lovell.
He said that states cannot be sued in federal court, and that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled federal courts will not reopen issues already decided in state court.
10 March 2006Unwarranted arrest inside Bulgarian ministry silences gold mine opposition Sofia, Bulgaria -- Earlier today the unwarranted arrest of an elected NGO representative took place inside the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Waters. Just by turning up, Dimiter Vassiluv was prevented from participating in the High Expert Environmental Council (HEEC) that was meeting this morning to decide on the construction of the Chelopech gold mine and the use of cyanide technology there.
The arrest prevented Dimitur Vassilev and the Bulgarian NGO community to vote against the excavation of gold, with the use of cyanide technology, in the Chelopech mine by the Canadian firm Dundee Precious Metals and its Bulgarian branch, Chelopech Mining, said Fidanka Bacheva, a coordinator for CEE Bankwatch Network. Local people from the Chavdar municipality are against the proposed new gold mining activities because they are afraid of the possible pollution and are against the use of their agriculture land for gold mining purposes, she explained.
Dimitur Vassilev was elected two months ago to be the official representative of Bulgarian NGOs at the HEEC at the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Waters through a transparent voting procedure developed by the NGOs and adopted by officials since 2001. More than 250 Bulgarian NGOs participated in the voting platform, operated by BlueLink, the electronic network of Bulgarian environmental NGOs.
Andrey Kovachev, the other elected NGO representative in the HEEC at the Ministry of Environment and Waters, said: "The case of the Chelopech mine is the latest evidence that the procedures for environmental assessment are completely compromised in Bulgaria. The practices created in the last 15 years by the Ministry completely neglect the precautionary principle and public opinion when it comes to decision-making for permitting industrial activities. Thus the basic rules of the European Directives are completely violated."
Petko Kovatchev, from CEIE and CEE Bankwatch Network, said: "The violation of NGOs rights to be represented in the debate about this controversial project ironically comes just as the environmental ministers of the EU Member States - including Bulgaria and Romania - have launched a debate on the revision of the European Strategy for Sustainable Development. We will ensure that the use of police force to prevent the participation of our representative in HEEC is presented to the EU institutions and especially before the European Commission launches its report on Bulgaria's development towards accession. We are ready to bring
this issue to the European Parliament and to a meeting with CommissionerDimas during his visit to Sofia next month."Daniel Sergelidis, from Hellenic Mining Watch, commented: "Our organisation is preparing a letter to the Ministry of Environment and Waters
of Bulgaria protesting against this arrest and stressing that Greece should have been consulted in the decision-making process based on the Espoo convention."Sofia Municipality also denied permission today for people from Chavdar and NGOs to protest ahead of the decision on the Chelopech mining technology being made, while at the same time it approved the protest of groups supporting the gold mining.
Two other citizens' activists were arrested this morning - Konstantin Dichev from Green Balkans Federation and Todor Petkanski from the local initiative committee.
For further information contact:
Fidanka Bacheva, Tel: 00359 (0) 899 876 095
Or check http://www.cyanidefreerhodopi.org/
23 Feb 2006 Protesters vandalize U.S. offices in Indonesia
23 Feb 06 Protesting Papuans blockade gold mine
The Australian - Sian PowellWORK at the world's largest gold and copper mine was suspended yesterday after a band of 300 Papuans brandishing machetes and bows and arrows blocked the road to the site in Indonesia's remote province of Papua. The blockade followed a ruckus on Tuesday when security guards from Freeport's Grasberg mine chased locals away from their illicit gold-mining operations.
Two security guards were shot with arrows, according to the local police chief Adjutant Commissioner Dedi Junaidi, with one seriously injured, suffering damage to his lung.
The protesters yesterday demanded a meeting with Freeport's largest US shareholders; a meeting with Papua's governor or the regent; and permission to pan for gold around the mine, Commissioner Junaidi said.
He said the protesters had blocked the road with trucks and bulldozers they had taken from the mine, after threatening the employees with machetes.
"There's no rioting now, they are just sitting in the street waiting for their demands to be met," he said.
The protesters earn a living recovering gold from waste rock dumped by the mine and they cannot understand why they are not permitted to use this "rubbish" as they want, a company spokesman said.
Grasberg mine, which is run by a local unit of New Orleans-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc, has long had problems with the local people living in the area, who regard the land as theirs.
Desperately poor, the locals resent the massive earnings enjoyed by Freeport, and its reliance on the Indonesian armed forces for security.
An official inquiry was launched in Indonesia earlier this year into the mine's security practices following revelations Freeport-McMoRan paid nearly $US20 million to Indonesian military and police officials posted around the massive mine between 1998 and 2004.
Indonesian politicians have also begun to investigate claims that Freeport has polluted the surroundings with toxic tailings.
The mine's relations with Jakarta were dealt a blow in 2002, when assailants opened fire at teachers from a school run by the mining company when they were driving through the mining location, killing two Americans and an Indonesian.
The Indonesian military was suspected of playing a role in the attack, but a rebel from Papua's independence movement, OPM, has since been indicted for the murders.
February 17, 2006 Gold Mining Company to Pay Indonesia $30 Million
12 Feb 2006 Pure Gold? Precious metal a potent symbol in the battle over corporate social responsibility
Feb 2006 Photos from Cyanide Kills Action in Romania to halt Rosia Montana Gold Mine
16 January 2006 Canadian gold mining prospects dented in BulgariaSofia, Bulgaria -- A highly controversial gold mining development being promoted by a Canadian mining company in south-east Bulgaria has failed to gain a seal of approval from the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Water. On Friday last week in the Bulgarian parliament the Minister of Environment and Water, Dzhevdet Chakarov, confirmed a “"silent denial"” decision on the Krumovgrad gold project’s environmental impact assessment (EIA). Dundee Precious Metals is seeking the go-ahead from the Bulgarian authorities as well as substantial financial backing from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for a project which has attracted strenuous opposition from local communities and from communities across the border in Greece.
The parliament session on the Krumovgrad gold project came about as a result of questions from Green representatives of the European Parliament. The written question from the Verts/ALE grouping [1] expressed concerns both about the risks of open-mine gold extraction in an area of great biodiversity and about how Bulgarian backing for such a development would contravene previous commitments signed up to with the European Union.
The “"silent denial"” decision of the Ministry of Environment and Water reflects the opposition of local residents in Krumovgrad. The local municipal council in Krumovgrad unanimously decided in September 2005 to oppose the controversial and extremely unpopular gold mine. Furthermore, local citizens, authorities and environmental NGOs from the Greek regions of Evros and Rhodopi have protested strongly against the prospects of transboundary pollution from the planned gold mine site downstream of the rivers Arda and Maritsa.
Fidanka Bacheva, of Za Zemiata/ CEE Bankwatch Network, said: “"At this point we are glad about the denial to the Krumovgrad gold project but we would like to see an official negative decision. We plan to continue the campaign until the East Rhodopi mountains receive a nature protection status which will guarantee the sustainable and cyanide-free development of the region."”
In December last year Dundee Precious Metals complained about the delayed decision on the project. The Chief Operations Officer and Executive Director of the company's branches in Bulgaria, Laurence Marsland, said that the company expects a strict implementation of the legislation, which requires “"either a positive or a negative decision."” [2]
For more information:
Fidanka Bacheva
Coordinator for Southeastern Europe
CEE Bankwatch Network
Tel/fax: +359 2 951 53 18
Email: fidankab@bankwatch.org
www.cyanidefreerhodopi.org/index_en.php
Nature Minister Rejects Reportedly $100 Million Investment Project
Source: ARMENPRESS, 2005-12-02
December 2, 2005Armenian nature protection ministry has turned down today, December 2, 2005 a reportedly $100 million worth investment project, promised by an Indian company that runs gold mines in Sotk, near the town of Vardenis in Gegharkunik province, for construction of a gold extracting plant.
Despite the company's expert's arguments that the proposed plant will be equipped with state-of-the art devices to neutralize wastes and prospects for 3,000 jobs for the region plagued with unemployment, Armenian nature protection minister Vartan Ayvazian has endorsed the arguments of local ecological NGOs who claim that construction of a gold ore processing plant in Vardenis would prove catastrophic for environment and especially for Armenia's biggest lake of Sevan, located some 20 miles off.The exploitation of the Sotk gold mine began in 1976 and continued throughout the remaining years of the Soviet Union by Ararat Gold Recovery Company Ltd. (AGRC). In 2002, an Indian company, Sterlite Gold Ltd., bought all the shares of AGRC, and started processing the accumulated gold at the Ararat plant and exploiting the Sotk open-shaft gold mines. The Indian company first asked the government's permission to build the factory in 2004 saying transportation of the ore to current plant located in the town of Ararat, more than 200 km away, was too costly.
Speaking at a second round table discussion of the issue Vartan Ayvazian cited the findings of an ecological expertise which found that if the plant were built chemical substances used for gold separation would flow into rivers and the lake to jeopardize the local nature and people. Another argument he cited was that the proposal did not comply with provisions of the Law on Lake Sevan that bans construction of ore processing plants around the lake.
http://www.northernminer.com/article.asp?id=49569&issue=11142005
Kumtor road blocked; Kyrgyzstan cut off
Nov 14 2005
Demonstrators have blocked the road to the Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan, though owner Centerra Gold (CG-T) says operations are continuing as normal.
The company announced the roadblock had been put up as a protest over the 1998 cyanide spill at a bridge on the Barskoon River, where a truck carrying sodium cyanide to the mine overturned. Wire service and local reports said the protestors were demanding further compensation for the accident, beyond that contained in a 1999 agreement between the mine's operating company and the Kyrgyz government.
This is the third road-blocking incident to affect the mine this year. Protests also took place in February and July; after the July protest the new Kyrgyz government agreed to appoint a commission to revisit the compensation issue.
Centerra said it was in discussions with the central government in Bishkek, as well as local authorities, to resolve the protest
http://www.northernminer.com/article.asp?id=49816&issue=11212005
Kumtor roadblock cleared
Nov 21 2005
The road connecting the Kumtor gold mine to major centres in Kyrgyzstan has been reopened following talks between the company and protestors in the Barskoon area.
Centerra Gold (CG-T) said it did not expect the week-long roadblock to have a significant effect on gold production from Kumtor. The mine continued operating during the protest.
The protestors were demanding that a compensation agreement between Centerra's predecessor as operator of Kumtor (Kumtor Operating Company, now a wholly-owned subsidiary) and the Kyrgyz government be reopened. The agreement, reached in 1999, provided aid in the Barskoon region after a truck accident in 1998 where sodium cyanide was spilled into the Barskoon River.
Centerra officials met with the residents in the area late last week and the roadblock was abandoned on the weekend.
From: RightsAction
Sent: Wednesday, November 02, 2005 1:09 PM
To: info@rightsaction.org
Subject: HONDURAS: workers strike at Glamis gold mining operation
November 2, 2005HONDURAS: workers strike at Glamis gold mining operation
Workers of the Canadian transnational mining corporation Glamis Gold maintained their strike for a week, paralyzing the San Martín gold mine in the Siria Valley, Honduras, to denounce violations to their collective contract, lay-offs, and grave health problems.
Please re-distribute, re-publish, etc. If you want on-off this elist: <mailto:info@rightsaction.org>info@rightsaction.org. To support community based groups in Honduras working on development, enviro- and HR issues related to Glamis Gold, see info at bottom.
===
FELLOW MINE WORKERS: SICK AND FIRED BUT FIGHTING BACK
by Sandra Cuffe, Rights Action, Honduras, November 1, 2005From Tuesday October 25 until early this morning, the organized workers of Minerales Entre Mares de Honduras, S.A., a subsidiary of Canadian transnational corporation Glamis Gold Ltd., went on strike, occupying the entry and exit points of the San Martín open pit gold mine and paralyzing mining activity.
The Entre Mares de Honduras S.A. Workers' Union (SITRAMEMHSA) took action to demand that workers' rights be respected, denouncing a series of violations of their collective contract, lay-offs, and grave health problems.
Only a few days before the action began, the Union had celebrated its first anniversary. The organization has some 190 members of the approximately 260 people in total working at the San Martin mine, which is located in the municipality of San Ignacio, department of Francisco Morazan, two hours north of Tegucigalpa.
SITRAMEMHSA and Entre Mares/Glamis Gold signed a collective contract on September 16, 2005, although the contract came into effect on September 1, according to the signed document. According to the workers present at the occupation of the main gate to the mine, the company is violating clauses 1, 2, 8, 11 and 15, dealing with numerous labour rights.
"How is it possible that we tolerate all of these situations? If we signed our collective contract not even two months ago and already they're turning it upside down?" asked Daniel Martínez, president of SITRAMEMHSA. "We do not allow this, we will not allow it, because if it's not now, then later they'll do whatever they please with us."
The workers maintained their occupation of both of the San Martin mine's entrance and exit points. They explained that all of the Glamis Gold executives are in a meeting in the United States and that there was no representative present who had the power to make decisions or negotiate. As of October 29, no government representatives had arrived either, neither from the Ministry of Labour nor Health, Environment or Human Rights officials.
COST REDUCTION: FIRING SICK WORKERS AND INCREASING CONTAMINATION
On Monday, October 24, there was a meeting between representatives of SITRAMEMHSA and Glamis Gold, supposedly to approve the loans of the rotating fund, a loan policy that had been brought into effect by the struggle of the union. Once gathered, the company suddenly announced that it had 27 lay-offs prepared for the following day. Among the 27 are David Flores, Victoriano Cruz and Francisco Hernández, all of whom have been suffering from illnesses and health problems in the course of their work at the mine.
"We cannot accept the firing of three fellow workers who have been receiving medical treatment for respiratory tract problems, stomach problems and problems in their bones," explained Martínez. "They worked in a critical area where there was the most contact with live cyanide."
All 27 fired workers laboured in the 'grinding' section, with the crushing machine and the conveyor belt system that transports the pulverized material from the machine to the lixiviation pools (also referred to as patios) full of cyanide solution. The union had been informed by the company that both the crushing machine and conveyor belt system will be removed and transported to Guatemala. Thus, at the San Martin mine, once the material is dynamited, the huge rocks will be transported in dump trucks directly to the patios. In fact, this process had already begun; the grinder was only being operated during one night shift."All they care about is bringing the mountain down, getting rid of the people and maintaining operations only in the areas of lixiviation, patio, laboratory..." denounced Martínez. "We ask that national and international authorities intervene so that the process will continue as it is set out in the company's mitigation plan."
The fired workers are not the only worrisome aspect of this change of procedure. There is also the risk that it may generate or increase contamination. As the workers pointed out on the map drawn of the mine site that hangs from the main gate, alongside the Honduran flag and a union banner, the dump trucks' path crosses a significant area of contaminated waste material. As the trucks descend to the lixiviation pools, their tires become impregnated with cyanide solution before returning along a stretch of road where the runoff from rains flows directly into the Guanijiquil stream.
Several workers present around the bend at the occupation of the second gate insisted that rainwater is not the only water that flows into the stream. They revealed that during a recent period of torrential downpours, the company was pumping water 24 hours a day from the so-called 'ducks' lagoon' to the Guanijiquil stream, which in turn feeds into the Playa river, one of the few water sources for irrigation in the valley that has not been completely usurped by the mining exploitation process. Not even the workers could confirm whether or not the lagoon contains cyanide or heavy metals. However, the lagoon - which was created a few months ago as the company retained a large quantity of water with no liner underneath - gets its name from the reported fact that when ducks settle down on the water, they die.
'I suffer from pain here...'"They tell me that what I have might be due to my age, practically, the bones, that's what they maintain. But as you know, we've worked with cyanide, so I would like them to tell us the truth. If that's what it is, then we're all going downhill," worriedly expressed David Flores, one of the fired workers who have not recuperated from their health problems.
"I suffer from pain here in the coccyx and in the bones... And I'm worried that they'll toss me out and I'll be going pretty much good just for collecting firewood. And not just me, but also I look at my fellow workers, maybe even all of us, and my family."
Another fired worker, Victoriano Cruz, is facing similar problems. In even worse conditions is Francisco Hernández, another of the 27 workers all laid off from the same department - those who worked with the crushing machine and the conveyor belt system. Hernández has worked 12-hour days for five and a half years in this same department. Aside from the dangers of their daily toil, for which the workers receive only minimal protection such as disposable little facemasks, Hernández told of a serious accident he had in 2003 and of the numerous health problems he has faced since that time, reducing his capabilities both for work and for life in general.
"On one occasion, where I was working - because there you work with cyanide, there's live cyanide there - some tubing rebounded back at me and the solution poured over my entire body. I went to wash myself, because you have to bathe immediately. But from then until now I have felt ill. It started with dizziness and vomiting."
"Since last May, a pain started in my legs and I couldn't walk. I went to Tegucigalpa, I went to see the doctor. The doctor [from the clinic in Tegucigalpa] told me that it was a problem caused by the chemicals here, and so they did tests and even sent one to the United States, the samples, you know. And two months later the test came back and [the doctors hired by the mining company] told me that no, that there wasn't anything wrong with me, that the test came back clean."
"So, with the medicine that the doctor was giving me here, the pain in my legs went away, not completely, but it has moved into my shoulders and I almost can't work. And now the doctors from the mine say that I don't have anything wrong with me. And I can't do anything - I can't lift my arms up, I can't even work what's mine anymore."
"I'm still going to the doctor, but I don't get better. But they still say that no, I don't have anything."
It is important to recall the words of then-manager of Entre Mares, Eduardo Villacorta, in an interview with Revistazo.com in 2003: "All that bit about cyanide is a big myth. Cyanide is no more dangerous than the baygon you use in your home to kill mosquitos."
Along the same lines, Francisco Hernández insists that the company never explained to the workers about the dangers of cyanide: "They never said it was harmful. We knew it was harmful because everyone said so. The thing is that you can feel it, you know, the contamination."ILLEGAL DEDUCTIONS FOR MEDICAL ATTENTION AND HIDDEN RESULTS
Ever since the workers can remember, the company has never fulfilled its responsibility for the total coverage of their medical costs. The company used to deduct 20% of all medical bills directly from the workers' salaries. It was an important point during the negotiation of their collective contract, one that SITRAMEMHSA fought for, warning the company that they would no longer permit workers to be billed for their health care.
"Clause number 11 is clear," declared Daniel Martínez. "It talks about the worker receiving 100% coverage in all those cases - accidents, professional and non-professional illnesses. They'll be covered 100%."
In reality, however, the company has continued to charge all workers 20% of all of their medical bills. They must either pay this share in cash when they arrive at the clinics in Tegucigalpa or the amount is deducted from their paycheque, although ever since the collective contract was signed, the company no longer makes note of these deductions as medical costs, but instead as personal loans, even when the company has no policy of loans for workers. There is only the rotating loan fund, but this was a conquest of the union and not company policy, the workers explained.
"The rotating fund was created specifically for emergencies, not to support a medical plan that is the sole obligation of the company, because it is a responsibility of the company," Martínez pointed out.
David Flores recounted that the last time he went to get a test done at the Policlinica in Tegucigalpa, he did not receive medical attention because he did not have sufficient funds. He arrived all prepared, with his medical insurance card, but clinic personnel told him that they had not negotiated with the mining company doctors, although it is the same clinic visited by almost all mine workers. They called the company, which asked Flores to front a part of the bill in cash, assuring him that he would be paid back later. As the amount was not within his financial means, Flores was not cared for and had to take the bus back to the Siria Valley with his son without getting the test done.
"Here, if you don't have money and you go to the doctor, you die, because they don't give you any money here to be able to go," observed Francisco Hernández.
Clearly, the workers most affected by the illegal medical costs demanded by the company are the same workers who are the most affected by health problems. In the case of the fired workers, Glamis intended to deduct the 20% of medical bills from their severance benefits. In some cases, such as that of David Flores, this amount comes to more than twenty thousand lempiras (approximately $1,050 US dollars).
Another great cause for concern is the fact that the workers do not even have photocopies of their test results, diagnostics or other documentation related to their health conditions. The company holds all of the documentation. In many cases, the workers are not even familiar with the content of this documentation and only know what the doctors working for Glamis Gold tell them.
"This is one of the problems that I would like to be taken into account," said Martínez. "When the workers go for an analysis, the doctors from the region here don't give them any information. And when the worker goes to find out the results and ask for an explanation, the doctors from here get mad at them."
"The company used to give itself the luxury of telling the workers that 'the door is wide open.' When someone would go to make a complaint or demand, the Human Resources manager - ignorant of the law, ignorant of the rights we have as workers, as is set out in the Constitution of the Republic and the Labour Code - would tell them 'the door is wide open, there are 200 waiting for your job, don't you remember how you were before?' Just like that! She was treating the workers with psychological torture."
"For all of these reasons, today we are not permitting any of these abuses. And from today forward, from the 25th when we took this action, from that day on, we're setting a precedent for Minerales Entre Mares. Now the workers are no longer alone; the workers are represented by the Entre Mares de Honduras S.A. Workers' Union, SITRAMEMHSA. And we're going to struggle to the very end, to make them respect us."
ALL OVER, GLAMIS GOLD SHINES FOR THE ABUSES AND DESTRUCTION IT CAUSES
Glamis Gold has not only been denounced by workers and certainly not only in Honduras. Registered in Vancouver, Canada, as a publicly traded Canadian company with its headquarters in Reno, Nevada, Glamis Gold Ltd operates in several countries by way of wholly owned subsidiaries, such as Minerales Entre Mares de Honduras. The actions and denouncements against Glamis have also occurred in several countries.
In the state of California, Glamis planned on opening an open pit gold mine in the Imperial Valley, a desert through which a pathway of Quechan First Nation sacred sites runs. After an arduous struggle by both the Quechan Nation and environmentalist groups, then-governer Gray Davis passed special mitigation measures for open pit mining projects located on or close to sacred sites.
Basing its arguments in the investment protection clauses of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which came into effect in 1994 between Canada, the United States and Mexico, Glamis Gold has brought a case against the United States for 50 million dollars, arguing that the mitigation measures meant that the company's project was no longer economically viable. This case, which so clearly demonstrates the destructive capitalist vision of FTAs, has not yet been resolved.
Glamis Gold is also facing strong resistance in Guatemala, where the company owns the Marlin project located in two municipalities of majority indigenous population in the department of San Marcos. Ever since news that the company was installing itself in the region to construct a gold mine got around, both local communities and organizations at the regional, national and international levels have been waging a long struggle against the project and its financing by the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank. Diverse initiatives have been organized, ranging from highway blockades to a locally organized democratic indigenous community consultation process in the municipality of Sipakapa, in which the local population expressed once more their total rejection of mining activities in their territory.
Even before the exploitation phase had begun, the Marlin project was already linked to two violent deaths at the hands of public and private 'security' forces. Repression continues, as communities continue to struggle with dignity for a humane and healthy community development process, defined, controlled and executed by and for the communities themselves.
In Canada, diverse organizations are struggling to put an end to the impunity of global actors, fighting so that Canadian companies can be tried in Canadian courts for abuses and damages caused by their actions and operations around the world. Several organizations have taken up the example of Glamis Gold to highlight the need for these changes and to raise awareness about the exploitative and unjust global 'development' model.
Nor is it the first time that Glamis has been the target of denouncements and actions in Honduras. The communities of the Siria Valley organized and manifested their opposition to the San Martin project in open municipal hall meetings and protests when the mine was under construction. The Siria Valley Regional Environmental Committee continues its unwavering struggle for the environment and justice, denouncing the arsenic and mercury contamination in the region, the grave health problems in communities neighbouring the mine, among innumerable other abuses and negative impacts caused by Glamis Gold's mining operations.
UNITED WE ARE STRONGER
"As the Siria Valley Regional Environmental Committee," explained Carlos Amador, a member of the Committee, "we are very worried about the situation of the Entre Mares workers, especially the serious health problems they are suffering from and the information regarding contamination caused by the company. We support them because we see that they are fighting for a just cause."
This morning, November 1st, the SITRAMEMHSA members were back at the gates, but this time to go back to work - including the 27 who were to have been fired. They will continue in the same department as always, crushing the blasted material and transporting it to the cyanide solution-filled pools along the conveyor belt system.
It is not exactly a fairy tale ending. David Flores, Victoriano Cruz and Francisco Hernández are still suffering from the same serious health problems. The vast majority of residents from nearby communities are still suffering from the same serious health problems. Water is still scarce. The local economy is still ruined. There is still contamination. The residents of San José de Palo Ralo, a community relocated to make way for the mine over five years ago, have still not received legal documentation for their lands and homes. Glamis Gold will still be reaping in millions in profits.
Still, the first major action of a young union with little support has achieved its most important objective. Perhaps the victory of their collective action will give the workers the strength and courage to continue fighting for the rights they upheld during their strike: for independent tests of sick workers and fair compensation and justice, for free and unbiased medical attention, for full disclosure of their health conditions, for strict control of cyanide and contaminated water and waste material, for the respect of their collective contract...
It would be far-fetched to hope that Glamis Gold has 'learned its lesson' when the company is by nature a powerful global actor operating with impunity, benefiting from an exploitative and destructive business model that goes by the name of 'development.' At the very least, however, perhaps the company will no longer proudly announce in its annual reports that none of its workers are unionized. And perhaps SITRAMEMHSA will continue to struggle against company abuses, in keeping with the vow so adamantly expressed by union president Daniel Martínez during the strike:
"Today we are not permitting any more of these abuses. And from today forward, from the 25th when we took this action, from that day on, we're setting a precedent for Minerales Entre Mares. Now the workers are no longer alone; the workers are represented by the Entre Mares de Honduras S.A. Workers' Union, SITRAMEMHSA. And we're going to struggle to the very end, to make them respect us."
Subject: [gmc] Ghana Env Protection Agency orders gold mining company to stop operations
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2005 20:30:38 +0200
From: "Ute Hausmann" <u.hausmann@fian.de>
To: gmc@globalminingcampaign.org
Dear friends,
We are very happy to inform you that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Ghana has ordered Bogoso Gold Limited (BGL – a subsidiary of Canadian Golden Star), a mining company operating in Prestea in the Wassa West District of the Western Region of Ghana, to stop operations with immediate effect. The order follows the violation of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedures and regulations by BGL.
This follows a long struggle by the residence of Prestea and the Wassa Association of Communities affected by Mining (WACAM) against the company. A recent investigation by FIAN had confirmed violations of the right to water and to health and the destruction of livelihoods. For more information on the findings, please see attachment.
For more information on the order, please go to the news article: <http://www.graphicghana.info/article.asp?artid=8309>http://www.graphicghana.info/article.asp?artid=8309
The international campaign no-dirty-gold has recently started a campaign on BGL’s dirty business in Ghana. Please add your voice to it: http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/bogoso
Thank you for your support!
Ute Hausmann
FIAN Germany
11.08.2005
Popintsi, Bulgaria
Local people form a human chain to stop the equipment of the Canadian Euromax Resources Ltd. and its attempts to carry out gold deposit exploration work in the region of Popinci.On August the 10th the concession company Euromax Resources in Popinci made another effort to launch its activities against the will of the local community. In the morning the drilling machine located in Panagyurishte
was planned to be moved towards the village of Popinci. Human chain of more than 200 people yesterday afternoon stopped the machine on its way from the town of Panagyurishte to the village of Popinci. Early in the
morning some of the local people sounded the bell from the village church tower because of the intentions of the company to re-launch the gold deposit exploration works.The entire day the local people were on the alert and ready for action. In the afternoon the drilling machine was transported to the area adjacent to the village, where it was stopped by the local people. During the evening the human chain was being renewed every two hours. The police was determined not to allow any disorder as the tension was aggravating.
Public disobedience is expected to continue without an ultimate deadline, "We won't give up unless the authorities recognize our right for local self-governance bearing in mind the ratified in Bulgaria European
Charter for Local Self Government" says engineer Gancho Ilkov from the local initiative committee.The locals are against the concession for gold deposit exploration in the region: they are well aware of the risks, since most of them have been working in the mines and factories in the region of Panagyurishte ˆAsarel-Medet, „Radka‰ factory and „Elshica‰ mine. Many of them suffer from various „professional‰ diseases due to their work in the mines and their access to reactive and explosive powders.
The local people are very tired but are committed to stand for their rights and to prevent the destruction of their environment. They are not alone. The local authorities ˆ the municipalities of Panagyurishte and
Strelcha ˆ are supporting them, as well as a Coalition of environmental organizations ˆ Federation of Environmental Associations „Green Balkans‰, Environmental Association „For the Earth‰, „Eco-club 2000‰, „Center for Environmental Education and Information‰ and the Initiative committee „Life for Krumovgrad‰, people and independent experts.Next week, 17-18th of August, another project for the development of the gold deposit of Ada Tepe nearby Krumovgrad will be a subject to public consultations. The Coalition will attend the consultations in order to stand against the destruction of the East Rhodopi mountains by gold mining.
Experts, activists and representatives of the local authorities from Turkey and Greece will join the event, so as to protest against the
dangerous technology, which threatens to affect the population downstream along the rivers Arda and Marica in their countries.Fidanka Bacheva
Coordinator for Southeastern Europe
CEE Bankwatch Network
----------
Address:
c/o Za zemiata
P.O. Box 975
55 Buzdludga street
Sofia 1000, Bulgaria
t/f: +359-2-851 8620
www.bankwatch.org
MAYAN COMMUNITY REJECTS GOLDMINE
Indigenous communities could force Guatemalan Government to revoke concession
Rights Action MEDIA RELEASE - June 21, 2005On Sunday June 19, 2005 a consultation of the population of Sipacapa, San Marcos, Guatemala roundly rejected open-pit mining. The consultation was organized by the Community Development Counsels (COCODE), a formal governmental institution set up across the country that has the authority to decide upon issues that effect the development of rural communities, and that has a particular responsibility for and focus on the rights of indigenous peoples.
The COCODEs undertook the consultation initiative in response to community demands to protect their territories against potential harms associated with an exploration license which Guatemala's Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) awarded to Canadian mining corporation Glamis Gold.
Sipacapa is a municipality next to San Miguel, San Marcos, where Glamis Gold´s subsidiary Montana Exploradora has initiated gold mining activities. Neighboring communities like Sipacapa have already begun to feel the negative impacts, particularly the competition for and contamination of the scarce water resources in these highly populated farming communities.
Though Glamis Gold and MEM attempted to block the communities' right to consultations in two distinct legal actions, the decision of the communities was clearly demonstrated. Organizers estimate that 98% of participants rejected mining, leading 11 out of 12 participating communities to draft community acts banning open-pit mining.
RULE OF LAW versus IMPUNITY
The consultation may be legally binding in Guatemalan law, despite the existence of mining concessions extended by the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM). This issue will be decided in the courts over the coming months or possibly years.
This is an important test case for the rights of indigenous peoples. Though the Guatemalan government has ratified International Labor Organization 169, and other international accords protecting the rights of indigenous peoples, virtually nothing has been done to regulate the implementation of the guarantees provided in these accords.
The Law for Development Councils, the legal basis for this consultation process, is the legislation that has most advanced in the codification of indigenous rights.
Both Glamis Gold and the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) were so worried about the communities' right to consultation and potential rejection of the mining concession, that on Wednesday, June 15 they both presented simultaneous lawsuits to stop the consultation. Glamis presented an injunction against the local Mayor in a first circuit court in Guatemala City and the MEM presented a separate lawsuit directly to the Constitutional Court.
Though MEM's petition to the Constitutional Court was rejected, the First Circuit Court in Guatemala City immediately issued an injunction ordering the Mayor to suspend the consultation. This was a completely irregular action for the First Circuit Court to take, given the custom of the courts to allow two weeks to review and respond to such requests.
However, since the COCODEs convoked the consultation, not the Mayor, the activities could proceed without legal impediment anyway. The ruling did cause confusion amongst voters since it was publicized on the radio and on printed flyers widely distributed the days before the consultation.
Though Glamis publicly alleged, in a communiqué with numerous errors, that threats of violence against mine supporters were being employed by consultation organizers, 75 national and international observers from a range of civil society organizations [see Declaration below] received no denunciations of threats and no threats were reported by the Police or the Justice of the Peace.
Changes in mining legislation throughout the region, promoted by the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank, have resulted in hundreds of new mining exploration and exploitation licenses throughout Guatemala, but as rural, mostly indigenous, communities learn of the licenses that affect them, they are organizing to protect themselves and their way of life.
In the coming weeks we will continue to report on this issue, and to support community efforts to promote and defend their rights to community-controlled development and to healthy and sustainable environmental policies.
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/30602/story.htmTURKISH GOLD MINE TO RESUME PRODUCTION
ISTANBUL - A Turkish court has overturned a ruling that suspended work at a controversial gold mine sold by US-based Newmont last month, paving the way for it to resume operations, the mine's new owner said.Production has been off and on at the Ovacik gold mine near Bergama in western Turkey for more than a decade amid environmental protests and legal challenges from local people over the use of a cyanide-leaching method for extracting gold.
Turkish printing group Koza Davetiye's construction unit ATP Insaat bought Ovacik from the world's largest gold producer Newmont Mining Corp for $44.5 million on March 1.
"Mining activities were halted while the court investigated the matter. A (higher) court has overturned that decision," Koza's chairman Akin Ipek said in a written statement last week.
"Therefore no legal obstacles prevent the mine from resuming production remain," Ipek said.
He said he expected to receive permission soon to reopen Ovacik, whose latest stop-work order came in August 2004 following a renewed legal challenge.
Ipek said daily testing at the mine over the past three years had shown it presents no risks to the environment or the health of residents.
Ovacik was established in 1989 as Eurogold. It became Normandy Mining in 2001 and briefly extracted gold before a court order stopped it. Australia's Normandy merged with Newmont in 2002.
Story Date: 28/4/2005
WASSA COMMUNITY COMPLAINS ABOUT CYANIDE SPILLAGE
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=70919
Accra, Dec. 1, 2004 GNAThe Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM) on Wednesday said several people in the Bogoso community have developed various health related problems due to cyanide spillage into water bodies in the area by the Bogoso Gold Limited, which occurred on October 23, this year.
'Mr Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, Executive Director, WACAM said about 35 people have been identified with health problems, 15 suffering from various ailments by drinking and eating fish contaminated by the cyanide spillage.
At a press conference in Accra, Mr Owusu-Koranteng said cyanide spillages were indicative of irresponsible mining practices and failure of environmental management system of a mining company.
"We condemn such irresponsible mining practices because of the huge legacies that they live for the communities in particular and the country in general after mine closure," he said.
Mr Owusu Koranteng said vital natural resources like water and a clean environment were being lost because of such bad mining practices, adding
"These are violations of peoples' constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment and such practices are not in tune with sustainable
development".WACAM's Executive Director demanded that the Environmental Protection Agency made the final report on the recent cyanide spillage of the Bogoso Gold Limited available to the public.
From Northern Territory News: November 21, 2004
CYANIDE FEARS
By SUELLEN HINDE
ENVIRONMENTALISTS and residents fear 500,000 litres of cyanide has been emptied into the Edith River from the abandoned Mt Todd mine site near Katherine.
Residents downstream from the mine say cyanide solution inside two of three storage tanks has been emptied out of the tanks by workers."The tanks are empty and have been moved for salvaging," one downstream resident said.
"But no one knows where the cyanide is.
"That is what I have been told from someone working there.
"When the rains come this could cause enormous damage to fish and marine life -- and what about what it could do to the water we use for irrigation?"
The Territory Government Mines Department maintains the cyanide is still in storage tanks at the mine, which ceased operation in July 2000.
The third storage tank contains 400,000 litres of cyanide solution. There are plans to shift the contents of the third tank to a tailings dam.
"But that dam is leaking and with Wet rainfalls it overflows regularly," Environment Centre of the NT co-ordinator Peter Robertson said.
Mr Robertson said Edith River -- which flows into the Ferguson River and then the Daly River -- was under serious threat from cyanide, heavy metal and acid water pollution from the mine.
He said the handling of clean-up and rehabilitation was a fiasco and the mine was a toxic time bomb.
"Issues surrounding the clean-up of the Mt Todd mine near Katherine are so serious that an independent Commission of Inquiry under the NT Inquiries Act is needed to investigate and provide government and the public with a full, open and honest report," he said.
Mr Robertson said other issues included how to manage the massive stockpile of waste rock -- 40 million tonnes spread over 75ha -- which was causing "acid rock drainage" and has the potential to damage aquatic ecosystems and downstream water users.
The Government has admitted proper site rehabilitation would cost as much as $20 million.
Mines Department deputy director Richard Jackson said the cyanide tanks had been sold to salvagers Aussiequip Pty Ltd.
"We have no information that the cyanide has escaped to the environment and as far as we are concerned it is still in the tanks," Mr Jackson said.
He said removing the cyanide was very expensive so it "will more than likely be put into a tailings dam".
Aussiequip on-site manager Colin Freeman said the cyanide had not been moved.
"But it doesn't belong to us, it belongs to the Government -- we bought the tanks but not the cyanide," Mr Freeman said. "We are not responsible for it.
"We keep saying to them: 'remove it from the tanks'."
From ABC Online, Wednesday 10 November 2004
Govt, Opposition vote against mine cyanide ban
The NSW Government and Opposition have both voted not to ban the use of cyanide in the state's mines.
The Greens introduced a bill into Parliament last month to ban the chemical that is to be used at a gold mine at Lake Cowal near West Wyalong.
The bill was unanimously defeated in the Upper House yesterday.
Greens' MLC Lee Rhiannon says the use of cyanide is an environmental disaster waiting to happen and the same company that is completing preliminary works at Lake Cowal has already had a spill at its mine in Western Australia.
Ms Rhiannon says the fight to ban cyanide in the state is not over yet.
"This debate isn't over, in Montana in the USA they have banned the use of cyanide in mining," she said.
"We've seen a spill...associated with the Barrick Gold Company that wants to mine gold at Lake Cowal, that occurred in Western Australia. It's a dangerous product, it should be banned when it comes to mining and the Greens will continue on this issue.
WASSA ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITIES AFFECTED BY MINING
Tel 233 22 200585
email: wacam@ghana.com
STATEMENT BY WACAM ON THE CYANIDE SPILLAGE BY BOGOSO GOLD LIMITED (GHANA)
WACAM wishes to bring to the public notice the cyanide spillage of Bogoso Gold Limited (BGL), a Canadian Company, which occurred on Saturday 23rd October 2004.
The spillage was from the new tailings dam of the company into river Aprepre and other rivers including Egya Nsiah, Benya and Manse. These rivers flow into the big river Ankobra.
The cyanide spillage has affected Dumase town, and other communities like Goloto, Juaben, Kokofu, Egyabroni etc.
Residents of Dumase and other villages found dead fishes, crabs, shrimps and other life forms floating on the river in the morning of 23rd October 2004. Some of the community people had harvested the dead fishes and eaten them before they had information about the spillage. This indicates that the company did not even know that the spillage had occurred.
The human rights violations and environmental problems of Bogoso Gold Limited have been a source of conflict between the communities and the company for a long time. We wish to recall that in 1991, there was a cyanide spillage by Billiton Bogoso Gold now Bogoso Gold Limited(BGL).
According to the report of the Cyanide Investigative Committee set up in 2002 by the government of Ghana to investigate the Cyanide spillage of Goldfields Ghana Limited and other cyanide spillages, the committee did not obtain much information on the 1991 cyanide spillage of Billiton Bogoso Gold now Bogoso Gold Limited.
Already, the operations of Bogoso Gold Limited have resulted in the death of five rivers in Dumase and most of the communities in the area have no source of drinking water. For example, the boreholes constructed by the company for Dumase community turns blue-black when the water from the boreholes comes into contact with plantain and cassava. The boreholes were constructed for the community to replace the destruction of the five streams of the Dumase community by the operations of BGL. Other communities in the concession of the company perceive their rivers as polluted by the operations of the company.
Residents of some communities on the concession of BGL had to voluntarily abandon their cocoa farms and other properties and relocated to other communities because the company was insensitive to their complaints about cyanide spillages and the effects of the old tailings dam.
Ghana has recorded more than nine cyanide spillages since the liberalisation of the mining sector and WACAM expresses grave concern about the impact of such cyanide spillages on mining communities. Cyanide spillages affect community livelihood and have other socio-cultural effects on mining communities especially rural women. We must recognise that community lives are physically, economically, emotionally and spiritually bound to their rivers. Pollution of such water bodies through cyanide spillages means loss of income, loss of reliable source of proteins for rural people and communities get traumatised.
Unfortunately, there had been attempts by the mining industry and their allies to downplay the effects of cyanide spillages and to create the impression that because cyanide degrades with time, its effects last for only some few hours in rivers. This impression overlooks the long-term social, economic, psychological and the chemical pollution effects of cyanide spillages. Some of these effects are almost permanent and the nation is going to inherit these legacies after the mining boom is over. This has implication for the economy of the country and development in general.
The spate of cyanide spillages in Ghana is indicative of bad mining practices and WACAM calls on Parliament to take all these community issues into consideration when discussing the new mining bill that is going to be placed before Parliament very soon.
WACAM calls on government and the communities to hold Bogoso Gold Limited responsible for the impact of the cyanide spillage, which includes the loss of livelihood and loss of access to drinking water.
Daniel Owusu-Koranteng 23rd October 2004
Executive Director
October 19, 2004
Local Group Takes Cyanide Debate to NSW Parliament
Today, the Lismore based Rainforest Information Centre (RIC) teamed up with the Greens NSW to bring Mining Amendment (Cyanide Leaching) Bill 2004 to Parliament as a matter of urgency. The Government supported the Greens’ motion to have the Bill debated.
“Cyanide is lethal,” said Ruth Rosenhek, co-Director of RIC. “Its use in gold mining puts humans, precious waterways, flora and fauna seriously at risk as leaks and spills from mines are frequent.”
Cyanide Leaching Bill 2004 would prohibit the recovery of gold, silver and other metals by cyanide leaching of ore in new mining projects such as the Cowal Gold project.
“With the Cowal Gold Project now entering its construction phase, an estimated 6000 tonnes of cyanide is scheduled to be transported each year, beginning in early 2005, from Queensland to the edge of Lake Cowal,” said Ms. Rosenhek
“For at least 8 years, 25 tonnes of cyanide would be trucked to the site most days of the week. According to the NSW Roads and Transport Authority, on average 1 out of 10 trucks has an accident each year. Clearly this is an unacceptable risk.
“Cyanide leaks and spills and the damage wrought by these accidents has previously been under-reported both in Australia and overseas. Since the year 2000, dozens of incidences involving cyanide leaks and spills have been reported worldwide sometimes wiping out entire river systems as in the case of the Tisza and Danube Rivers in Romania and Hungary.”
“These sorts of accidents are just as likely to happen in countries with strong environmental protection measures such as the USA and Australia.
“Despite government assurances that the Timbarra Gold Mine located in western New South Wales was a world best-practice mine, there were overflows from the toxic wastewater ponds into the surrounding creeks on a number of occasions in early 2001.
“There is nothing in place to prevent a tailings pond disaster from occurring at the Cowal Gold Project in the same manner as it did at the Northparkes copper-gold mine (Parkes, NSW) which saw thousands of birds killed in 1995 due to a failure in monitoring cyanide levels.
“In fact, the Cowal Gold Project tailings ponds do not meet Australia’s best practice standards which recommends small tailings ponds cells to ensure effective monitoring and emergency management. Not only are the Cowal Gold Project tailings ponds huge (1.3 km x 1.3km), they are situated on a floodplain.”
“Cyanide has been banned in the state of Montana which reported 62 spills or leaks of cyanide between the years 1982 and 1998.”
Thousands of NSW residents have signed a petition asking for an end to the use of cyanide leaching in gold and silver mining.
The matter was adjourned and the Bill will be debated at the end of October.
For further information, contact Ruth Rosenhek on (02) 66213294 or ruthr@ozemail.com.au
Visit www.rainforestinfo.org.au/gold/cyanide.htm for details of Cyanide Bill 2004
see also: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200410/s1223640.htmSydney - 19 October 2004
Greens warn on cyanide spill threat to NSW roads
The Greens will today seek to ban cyanide-based gold and silver mining in NSW, warning that only a total ban can prevent an environmental disaster unfolding at a cyanide leach mine like Lake Cowal and even on a major NSW highway.
Greens MLC Lee Rhiannon will seek to introduce her Private Member’s Bill to ban cyanide-based mining when Parliament sits at 2.30 pm today.
“Cyanide-based mining has caused disaster after disaster around the world in the past decade, yet the Carr Government is prepared to run that risk in NSW,” said Ms Rhiannon.
“Roads and Traffic Authority figures suggest that up to 10% of trucks are involved in a mishap in any given year. With 6,000 tonnes of cyanide travelling from Queensland to Lake Cowal each year, there is a grave danger of a poisonous spill on a major highway.
“By offering its support to the Lake Cowal mine, the Carr Government is putting mining royalties before public safety and the health of the environment,” Ms Rhiannon said.
The Rainforest Information Centre’s Ruth Rosenhek said: “New South Wales has the opportunity to become a world leader by outlawing this lethal and outdated form of mining.
“We’re calling on all MPs to consider whether they want a major cyanide spill on their consciences, and we urge them to support the Greens’ bill.
“The Timbarra Gold Mine in western NSW was supposed to be a world’s best practice mine, just like Lake Cowal. But in 2001 there were overflows from the toxic wastewater ponds into the surrounding creeks on several occasions.
“The US state of Montana had 62 spills and leaks between 1982 and 1998 before finally banning this kind of mining. Let’s learn from that experience, not repeat those mistakes.
“There is no protection in place for the environment and communities if a cyanide spill occurs. The only form of cure is prevention, and that’s why we should ban cyanide-based mining right now,” Ms Rosenhek said.More information: Hans van Leeuwen (02) 9230 3551, 0425 310 562
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Measure would undo ban on mining
By SUSAN GALLAGHER - Associated Press Writer - 10/19/04
FORT BELKNAP AGENCY - You don't have to look far on Montana's Fort Belknap Indian Reservation for reaction to the cyanide mining initiative on the Nov. 2 ballot.
The ''No on I-147'' signs are front and center in the tribal council chambers, prominent at Fort Belknap College and part of the scene at the Lodge Pole senior center 30 miles away, in the reservation's interior.
Initiative 147, repealing a voter-approved ban on the use of cyanide in gold and silver mining, has a high profile at the Fort Belknap reservation because of the Zortman-Landusky gold mine complex on its southern border. Acid-mine drainage from the abandoned cyanide operation is the top environmental issue for the reservation's Assiniboine and Gros Ventre tribes.
For some of Montana's voters, I-147 is a referendum on the mining industry itself.
Supporters say passage would encourage new mining, with its high-paying jobs, and the cyanide process can be used without environmental damage.
Opponents resent corporate efforts to undo what voters approved in 1998, and say cyanide contaminates water, harms neighboring property and leaves taxpayers on the hook for cleanup.
''If that (I-147) goes through, the first thing they're going to do is start mining up here again,'' said Ken Lewis, an Assiniboine on the Fort Belknap Tribal Council. ''The jobs aren't worth the damage it's going to do.''Montana is the only state with a ban on cyanide heap-leach mining, said Warren McCulloch, an administrator in the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.
I-147 advocates say extracting gold by rinsing piles of rock with cyanide is necessary to process low-grade ore economically. Passing the measure would tell the North American mining industry it is welcome in Montana, they say. ''Oro y plata'' - gold and silver - are prominent on the state seal, but mining's glory days were decades ago. State labor statistics show mining today accounts for only about 3 percent of the state's economy, even
with coal factored in.''If I-147 were defeated, it officially sends the message ... 'stay out of Montana,' whether cyanide would be used or not,'' said Tim Smith, manager of the Helena area's Montana Tunnels mine owned by Apollo Gold Corp., of Denver.
Another Colorado company, Canyon Resources Corp., is bankrolling the campaign to pass the initiative, which made it on the ballot after supporters gathered enough signatures.
Canyon Resources wanted to develop a cyanide gold mine near western Montana's Blackfoot River, fabled in Norman McLean's ''A River Runs Through It.'' But the company's plans came to a halt when voters passed the cyanide ban six years ago, 52 percent to 48 percent. Still aiming to develop the mine, the company projects 14 years of metal production and employment spanning at least 20 years.
''Would it be a mine?'' asked Richard DeVoto, Canyon Resources' chief executive and a former geology professor at the Colorado School of
Mines. ''Yes, it would be a mine, and those who are opposed to mining would be opposed to it. Cyanide is truly not the issue.''The initiative is the latest in a series of industry efforts to undo the cyanide ban, efforts that included a lawsuit in federal court. The Montana Environmental Information Center also asked the Montana Supreme Court last summer to order I-147 off the ballot.
State officials say that at Zortman-Landusky, often held up as a model of mining gone wrong, the biggest environmental problem is metals-laced water that must be captured and treated to avoid polluting streams.
''There is very little cyanide remaining in the water at Zortman-Landusky,'' said Wayne Jepson, a DEQ hydrologist who sees no end to the need for water treatment. How to pay for it is uncertain.
For people at Fort Belknap, there's no escaping the fact that the cyanide process was instrumental as Pegasus Gold Corp. calculated the economics of mining at Zortman-Landusky, then decided to proceed. The company mined in the 1980s and '90s, filed for bankruptcy in 1998 and forfeited a reclamation bond of $30 million, well below what cleanup and water treatment actually costs.
''There will be poison water coming off that mine site in perpetuity,'' said Jim Jensen, director of the Montana Environmental Information Center. ''It has to be treated and someone has to pay for that water treatment. It isn't the company that created the problem - they've gone bankrupt and gone away, and their bond was insufficient. So it will be the taxpayer who will continue to pay.''
The mining industry touts cyanide as safer than other solutions for extracting gold and silver from ore, and says the concentration for mining is only 2.5 times stronger than cyanide in almonds.
The Zortman-Landusky mines inarguably were a ''heap-leach screwup,'' said Smith, on the steering committee for the pro-initiative Miners, Merchants and Montanans for Jobs and Economic Opportunity. But he added miners use cyanide safely in this country and others. He contends that pointing to Zortman-Landusky as an example of trouble to come is unreasonable.
''If there were no regulations in place, yeah, it would be very high risk,'' Smith said. ''But what is being proposed with I-147 are a number of safeguards that would virtually eliminate the possibility of an extraordinary event.''
DEQ says that while the initiative spells out some measures offered as safeguards and would put them into law, they are practiced already. At Fort Belknap, tribal officials dismiss claims of safety nets. They also find little concern beyond the reservation for issues such as environmental damage disrupting Indian spiritual practices tied to the land.
Cooling summer splashes in Little Peoples Creek near the gateway to Mission Canyon have been a customary part of a Fort Belknap childhood. Today, though, some adults worried that mine drainage taints the water hold kids back, said Dean Stiffarm, tribal liaison on the Zortman-Landusky issue.
''We don't even know if our berries are safe enough to eat,'' said Catherine Halver, 75, a longtime tribal voice on environmental issues.
A 1998 study by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry found ''nothing flowing from the mine sites that would warrant people not engaging in those activities,'' said Scott Haight, who works on Zortman-Landusky issues for the Bureau of Land Management in Lewistown.
Voters should defeat I-147 because ''these people cannot come into Montana, rape this state and leave,'' Halver said at the Lodge Pole senior center. ''Pure and simple. This is our home.''
Initiative 137, the cyanide ban that I-147 would reverse, passed after industry found itself quieted by a 1996 law prohibiting corporate spending to support or oppose ballot measures. A federal judge overturned that law less than two weeks before the 1998 election.
''The mining industry had its hands tied while environmental groups were playing on emotions about poisoning fish and people,'' Smith said.
''This time, we're coming out like gangbusters.''
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Sunday, October 3, 2004 · Last updated 10:23 p.m. PT
U.S. in mine dispute in Peruvian Andes
By RICK VECCHIO
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
CAJAMARCA, Peru -- Gerardo de la Cruz, a 42-year-old farmer, is one of thousands who spent two weeks blockading a U.S.-run gold mine in the Andes, the latest example of the uneasy relationship between Peru's rural poor and the mining industry.
The siege of Latin America's largest gold mine was lifted Sept. 17 after Peru's Mining Ministry struck a deal to postpone the search for ore pending a study of the impact mining could have on the water supply to de la Cruz's village. But Yanacocha, 51-percent owned by Denver-based Newmont Mining Corp., still has a serious image problem to overcome.
"The mine here is interested only in money - hauling off gold - and nothing else," de la Cruz said.
The blockade of the mine's access road was sparked by fears that new mining on Cerro Quilish, the mountain where Yanacocha had started exploratory drilling, could deplete and contaminate water supplies.
Yanacocha isn't the first mining company to run up against broad public opposition. The government last year withdrew permission for Canada's Manhattan Minerals Corp. to develop the Tambogrande gold and copper project in northern Peru that called for uprooting a third of the local townspeople.
Yanacocha, acknowledges it underestimated the concern over water, but points to an independent study that said its operations pose no immediate health threat and isn't to blame for decreased water supplies.
Mining is key to Peru's economy, which has been growing at about 4 percent annually since President Alejandro Toledo took office in 2001. Mining provides about half of Peru's more than $11 billion in exports this year, but directly employs only about 70,000 of Peru's 27 million people, mostly in remote regions.
For years, Yanacocha has provoked resentment among the area's 140,000 inhabitants, in part because it hired only about 1,260 of them.
For many like de la Cruz, who ekes out a living raising a few head of cattle and growing potatoes and carrots, Yanacocha represents only the downside of boomtown economics: a higher cost of living and increased crime and prostitution.
But water is the most explosive issue for farmers, who accuse Yanacocha of contaminating and drying up water sources that irrigate crops and sustain dairy production. They claim some waters downstream from the mine are now putrid, and that the company has refused to reopen one diverted irrigation canal, leaving 160 families dry.
Community relations were also greatly damaged in June 2000 when a mine contractor spilled 335 pounds of mercury in a small town south of Cajamarca, sickening 1,100 people whose damage claims are now in U.S. courts. Yanacocha spent $14 million cleaning up the spill.
"The frogs, ducks and trout we used to have in the Rio Grande are gone," said Segundo Briones, a community leader, referring to one of three rivers that drop down from the mining operations. "We won't be fooled anymore."
Since 1993, Yanacocha has operated an open pit mine on a plateau about 13,000 feet above sea level, nine miles from Cajamarca, a small Spanish colonial city 350 miles north of Lima. The company uses cyanide and massive amounts of water to extract gold from ore piled on impermeable barriers designed to prevent toxins from seeping into the ground.
Yanacocha blames water scarcity on drought and points to the study that was commissioned by the World Bank and completed last year by Colorado-based Stratus Consulting Inc. The 20-month study determined the mine didn't cause water supplies to drop, and posed no "imminent short-term danger of illness or death to people, livestock, or crops."
It said the mine could be responsible for killing fish and other water life, but added that the greatest health threat was from human and animal waste.
Newmont, Yanacocha's owner, has global operations that make it one of the world's biggest mining companies. Its spokesman, Doug Hock, said Yanacocha underestimated water concerns but was eager to work more closely with the community on the new water study.
He said Yanacocha, which yielded just under 3 million ounces of gold last year, paid about $140 million in Peruvian income tax, of which half goes to Cajamarca's government.
In the last 11 years, Yanacocha independently financed the construction of 35 schools, built miles of road and brought electricity and drinking water to remote communities, Hock said, adding the company has poured tens of millions of dollars into Cajamarca's economy through local suppliers to the mine.
Still, Antonio Brack, a leading Peruvian ecologist, blames Yanacocha and the government in distant Lima, which he says gives short shrift to the region's traditions and water needs and thinks of its people as "poor peasants, period."
VICTORY WITH INJUNCTION AGAINST THE JUNIN MINING CONCESSION, ECUADOR
This past 22 May 2003, the 8th civil court judge of Imabura ruled in favor of the Municipality of Cotacachi, Ecuador, on the constitutional injunction it presented to declare the Junín mining concession illegal!! This will mark the first time in Ecuador a municipal government has taken this legal action to stop a mining project from taking place. The action is firmly backed by all 6 township governments of the Intag area- site of the proposed copper mine- and additionally supported by 24 non-governmental organizations, and dozens of communities.
The judged agreed with the injunctions arguments that the sale of the concession violated basic constitutional rights to the people living in and around the proposed mining area; including the right to be previously consulted about the project, and the right of all Ecuadorians to live in environment free of contamination and ecologically balanced.
Most of the mining area is rich in primary forests belonging to one of the planet's 25 biological Hotspots- the Choc-Western-Ecuadorian Hotspot. In addition, the forests protect the habitat of dozens of endangered mammals and birds- including Jaguars, Spectacled Bears, 2 species of monkeys, Mountain Toucans, in addition to protecting dozens of pristine watersheds used by several communities. The Environmental Impact Study compiled by Japan's Metal Mining Agency also called for severe contamination of streams and rivers with lead, arsenic, chrome, cadmium, copper and nitrates, and the relocation of 4 communities in order to make room for the mine.
In 1997, seven communities around the mining area united to stop the mining project from completing the exploratory activities. A subsidiary of Mitsubishi, Bishimetals (now Mitsubishi Materials) was carrying out the exploration together with the government mining agency Codigem, when the communities decided to take matters into their hands. This was a direct result of government's and the company's lack of responsibility for their welfare. On May 15th, after carefully removing and inventorying all the equipment, over 200 communities members burned down the mining camp (the goods were eventually returned to the government).
The communities, much stronger in their opposition than 6 years ago and aided by international, national, and local organizations like DECOIN (Defensa y Conservacin Ecolgica de Intag), will resist any new efforts of mining companies to return to spoil their rivers, destroy their forests and livelihood, and divide their communities. Furthermore, since the passing of a new, and strict County Ecological Ordinance, mining companies will find it impossible to legally set up shop in Cotacachi County.
The Ministry of Energy and Mines has appealed the decision, and the case is set to go to the Constitutional Tribunal in Ecuadors capital- the highest court empowered to decide on constitutional questions.This latest legal action by the Municipality of Cotacachi sends a clear signal to mining companies all over the world, that the Intag area, and Cotacachi, are permanently OFF LIMITS to mining.
DECOIN
Defensa y Conservacin Ecolgica de Intag
PO BOX 144
Ecuador, Imbabura
http://www.decoin.org/
593 6 648 593
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
ROMANIAN PM RELUCTAN TO SUPPORT CANADIAN GOLD MINE PROJECT
Associated Press , July 10, 2003
Bucharest - Romania's prime minister said Thursday he was "very reluctant" to support a Canadian-funded gold mine project in his country because of environmental concerns. It was the strongest criticism to date from government officials about the mine planned in the Apuseni Mountains in northwest Romania."I've seen the report . . . and I didn't like it," Prime Minister Adrian Nastase told reporters, referring to a parliamentary evaluation of the
project which cited environmental and ecological risks. Mr. Nastase said he asked the environmental and interior ministers to further investigate the possible environmental effects of the project.Toronto-based Gabriel Resources Ltd. is backing plans to mine parts of Rosia Montana, an area in the Apuseni Mountains. The project would rip out a swathe of the mountain range and force the relocation of hundreds of residents. Mining can't start until the government grants the company the necessary ecological permits.
Environmentalist groups urged authorities to stop the project, saying it would be damaging for the region. Gabriel Resources said it would use technology that prevents pollution.
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030710.wgabriel0710/BN
ANTI-MINING SENTIMENT GAINS GROUND IN ARGENTINA
http://www.miningnews.net/MNN4_StoryView.asp?StoryID=15315
MINING in Argentina has been set back following a revolt by residents of a small southern town over Meridian Gold‚s plan to develop the US$720 million El Desquite mine in Patagonia... (22 April 2003)
CALIFORNIA ADOPTS TOUGH MINING RULES THAT MAY SPELL INDUSTRY'S END
http://www.enn.com/news/2003-04-11/s_3799.asp
11 April 2003
By Don Thompson, Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. The Gold Rush state adopted the nation's toughest restrictions on open-pit metallic mining Thursday. The industry said the new restrictions will virtually eliminate large-scale gold mines in California.
The regulations approved by the California State Mining and Geology Board require mining companies to refill new open-pit metal mines when they're depleted and flatten mine waste piles back to nearly the natural landscape mandates miners say are too expensive.
Now large commercial operators will look to other states to mine gold and other precious metals, said California Mining Association Manager Adam Harper.
"The mining of the state mineral has pretty much been made impossible by this regulation today," Harper said.
Board members said the new regulations essentially implement the intent of a law on the books since 1975 that said pit mines should be restored to beneficial use.
Local governments have often defined depleted mines as open space, landfills, recreational lakes or water recharge basins rather than requiring they be restored. But the steep walls make many mines useless for recreation, the board said. And environmental groups say cyanide used to leach precious metals from lower grade ore can turn the pits into toxic lakes.
Several high-profile mines stand to lose, including one near a sacred Indian site.
Courtney Ann Coyle, an attorney for the Quechan Indian Tribe, applauded the regulations. The tribe has waged an eight-year battle against Glamis Gold Ltd.'s proposal to mine federal land near the tribe's Fort Yuma Reservation.
Glamis, meanwhile, is considering a legal challenge to the new regulations. It also could seek state reimbursement for the lost value of its property, Glamis Senior Vice President Charles Jeannes said.
Source: The Associated Press
NATION'S TOUGHEST OPEN-PIT GOLD MINING REGULATIONS CONSIDERED
http://www.bakersfield.com/state_wire/story/2757089p-2806576c.html
By DON THOMPSON, The Associated Press
Wednesday March 12, 2003, 04:10:08 PM
SACRAMENTO (AP) - California is considering adopting the nation’s toughest restrictions on open-pit gold mining, a move environmentalists applaud and the mining industry says would virtually eliminate metal mining in the Gold Rush state.
The California State Mining and Geology Board’s proposed regulations would require mining companies to refill all new open-pit metal mines, and provide financial guarantees so taxpayers wouldn’t be stuck in the event the company defaults.
The emergency regulations were prompted by Glamis Gold Ltd.’s proposal to mine federal land near the Fort Yuma Reservation of the Quechan Indian tribe near Winterhaven, on what the tribe considers sacred land. The mine could leave an open pit 4,700 feet by 2,700 feet, and 800 feet deep, along with piles of waste rock a mile long and up to 300 feet high.
Also affected could be Canyon Resources Briggs Corp., which mines on the border of Death Valley National Park in the Panamint Mountains. The company is seeking permission to explore mining federal land five miles north of its current mine, a move opposed by the Timbisha Shoshone tribe and environmental groups.
“These regulations would make California a model for what the rest of the country should be doing,” said Christie Whiteside, of Great Basin Mine Watch. Courtney Cuff of the National Parks Conservation Association said the regulations would protect California’s beauty “from the scars of open pit mining.”
The environmental groups said the cyanide used to leach precious metals from lower grade ore can remain behind when the huge mines are closed. If a mine fills with water, it can become a toxic lake that, unlike pits left by other mining, can never be used for recreation or wildlife.
Industry representatives said the regulation could make it too expensive for metal mining in California.
“You’re essentially approving a ban on metal mining in this state,” California Mining Association attorney Patrick Mitchell said when the regulations were proposed in December.
State law already requires that mined areas be returned to a usable condition, and that public health and safety problems be eliminated. But the mining board now says the stricter backfill regulations are needed to meet the goals of that law.
The pending regulations would require that the mine “must be reclaimed to a condition that approximates the natural conditions of the surrounding lands and topography.”
The mining board is hearing public testimony Thursday in Sacramento, and accepting written comments until April 1.
MINERS SEE LOOPHOLE IN GOLD BAN - COSTA RICA
Monday, March 03, 2003 17:04 (GMT-0400)Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco's decree banning open-pit gold mining in the Central American republic continues to provoke
controversy. According to the country's mining chamber, the problem is that the decree prohibits gold exploration and open-pit mining specifically, but not that of other minerals."So if anyone applies for a permit to explore for gold they are not going to get one, but they could get one for silver, copper, anganese or any other mineral," mining chamber president Franz Ulloa told BNamericas. As gold often accompanies other minerals, the implication is that those wishing to explore for gold will simply apply for a permit to mine another mineral.
Ulloa denied the ban, announced last June, had anything to do with the use of cyanide. "This only goes to show the ignorance and lack of knowledge about the process used in mineral processing, as in order to extract copper, silver or other metals, cyanide has to be used. So why just ban gold?" he asked.
The original declaration by President Pacheco caused an element of legal uncertainty nationwide as it was unclear if the ban could be applied to projects for which permits had already been granted. The environment and energy ministry said that permits acquired before the decree was announced would not be affected by the measure, although the government also said it wanted to "negotiate" with the companies involved so even those projects would not be developed.
According to the mining chamber, new projects could still be built within the framework of sustainable development, as long as the social structures and environmental norms are maintained and the country's economy reaps
benefits.Costa Rica also enjoys potential for the mining of industrial minerals, according to the head of the country's state mining authority, Cynthia Cavallini. Despite the fact that gold mining is on hold, "there is potential for quarrying and mining of non-metallic minerals in public places such as rivers," she told BNamericas.
In fact, she said industrial minerals mining is well developed in Costa Rica, with a large number of concessions awarded for extracting sands, rocks and other construction materials, for buildings or roads.
The state has awarded numerous concessions to companies that extract industrial minerals, with a view to boosting road building, "which is a priority for the government," Cavallini said..
By Harvey Beltran
BNamericas.com
Bs. As. Herald
Date: Sun, 9 Feb 2003 09:57:17 -0300
By Bonnie Tucker
Herald staffESQUEL CITY COUNCIL BANS CYANIDE
Opponents of a gold mining project in Esquel yesterday celebrated a small victory in their ongoing battle with their mayor and the governor of Chubut, who back the undertaking despite its environmental and life quality implications for local residents.
On Thursday, the Esquel City Council passed ordinances that ban the use and transport of cyanide within city limits, revoke the city ordinance accepting national laws on mining investment, and call for a popular referendum on the mine to be held by March 23 at latest, six days before the oft-postponed public hearing on the issue is scheduled to take place.
The mining project was not originally on the eight councillors' agenda, but it appeared when 1,500 irate residents told them that if they didn‚t address the issue, they wouldn‚t leave until they had all resigned.
"Compared to the situation a few months ago, when the majority in the Council was in favour of the mine, this is a big little victory," said Lino Pizzolón, a limnologist who works for the Water Ecology Lab of the University of Patagonia in Esquel.
THE WATER WAR
The conflict with the El Desquite mining company ˜ which belongs to Meridian Gold, a Canadian multinational based in the United States ˜ is basically over the water supply of this city (pop. 30,000) and surrounding farms. The fate of the region‚s environment, including the nearby national park that draws tourists, is not yet a leading issue.The company wants to strip-mine gold at the top of the southern end of Esquel range a little over 6 km from the city, the airport and the La Hoya ski resort (see map). It wants to use cyanide to separate the ore from the rock. The cyanide would be stored in pools atop the range, as would the polluted waste rock in a dump (escombrera). It is believed that Lake Esquel would be used as a tailings dam for liquid wastes flowing down two streams from the mine site ˜ another potential source of aquifer pollution.
The main technical problem is that the Esquel range is a watershed that is riddled with faults and fissures, and full of water; springs gush out of it at all levels, flowing down the mountainside to form streams and lakes and, in some cases, rivers that flow into the Atlantic and Pacific.
The residents‚ existential problem is that they get their drinking water from an aquifer and little Lake Willimanco at the foot of the Esquel range; this reservoir lake is fed by both surface and ground water. During the dry summer months water is scarce, and during drought years even scarcer. Farms also rely on streams that flow down from the range.
Esquelonline.com, the only Esquel Website listed in the province‚s official Website directory, is giving a blow-by-blow account of the water war against the mine. One of its documents is the Berlin Declaration on Gold Mining Using Cyanide Process, which reports eight
major transport accidents and ruptures or leakages of cyanide dams that took place between 1993 and 2000 in the United States, South Africa, the Philippines, Guayana, Kirghistan and Romania.When the mining company applied to the province for a permit to use public water in its Esquel operation, the local 16 de Octubre cooperative that runs the city's public services contracted Fernando Máximo Díaz, a Buenos Aires-based geologist specialized in
water movements through geological formations, to determine whether the project could affect drinking water.Using existing bibliography, the preliminary and environmental impact studies prepared by professionals contracted by the mining company, and his own observations, Díaz said that one third of the aquifer to be used by the mine corresponds to the most water-rich
part of the Willimanco basin, and when the dam winds up its operation nine years from now, the water that is no longer pumped into Lake Esquel will flow back into the reservoir lake, carrying heavy metals and other pollutants (the so-called "acid drainage"). Hence, he insisted that mine water be pumped away from this reservoir forever following mine closure.Díaz also said that the explosions of the mine could reinitiate the faulting process in the 20-km-long mountain range and open up new fissures interconnecting ground water sources.
As a result of his findings, dam opponents have demanded that proper hydrogeological studies be made in and around the range to prove that this possibility is indeed remote before the mining project is approved. The provincial Water Resources Board said the cooperative
(i.e. the potential victims of the mining project) will have to pay the cost of such studies.Díaz told the Herald that the company's studies "neither contemplated nor evaluated" such matters as possible acid drainage into the reservoir after mine closure or a possible hydrogeological connection between lakes Willimanco and Esquel.
"Their study covered only the southern end of the Esquel range where they want to operate," he said. "They didn't study the fault systems in that range and the adjoining Leleque range." Such a study could reveal if the mining explosions could possibly trigger avalanches in the ski resort or open water-bearing fissures capable of transporting pollution to outlying farms or the rivers and lakes of the Los Alerces National Park 50 km away.
The "siege" of the City Council was the high point of an effervescent Thursday that included a demonstration of 3,000 people in front of the mining company's offices and the newspaper El Oeste which backs the mining project. The protestors later paraded through the
city streets until midnight.A similar anti-mine demonstration earlier this month included city councillors of the Catamarca town of Andalgalá who are worried about the acid drainage that they say is already taking place in the basin where Bajo de la Alumbrera, an open pit gold mine similar to the one Esquel might have on its doorstep, has been operating for several years.
The mayor has vowed to veto any move toward a referendum, saying it is necessary to "create jobs."
But the mining company has not promised to contract local workers. So the national and provincial governments will be footing the bill for their training so they will be taken into account.
Czechs Ban Cyanide Mining
From Mineral Policy Center - (August 11, 2000)Move Comes Months After Deadly Cyanide Spill Killed All Aquatic Life in 250-mile Stretch of Danube River - The Czech Senate on Wednesday voted to ban the use of cyanide heap leach technology in mining.
The ban comes in the wake of the deadly cyanide spill in Romania in late January that was considered to be the world’s worst ecological disaster since the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown. In that spill, 3.5 million cubic feet of mine waste contaminated with cyanide and heavy metals was released into a tributary of the Danube River from a gold mine operated by Australia’s Esmeralda Exploration. That disaster killed all aquatic life in a 250-mile stretch of the Danube.
Cyanide heap leach technology is the standard technology of the gold mining industry. It involves the spraying of cyanide-laced solution over ore heaps. Cyanide acts as an agent to separate the rock from gold.
There are dozens of active gold mines in the U.S. that use the cyanide heap leach process. There are hundreds more abandoned mines in the U.S. that used the process and continue to emit high levels of pollution.
The problem prompted the citizens of Montana to pass an initiative banning the process at new mines. Citizens in several other states including Colorado and Wisconsin are considering such initiatives. Internationally, citizen opposition has blocked this mining technique in the Pergamon region of Turkey.
"This action should be a wake-up call for the industry," said Mineral Policy Center President Stephen D’Esposito. "The public’s allergy to cyanide used in gold mines will continue to spread until mining companies demonstrate that they can mine responsibly, in a manner that protects our rivers and our ecosystems."
The Czech Senate’s cyanide-ban clause has made it through several steps of the legislative process and can not be affected any more.
COLORADO INITIATIVE MISSES DEADLINEBad news just in: Proponents of a ballot initiative in Colorado that would ban surface gold and silver mining using cyanide processing reagents missed last week’s deadline for submitting the requisite number of signatures to appear on the ballot in Nov.
Signatures are required to be submitted to the Sec. of State’s office in order for such inititives to appear on a general election ballot.
"My congratulations go to Anglo Gold North America, the Colorado Mining Association and all the other folks who worked so hard to bring the downfall of this ill-conceived proposal", NMA Pres. and CEO Richard Lawson said. "Their efforts really paid off in telling people of Colorado how important mining is to the state’s economy and how modern mining is being done in an environmentally sound manner. Anglo Gold and its allies, including CMA, deserve all the credit on this one."
Stuart A Sanderson, pres. of the CMA, said the proponents of the anti-mining initiative "just could not gather sufficient support for their effort. Opposition to the proposal grew larger than support for the initiative."
It is understood that Colorado law prevents the anti-mining groups from reproposing this initiative until the year 2000
Gold
Campaign | Coalition | Cyanide | Lake Cowal |
Youth | Rainforest Information
Centre