Horse Feathers: <<[ban] cyanide, another [toxic] leaching [is used]>>
Environmentally friendly Haber Gold Process.
(Business Week, New York, 19/04/99, Page No:72)
The mining industry hopes to repeal Montana's recent ban on cyanide
for extracting precious metals from ores.
But Orex Gold Mines Corp is staking its future on
the environmentally friendly Haber Gold Process.
Independent tests show the Haber Gold Process
extracts more gold, faster than cyanide does.
Haber Gold Process's solvent is non-toxic enough to gargle.
haberscience.com
igc.apc.org
LATIN AMERICAN & CARIBBEAN MINING NEWS as of September 30, 1999
ECUADOR: Mining could oust oil as biggest money-earner.
By Kintto Lucas
QUITO, Sep 9 (IPS) - Mining could soon replace Ecuador's
petroleum industry as the main source of revenue.....
Lacking the mining development of its neighbours,
Ecuador currently produces some 10 tonnes of gold annually,
but less than one tonne is officially reported.
The other nine tonnes are sold on the informal market.
"Ecuador could be very competitive in this aspect,
since operating costs, in some cases,
could be as low as 100 dollars per ounce...
The report was released as miners in Nambija,
a small town on the outskirts of the biggest mine
in the Amazon province of Zamora Chinchipe,
handed over their gold operations to the
Canadian firm Mining Andos SA.
According to studies by the Ecuadorian Institute of Mining,
Nambija has gold reserves amounting to 900 metric tonnes.
... if investments are made in the extraction of minerals
from Zamora Chinchipe a level of development could be achieved
similar to Peru, where private investment in mining will top
16 billion dollars in the year 2000.
Minister of the Environment, Yolanda Kakabadse
stressed the importance of changing the methods
of extraction in the mines, which are contaminating
local rivers with mercury and other chemical byproducts.
The miners asked for greater control by the government
over the foreign companies which exploit the nation's
mineral resources, particularly regarding
"the contamination they produce and the low salaries...
Source: [c] 1999,
InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS).
All rights reserved.
May not be reproduced, reprinted or posted
to any system or service outside of the APC networks,
without specific permission from IPS.
This limitation includes distribution via Usenet News,
bulletin board systems, mailing lists, print media and broadcast.
For information about cross-posting,
send a message to ips-info@igc.apc.org.
For information about print or broadcast reproduction
please contact the IPS
coordinator at ipsrom@gn.apc.org.
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GUYANA: Gold mine and residents up in arms again - August 19
By Bert Wilkinson
GEORGETOWN, Aug 19 (IPS) - Harry Lallbachan, 42, cultivates a small
piece of land along the western Essequibo River, downstream from Omai
Gold Mines.
Like most of the few hundred people who live in this community,
Lallbachan depends on the 450 km-long river for drinking water, fishing
and other domestic uses.
But he says his world changed on Aug 19, 1995 when a dam holding 30
months of cyanide-tainted mining waste sprung leaks at several points,
dumping more than 3.2 million cubic metres of the substance into the
country's largest waterway.
Once the dam broke, parliament ordered an immediate closure of mining
operations and declared the area an environmental disaster zone.
It allowed operations to recommence after six months, after a commission
of inquiry had taken evidence about the spill and amidst calls from
opposition parties and environmental groups for the mine to be closed
permanently.
But seemingly lost in all this over the years was the voice of more than
23,000 people who live in communities downstream from the mine, owned by
Cambior Inc of Montreal, Canada and Golden Star Resources of Denver,
Colorado.
For years residents, many of them indigenous Amerindians, have been
complaining about developing skin rashes and other health problems they
blame on daily contact with the river located about 140 kms west of the
city.
The residents say the authorities have turned a deaf ear to their
complaints and the company has ignored them, disclaiming responsibility
for those illnesses.
Many say they suspect periodic and legally permitted discharges of
treated waste the company vows is safe, could be the reason for these
illnesses.
"My entire body has rashes all over and I get really sick, " says
Lallbachan." I have tried several doctors, including those from the U.S
army which visited the area and even they don't know what is wrong with
me. Their ointments and medicines don't work. "
The farmer spoke this week as lawyers for residents were filing a writ
and statement of claim against Omai. They are asking for 100 million
dollars in damages on behalf of the 23,000 persons who are dependent on
a river they fear is still polluted.
" This is what you call environmental racism, " says Lovern Benn, a
mother of two, whose two-year-old child has already developed rashes on
the arms and other parts of the body.
Lawyers moved to the local courts just days before the fourth
anniversary of the Aug 19 spill and also just in time to beat the
expiration of the statutes of limitations to file their case.
As they filed, about 500 residents, transported across two rivers to be
at the court house, held placards and called for justice.
A Dutch group, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature,
provided the money to bring the residents out from their communities.
The move to the local courts follows the dismissal of a case in the
Canadian courts last year brought by Canadian environmental groups.
The organisations had sought to have the company face charges in a
Canadian jurisdiction where fines are much higher than those imposed by
juries in Guyana. A judge ruled against them, hence the hurry to beat
the August deadline for filing, says Attorney Mortimer Coddette.
Barring Tuesday's demonstrations in downtown Georgetown, almost nothing
is carried in the local media about the plight of riverain residents.
Richard Bowen, 65 of Riversview, 55 kms downstream from Omai, contends
that the river is definitely polluted and that about 10 percent of his
community of 650 persons is down with some form of illness everyone
associates with the 1995 spill.
" We have men in our area who have become impotent. We worry about the
next generation and about some of the women in our village. The men
can't do what they have to do. The company should be made to stop using
cyanide or to be forced to leave the country permanently, " says Bowen a
village leader.
For its part, Omai spokesperson Seeta Mohamed argues that the company is
not responsible for any illness among residents, saying there was never
any threat to life even at the height of the spill because the waste was
treated and met Canadian and U.S safety requirements.
" We are not responsible. This suit is being filed here because they
lost in the Canadian courts last year. We conduct water quality tests of
the river every week and it is meeting international standards, " says
Mohamed.
The class action apart, local lawyers have persuaded hundreds of
individuals to pursue claims in the courts.
As the company with the largest single foreign investment in Guyana -
253 million dollars- authorities have recognised the firm's contribution
to the economy estimated at 25 percent of the Gross Domestic Product
(GDP).
More than 1,000 persons are employed at the mine, 90 percent of the
workers are Guyanese. The company produces 300,000 ounces of gold per
year and has been able to survive the current price crisis in the
industry primarily because most of its production has been presold.
It aims to open a similarly large mine in neighbouring Suriname, but the
Maroons - descendants of runaway slaves - say they are not impressed
with its safety record and are worried that what happened in Guyana four
years ago could also happen in Suriname.
Source: [c] 1999, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS). All rights
reserved. May not be reproduced, reprinted or posted to any system or
service outside of the APC networks, without specific permission from
IPS. This limitation includes distribution via Usenet News, bulletin
board systems, mailing lists, print media and broadcast. For information
about cross-posting, send a message to ips-info@igc.apc.org. For
information about print or broadcast reproduction please contact the IPS
coordinator at ipsrom@gn.apc.org.
COLOMBIA: U'wa Tribe wins legal expansion of territory - Drillbits &
Tailings August 25
The U'wa Indian tribe of Colombia has won legal title to a significant
portion of their traditional territory in the northeastern corner of
Colombia, near the Venezuelan border.
This represents a significant victory for the U'wa who have been
fighting off oil exploration by Occidental Petroleum for the past
several years. While the new reservation represents only 14 percent of
their original territory, the U'wa continue to demand that all of their
traditional land remain free from oil projects.
"As we recover part of our territory that you are formally handing over
to us today, we request absolute respect for our position to not allow
any oil exploration or production (on our traditional lands) either
inside or outside the territory that has been legally recognized as
ours," said Roberto Perez, President of the U'wa governing body, at a
government ceremony intended to celebrate the creation of the Unified
U'wa Reservation.
The Colombian government is currently considering a request from Los
Angeles-based Occidental to drill on U'wa traditional lands. The U'wa
have threatened mass suicide if oil exploration proceeds on their land.
The larger U'wa reservation will span parts of central Boyaca and
northern Norte de Santander, Santander and northeast Arauca provinces.
Under Colombia's Constitution, Indian tribes must approve mining and
resource extraction on their lands.
In October 1998 Occidental applied to the Colombian government for an
environmental license to drill an exploratory well on the Samore block.
If permitted, the Gibraltar 1 well would be located just outside the
boundaries of the new reserve but within U'wa traditional lands. Local
campesino organizations have joined the U'wa in their rejection of the
proposed oil project.
Occidental's Samore concession is estimated to hold 1.5 billion barrels
of oil, or about three weeks worth of global oil supply. Occidental's
Cano Limon pipeline, which runs just north of the Unified U'wa
Reservation, has been bombed over 600 times in the past 12 years.
Earlier this year, three American activists were killed while working
with the U'wa. In a statement reacting to those murders and expressing
concern over the violence that oil projects bring, the U'wa Traditional
Authority said, "We demand from the national government and the
multinational oil company, Occidental, an official declaration of
cancellation of the oil exploration and exploitation projects on the
U'wa traditional territory."
SOURCES: "U'wa of Colombia Uphold Opposition to all Oil Drilling as
Tribe Granted Expansion of Legal Territory," Press Release, U'wa Defense
Working Group, August 24, 1999; "Colombia gives oil land to Indian
Tribe," by Karl Penhaul, Reuters, August 20, 1999.
This story was reprinted from "Drillbits and Tailings," a mining, oil
and gas update published twice-monthly on-line by Project Underground,
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA USA 94703. Project Underground says:
"Feel free to cross-post anything in D&T. Articles in D&T that are not
footnoted or sourced should be credited to Project Underground when
reprinted." To join the on-line mailing list for D&T, contact
project_underground@moles.org. Drillbits and Tailings requests a
subscription fee from those who are in a position to pay for the
service, including institutions and organizations. Visit Project
Underground's website for back issues and other info. Project
Underground is a human rights and environmental organization that
supports communities threatened by the mining and oil industry.
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