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S.O.S
- Patagonia Argentina!
A proposed gold mine in the
province of El Chubut - Patagonia has local people very concerned,
and international attention will help.
Almost all the
information is available in Spanish, nevertheless you can read
the information below for an introduction.
Click
here to send a petition to the authorities.
Argentina: Peoples and
forests threatened by Canadian mining company
The city of Esquel is located in an enclave
on the banks of the Esquel river, between hills with slopes forming
an impressive amphitheatre, set off by the marginal forests of the
sub-Antarctic forest region and in particular, the Valdiviana forest
in the Province of Chubut, to the West of the Argentine Patagonia.
Its 31,000 inhabitants live and enjoy surroundings that they describe
as a city where nature surprises travellers at all seasons because
of the landscapes of unusual beauty, thousand-year old trees, rivers
and hundreds of pools and lakes protected by enigmatic forests.
The city's inhabitants are proud to announce that they cultivate
respect and care of nature. They belong to a region where "we
who inhabit it, hope that our children and grandchildren can enjoy
it."
This feeling does not seem to be of much
importance to those promoting the installation of a mining plant
using cyanide treatment for gold exploitation at only 5 kilometres
up-river from this beautiful city. Unfortunately, this is only the
first of many mining extraction projects that will affect the whole
Patagonia Andean region and in general, all the Argentine and Chilean
Andes Cordillera, thanks to the privileges granted to multinational
companies with the Mining Integration Treaty, signed in December
1997.
Gold mining is one of the most destructive
and contaminating activities. Works in Esquel in particular would
be extremely depredating, as they would be done by dynamiting 42,000
tons of rock per day, of which 3,000 tons would be ground to dust
and then treated with sodium cyanide dissolved in water. As a result,
the consumption of water would immediately increase, with the potential
depletion of rivers, lagoons and springs used in the fields and
in the city.
It is expected that there would be sound-related
problems due to the explosions and generation of dust, particularly
during the summer, together with risks of accidents of all kinds
during the transportation and use of these enormous quantities of
cyanide, considered as one of the most potent poisons known, in
addition to sulphuric acid and other lethal compounds. The inhabitants'
quality of life would be enormously affected, as stated in a recent
report prepared by the National Network of Ecologist Action, RENACE.
The complete text of this report may be found in http://www.wrm.org.uy/paises/Argentina/esquel.html
. Additionally, the tourist potential of this region, renowned internationally
for its pristine nature, would be irreversibly affected.
Making use of the facilities and privileges
granted by the government --such as total tax exoneration-- Meridian
Gold, a multinational company with majority Canadian capital owner
of 90% of the shares of the Argentine company, El Desquite S.A.,
would obtain profits in excess of 1,000 million dollars, "in
exchange for some dozens of work-posts and practically non-existent
royalties," the RENACE report also claims.
The company has spared no measures to
convince the local population that there will be no contamination
or toxic emissions, boasting about the myth of Canadian companies'
environmental responsibility. However, it is well-known that it
is only a myth, as "the worst social and ecological impacts
of the past fifteen years can be ascribed to some of the country's
[Canada] biggest enterprises, backed by their most respected private,
financial, and governmental institutions", according to the
WRM report on Canadian mining companies, available at http://www.wrm.org.uy/publications/mining.html
Both reports contain examples of the
irresponsible action of the companies and of the resulting environmental
disasters. However, the companies use all kinds of methods to prevent
the population from reacting while they "empty the mountains":
they take them to visit other countries, give talks to the community
and threaten those who oppose them.
The same scheme has been repeated in
Esquel. A group of neighbours recently travelled to Antafogasta
in the North of Chile, as guests of the company, to visit a mining
project carried out in the middle of the most arid desert in the
world, that in no way can be compared to the neighbouring Los Alerces
National Park, where forests of over 2000 years old of Fitzroya
cuprossoides grow, a true natural shrine.
The Municipal Auditorium of Esquel was
also the scene of a shameful conference --due to the accumulation
of errors and inaccuracies-- given by a representative of Dupont,
one of the companies that will possibly be selling the cyanide,
while local representatives of the Mining Office distributed Dupont
leaflets and the Director of Mining himself helped to project the
slides.
To complete this picture, Dr. Silvia
González, a teacher and research worker at the National University
of Patagonia, received threats by telephone after having presented
the city's schools with a scientific paper on the effects of cyanide.
In spite of all this, this community,
like the communities of Tambogrande in Peru, Los Encuentros in Ecuador,
Plananlto in Colombia, San Carlos in Costa Rica, are ready to defend
their lands, their forests and their quality of life, and to demand
the national authorities not to allow this plundering to take place.
Source: WRM's bulletin Nº 64, November
2002.
Local people are saying
NO to cyanide heap leach gold mining, some of the reasons are:
1) Article 15 of Argentine Law Nº24.196
(substituted by article 4 of Law Nº25.429) permits that the
company accounts as capital 50% of the value of the mineral reserves
that are economically exploitable, leaving the other 50% as a reserve
of that value. This means that part of the capital that the company
accounted for as active, in reality is based on the value of the
mineral that is not yet been extracted from the mountains and that
there is no certainty that its extraction will be permitted.
2) The open sky gold exploitations, like
those that Meridan Gold does and proposes to do, use enormous quantities
of cyanide, that has caused tremedous environmental catastrophies
(Summitville, Colorado; Brewer, South Carolina; Harmony, South Africa;
Omai, Guyana; Gold Querry, Nevada; Los Frailes, Spain; Homestake,
South Dakota; Kumtor, Kyrgisztan; Tulukuma, Papua New Guinea; Santa
Rosa, Panama; Comsur, Bolivia; Bahia Mare, Rumania; etc.
3) When an environmental disaster occurs,
the companies cannot absorb the damages and go bankrupt. In the
Summitville catastrophy episode, the US Geological Survey estimated
the environmental damage repair costs to exceed some 150 million
dollars.
4) One of the Meridian Gold projects
is located in the Esquel Mountain Range, in Chubut, Patagonia Argentina.
In that country there does not exist any control organization that
has the efficiency and trust of the US Geological Survey nor of
the US Environmental Protection Agency and the levels of local administration
corruption is so high that official prevention controls are practically
inexistant.
5) In Esquel, employees of the Mining
Company El Desquite S.A. (property of the Meridian Gold Inc.) have
threatened the lives of a scientist who are informing the public
about the risks of the use of cyanide in the mine. Because of this
there has been initiated a campaign in defense of human rights.
6)The Municipality of the city of Trevelin
(a city in close proximity to Esquel) closed a clandestine laboratory
of Mineria El Desquite S.A. (property of Meridian Gold Inc.).
7) The population of the Province of
Chubut refutes the approval of the mining project for the Esquel
Mountain Range. Every day the amount of popular protests increments.
Of the 25,000 inhabitants of Esquel, more than 5,000 have already
signed a petition that authorities do not authorize the mining project.
These protests have already extended to other localities of the
province of Chubut.
8) In the city of Esquel, and in other
cities of Chubut, other public initiatives have been presented requesting
that authorities prohibit the use of cyanide, using as precedent
other prohibitions that are currently valid in Turkey and Montana,
USA.
9) In view of the public protests, authorities
have already had to delay twice the date established for the Public
Audience designated for reviewing the Environmental Impact Study
for the Esquel Range Project.
10) The public protests have caused further
political divisions in the Province of Chubut. Some representative
have presented legal projects asking for popular consent regarding
the Meridian Gold Inc. project. Some functionaries have already
been accused of corruption and the public is demanding that certain
authorities resign.
Source: Cristian C. E. Hendrickse - Environmental
lawyer from Chubut, Argentina
Click
here to send a petition to the authorities.
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