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Gold/Mining/Energy : Mining News of Note -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LoneClone who wrote (40880)	7/31/2009 6:11:35 PM
From: LoneClone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 193893

Guatemala, Goldcorp in spat over cyanide imports Thu Jul 30, 2009 7:36pm EDT reuters.com By Sarah Grainger GUATEMALA CITY, July 30 (Reuters) - Operations at a Guatemalan gold mine owned by Canada's Goldcorp (G.TO) risk being disrupted after the government blocked the mine's cyanide imports in a dispute over a fee, a legal advisor for the company said on Thursday. The Guatemalan environment ministry ordered Goldcorp unit Montana Exploradora to stop importing cyanide from this week, saying the company had not paid for a license to do so. Jorge Sandoval, a legal advisor to Montana in Guatemala said the government was not correctly interpreting a 2005 agreement signed by Montana and the previous administration. "We think there's a quick and easy solution to this but if the environment ministry were to maintain a radical position, obviously the impact would be to paralyze activities at the Marlin mine," Sandoval said. Montana imports about 200 tonnes a month of cyanide for use in extracting gold at its Marlin mine, and Goldcorp says the mine has enough on hand to continue operations for at least a month. "We're in discussions right now .... We'll solve this," Steve Reid, Goldcorp's chief operating officer, told Reuters. As well as demanding the fee, the ministry claims Montana also owes 12.3 million quetzals ($1.51 million) for unpaid cyanide import taxes. "Montana has insisted on negotiating but this is not a bazaar, laws are to be obeyed, not negotiated," Guatemalan Environment Minister Luis Ferrate said in a statement. Mining projects in Guatemala often come up against local opposition from indigenous communities who contest land rights and fear potential environmental damage from toxic chemicals, such as cyanide, used in the industry. Marlin is set to produce 250,000 ounces of gold and some 4 million ounces of silver annually over the course of its mine life but has met with sporadic opposition since building began in 2004. Last month neighboring villagers set fire to two vehicles belonging to Montana. In 2005, a Mayan man was killed at a protest blocking a road transporting heavy machinery to the mine, and last year output was interrupted when a local resident tampered with a power line. ($1 = 8.140 quetzals) (Additional reporting by Robert Campbell in Mexico City; Editing by Marguerita Choy)