- Argentina: The struggle against mining takes on different forms

The struggle of the people of the town of Esquel, in the Argentine Patagonia, against the intentions of the Canadian mining company, Meridian Gold Inc. to exploit a gold mine in Cerro 21, have been going on for over seven months now. Ranging from mobilizations to "escraches" (mass demonstrations outside the homes of those responsible for the mine), from a plebiscite and legal action to the symbolic closing down of the access to the camp, from the graffitti and murals to the parliaments of the Mapuche People and the "No! Forum". This Cordilleran city, located 2000 km to the south-east of Buenos Aires has become a national reference for the struggle against mining and encroachment by the corporations on the country's economic and political life.

This town, located in the north-east of the Province of Chubut, hosted the "First "No!" Forum" organized by the Assembly of Self-Convened Neighbours of Esquel (Asamblea de Vecinos Autoconvocados de Esquel - VAE). Members of human rights, trade union, social, indigenous, environmentalist, and women's assemblies and organizations, community communication media and platforms against the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) and the consequences of neo-liberal globalization, gathered there from 4 to 7 June. The same struggle against mining and for the preservation of the environment that has enabled many of the inhabitants of Esquel to understand the demands of the Mapuche People and support them, has paved the way for the 4-day "No to the Mine" forum to become "No to FTAA, to the auctioning of Patagonia, to evicting aboriginal families, to the handing over of natural resources, to the "judicialization" of the social conflict, to the war." All these NOs synthesized a "YES to life."

Although over the past months no further threats have been made to those neighbours who have become "anti-mine" referents, neither have the members of the Workers Building Union of the Argentine Republic (Unión Obrera de la Construcción de la República Argentina - UOCRA) and other sectors close to the Provincial Government continued with their intimidations, tension has now been transferred to the Mapuche communities. During the middle of March, the local police attempted to evict the Fermin family of the Vuelta del Rio community. The operation included the total destruction of a house, although the Esquel Court Judge, Jose Colabelli said he had only ordered the "eviction" of the indigenous family. It is now possible that an impeachment process will be started against the magistrate because of his presumed aversion for the Mapuche People and because his wife is the owner of a quartz mine in the region.

In this same area, to the north-east of Chubut, some 20 families of the Cushamen indigenous community have been notified of prospecting by the Teck Argentine company (a subsidiary of the Canadian company, Teck Gold), which is interested in locating first and second category minerals over an area of 10 thousand hectares. The Cerro Centinela community (on the Andean Cordillera) have also received notification of the intention to prospect another 10 thousand hectares, this time not in the arid (but living) steppe, but in an area of forests and springs.

In the meanwhile, the misleading provincial legislation, sanctioned after the plebiscite held on 23 March (in which 81% of the inhabitants of Esquel said No to the Mine), has become evident. In fact, it was made known recently that very few environmental NGOs will sit on the commissions regulating the standard prohibiting open cast mining and cyanide leaching, although exception zones will be foreseen. The neighbours of Esquel and the region will be excluded from the debate, as they do not enjoy a legal status. The authorities' spirit has once again been shown up: to play at listening to the people but to govern behind their backs.

Furthermore, the recent election of the Justicialista candidate, Nestor Kirchner as President of Argentina has given rise to varied expectations. His Patagonian background has fuelled hopes in some, as has the apparent honesty of his public management. However, others do not forget that when he was Governor of Santa Cruz, he initiated exploitation of the Cerro Vanguardia gold fields.

Presently, the works at Cerro 21 have been halted because of the court sentence, although this does not imply that Meridian Gold has given up the Cordón Esquel Project. The company declared that it would take a year to redesign their communication strategy and to revert their poor image. Until it achieves this, it will move its administrative enclave to a village in the plateau.

Meanwhile, the Esquel neighbours are seeking new ways and opportunities to express and enrich their opposition to exploitation of the gold mine. These range from the local assembly to a debate on global society, from the plebiscite to the Mapuche Parliament, from the march to the mural. Resistance to the mining project takes on various forms and continues its projection towards the rest of the country.

By: Hernán Scandizzo, e-mail: herscan@data54.com

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- Chile: Campaign against a Canadian project for the production of aluminium

Presently, the Chilean Patagonia is threatened by a mega-project to be carried out by the Canadian transnational company Noranda Inc., a long-standing mining company that proposes to build one of the largest aluminium reducing plants in the world in the pristine region of Aysen.

To give an idea of the dimensions of the damage that the construction of this aluminium plant (known as "Alumysa") will cause, the zone where it is to be installed together with the related works, need to be described.

Aysen is one of Chile's 13 regions, and covers an area of over 10 million hectares (108,494 km²), of which 4.8 million hectares are native forests, 1.1 million are wetlands and 1.8 million hectares correspond to snow covered areas and glaciers. It is important to note that it is the region of Chile having the greatest extension of native forest.

According to the last census carried out in 2002, the human population in this region amounts to 86,697 inhabitants, a density of 0.8 inhabitants per km². The inhabitants of the Aysen region are concentrated in some urban centres, the largest cities being Coyhaique and Puerto Aysen, the latter located very near the place where the converting plant is to be installed.

This part of Chile is remarkable because it maintains characteristics that are hard to find today, such as thousands of hectares of forests and pristine ecosystems with species of fauna and flora that are unique in the planet, clear skies and pure air, non-contaminated lakes and rivers. In addition to the natural wealth of flora and fauna, many glaciers can be found in this region such as the San Rafael lagoon and Campos de Hielos, considered as one of the major freshwater reservoirs in the world.

The region is also characterized by its enormous natural beauty, and year by year the number of national and foreign tourists who arrive in the search of unique landscapes and places increases. It should also be noted that the inhabitants of the region value the natural heritage of their territory and for this reason call it "Life Reserve."

It is within that context that the mega-project "Alumysa" pretends to be implemented. The project presently undergoing environmental impact assessment implies at least the construction of an aluminium reducing plant, the building of three hydroelectric plants and six dams to supply electric energy to the plant (Rio Cuervo hydroelectric plant, Lake Condor hydroelectric plant and Rio Blanco hydroelectric plant), a port at Bahia Chacabuco and a landing stage and floating dock. As if this were not enough, the project also includes a plant to manufacture anodes and cathodes, 79 kms of electric transmission lines from the power plants to the plant itself, and 95 kms of roads and decantation lagoons for liquid effluents.

The Alumysa project, belonging to Alumysa Joint Venture and NORANDA Holding Ltd., domiciled in the Cayman Islands, proposes to invest US$2,750 million, placing it as the greatest foreign investment in the history of Chile for a project with a 50-year shelf life.

What is incredible is that only 101 million dollars of this project will be used to build the major works and 350 million dollars will be used for labour, while most of the remaining 2,200 million dollar investment will be used to purchase machinery to operate the plant. This seems curious, if we consider that there are special laws in Chile for extreme regions (such as Aysen) facilitating the importation of machinery with very low import taxes.

If we add to this that companies classified as mining companies in Chile do not pay taxes as there are mechanisms to encourage the installation of this type of enterprise dating back to the Military Dictatorship, we easily come to the conclusion that this is a magnificent business for this foreign transnational company and a further attack on the ecology and economy of a third-world country.

The following important background information, describing the economic and ecological attack, is important to note:

- Chile does not possess the necessary raw material to produce aluminium: it will have to be imported. During the operational stage, annual production would amount to 440,000 tons of aluminium per year, requiring the importation of approximately 846,000 tons of alumina, 146,000 tons of burnt coke, and 43,500 tons of tar, brought in from other countries such as Australia, Brazil or Jamaica.

The aluminium production process requires a great amount of electric energy and the abundance of water resources existing in the Aysen region will enable electricity to be generated at a very low cost as, unlike the first world, the national water code gives free access to these resources.

- To produce 440,000 tons of aluminium per year, Alumysa will need to import 1,100,000 tons of inputs, both for the production process and for the manufacture of anodes and cathodes. A simple subtraction will enable us to see that a minimum amount of 660,000 tons of waste per year will be generated in the region.

- Furthermore, for 365 days a year, massive and continuous releases will take place of toxic gases, such as sedimentary particulate fluoride, organic particulate material (which is highly cancerigenic), greenhouse effect gases (carbon dioxide, perfluorocarbon), sulphuric gases causing acid rain, carbon monoxide and a great amount of liquid industrial effluents.

- On producing 440,000 tons of aluminium per year, 980,000 tons of carbon dioxide will be generated, therefore over 50 years, this would reach the amount of 49,000,000 tons of CO2, added to the perfluorocarbon type gases which are highly dangerous due to their duration and contaminating effects, increasing the greenhouse effect and global warming.

- To this should be added a non-assessed amount of methane and CO2 produced by the dams on flooding almost 10,000 hectares of land with organic matter.

Summing up:

- Chile has comparative advantages for foreign investment due to its weak legislation in terms of low environmental, labour and tax requirements.

- The environmental, social and economic costs for the region are enormous. Alumysa implies the destruction of ecosystems that are unique in Chile and in the world. The production of aluminium generates the release of fluorides in the air and in the water, placing at risk the zone's biodiversity, the terrestrial and aquatic flora and fauna and human health.

- The region's forests are unique ecosystems in the planet and are characterised by many endemic species, of which various are endangered. In Chile, most of the fresh water fish are endemic and their conservation is to a certain degree threatened. The Alumysa project will increase this risk.

- This region would be used as a corridor in the production of aluminium and as a rubbish dump for the region, because raw material will be imported to carry out a highly contaminating production process, the profits will be taken away and the rubbish left behind, including toxic waste and highly contaminating releases in the air and in the water.

- This means that we are clearly facing a case of mining "maquila" (sweatshops), in which a first world country will use the benefits of an open economy such as the Chilean one. All this is taking place with the approval, the blessing and even the clear support of well-known Chilean politicians, among whom, we may mention the Minister of Finance.

For these reasons, environmental and citizen organizations in Chile have set up the Aysen Life Reserve Alliance to say: Alumysa? NO THANKS!!!!!

By Flavia Liberona, e-mail: coordinacion@noalumysa.cl , web site: http://www.noalumysa.cl

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- Colombia: The impacts of coal mining

During the late seventies Carbocol, a State coal company, revealed the existence of major coal deposits in the Guajira peninsula. The deposits were located in the territory traditionally inhabited by the Wayuu community, an indigenous nomadic people that moved along the region bordering with Venezuela. Following a long controversy on the advisability or not of exploiting this fossil fuel, the State finally gave its authorization to this company under the argument of regional development of energy. This authorization for large-scale mining exploitation of thermic coal (used for the production of heat) not only altered the Wayuu's customs and contaminated their environment, but was also the antecedent for a long list of violations of the Colombian State's regulations and for conflicts between the indigenous peoples and the national and multi-national mining companies.

The Wayuu's productive system, based on small-scale farming, the keeping of goats and other species, was then totally disrupted to facilitate the installation of the largest coalmine in the world. The major works for the transportation of 16 million tons per year of coal (roads, railways, large encampments) not only transformed the traditional life of these people but also contaminated their environment. The storing of a large mass of coal out in the open resulted in the dispersion of large quantities of coal dust in the air, causing respiratory diseases. As a result, very often the only alternative left for survival consisted of the communities' mass displacement.

In spite of the complaints over environmental and health problems, from the eighties onwards, the mining business was increased with the establishment of the multinational company Esso, who were granted deposits by the State. Over the same period, further deposits were made known in the Department of Cesar and new coal mining companies were set up. Through partnerships with multinational companies, large-scale deposits such as those of Carbones del Caribe, Carbones Soororia, Carbones del Cerrajon were exploited, with the participation of Anglo-American and Canadian companies (Drummond, Glencore International, BHP Billiton, among others), which continue to expand and to receive World Bank loans up till the present.

It is clear that these companies have obtained considerable profits over decades. As to the results for the indigenous peoples and Colombian communities, we prefer to let a local organization - CENSAT - speak for itself: "The wealth of the Colombian territory is being dilapidated without turning into welfare, comfort, into a life for the Colombian people. The value of the natural heritage in the collective imagery of the indigenous people, the peasants, the Afro-Colombians, the miners, has been lost and now underlying in a repetitive way in their imagination is the idea of "exploitation," exploitation of men, women and children, of nature, of the Colombian people and territory. Around mining in Colombia, one breathes sadness, laziness, corruption, lack of ethics, environmental and cultural genocide and violations of all kinds. We are confident that some time the good life will come back 'for many', that the trees and the land will become organized from the top to the bottom and not from the bottom to the top as is the case at present, that the waters will stop being heavy and dark and that men and women will again be able to die of old age."

Article base on information from "Reseña histórica de la explotación carbonera en el Caribe Colombiano" by Ignacio Rangel; http://www.cerrejoncoal.com/ingles/the_operation/about_us/our_history/ ;
http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/IFCExt/spiwebsite1.nsf/0/a8263668130ddddb85256d1a007d4e79?OpenDocument ; http://www.censat.org/