Guest guest Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 Dear friends who care about our earth, Judge for yourself if you want to take action. In the Valle de San Felix, the purest water in Chile runs from two rivers, fed by two glaciers. Water is a most precious resource, and wars will be fought for it. Indigenous farmers use the water, there is no unemployment, and they provide the second largest source of income for the area. A huge deposit of gold, silver and other minerals has been found under the glaciers. To get at these, it would be necessary to break and destroy the glaciers (something never conceived of in the history of the world). They would have to make two huge holes, each as big as a whole mountain, one for extraction and one for the mine's rubbish tip. The project is called PASCUA LAMA. The company is Barrick Gold. The operation is planned by a multi-national company, one of whose members is George Bush, Sr. (surprised?). The Chilean Government has approved the project to start sometime in 2006. The only reason it hasn't started yet is because the farmers have a temporary stay of execution. If they destroy the glaciers, they will not just destroy the source of specially pure water, but they will permanently contaminate the two rivers which will then never be fit for human or animal consumption because of the use of cyanide and sulfuric acid in the extraction process. Every last gram of gold will go abroad to the multi-national company and not one will be left with the people whose land it is. They will only be left with the poisoned water and the resulting illnesses. The farmers have been fighting a long time for their land, but have been forbidden to make a TV appeal due to a ban from the Ministry of the Interior. Their only hope now of putting brakes on this project is to get help from international justice.?The world must know what is happening in Chile. The only place to start changing the world is from here. We ask that you please circulate this message among your friends. Copy this text, paste it into a new email, add your signature, and send it to everyone you know. The 100th person to receive and sign the petition, please send it to: noapascualama to be forwarded to the Chilean government. NO to Pascua Lama Open-cast mine in the Andean Cordillera on the Chilean-Argentine border. We ask the Chilean Government not to authorize the Pascua Lama project to protect the whole of 3 glaciers the purity of the water of the San Felix Valley and El Transito, the quality of the agricultural land of the region of Atacama, the quality of life of the Diaguita people and of the whole population of the region. Signature, City, Country 1) Katharine Proudfoot, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK 2) Laura Cole, London, UK 3) David Platt, London, UK 4) Diane Platt, Manchester, UK 5) Tanya Corker, Manchester, UK 6) Shelley Ford, Dunedin, New Zealand 7) Christopher Wilson, Dunedin, New Zealand 8) Lisa Johnston, Dunedin, New Zealand 9) Carolyn Timms 10) Piripi Taylor, Aotearoa 11) Chanon McPherson, Auckland, New Zealand 12)Justin Traynor, Auckland New Zealand 13) Keith Stubbs, London UK 14) Minette Williams, London UK 15) hannahmi van der merwe, London UK 16) Filipa Domingues (Cape Town, South Africa) 17) Jess Reynolds, Cape Town, South Africa 18) Alexander Wilson, Cape Town, South Africa 19) Olivia Jurgens, London, UK 20) Dee Pinto, Johannesburg, South Africa 21) Errol and Imogen Weiner, Scotland, UK. 22) Barbara Abbot, Richmond, Virginia, USA 23) Gabriella Kapfer, Wantage, UK 24) Amshatar (Ololodi) Monroe, North Carolina, USA 25) Michele (Eaglewoman) Tuatagaloa San Diego, CA, USA 26)Jennifer Schauffler-Vircsik Clarkdale, AZ. USA 27)Andrew Schauffler-Vircsik Clarkdale, AZ. USA 28) Heidi Benson, Monterey, CA?USA 29) Jaguar Kukulcan, Auckland, NZ 30) Ramu Re, Honolulu, HI. USA 31)Laura Frisbie, North Carolina, USA 32) Kay Dresnok, Tennessee, USA 33) Lori Bilbrey, Georgia, USA 34) Elizabeth Vickers, Tennessee, USA 35) Fay Campbell, Tennessee, USA 36) Cailen Campbell, North Carolina, USA 37) Candice Carr Kelman, California, USA 38) Jonathan Hayes Carr Kelman, California, USA 39) Adrienne Stork, Maryland, USA 40) Kelli Fowler, Buffalo, NY USA 41) Patricia Barnard, WA, USA 42) Sheree Walters, WA, USA ps. I googled Pascua Lama and found the following articles on http://www.minesandcommunities.org I especially like how the last name of Barrick's spokesman is Borg. -Candice Doubts rise over Pascua Lama 10th January 2006 Chile: Presidential Candidates Voice Doubts about Pascua-Lama Project DIARIO SIETE, OCEAN PRESS RELEASE by Wanda Praamsma (editor) The future looks uncertain for the controversial Pascua Lama gold mine project in Chile's northern Region III. Environmental advisors to both presidential candidates now vying for office say their new, incoming government will not support the gold mine. The US$1.5 billion project, which straddles the Chilean/Argentine border, is proposed by Canada's Barrick Gold, one of the world's most important gold mining companies. In the run-off vote on Sunday, Chileans will choose between the centre-left candidate, Michelle Bachelet of the governing Concertación coalition, and billionaire businessman Sebastián Piñera, the conservative leader of the National Renovation (RN) party. Both candidates have voiced strong reservations about Pascua Lama because of the environmental risks it poses. The Pascua Lama project contemplates moving three glaciers in order to access vast reserves (17.6 million ounces) of gold and silver deposits. But environmentalists and some community leaders say the project risks contaminating the water supply and livelihoods of the farming communities in the Huasco Valley, directly beneath the proposed mine site. In December, Bachelet explicitly said her intention is to " protect the glaciers and not approve their removal and/or destruction. " In a recent interview with Diario Siete, Bachelet's environmental advisor, Manuel Baquedano, added that, " In Bachelet's administration, this project will be completely reviewed. Therefore, the future for (Pascua Lama) is uncertain. In my view, it will be very difficult for the project to go on as originally planned by the company. " Although less aggressively, Piñera's camp also expressed opposition to the mine, with his environmental advisor saying that the project will only move forward " in the event that the glaciers remain untouched and that contamination of all the water in the Huasco Valley basin is completely avoided. " Advisors in both camps said the project will only be viable if the local ecosystem is taken into account. " In the area of the glaciers where they want to intervene, they will have to make an underground mine " (rather than an open pit mine), said Antonio Horvath, an environmental advisor to Piñera. " They'll have to re-adapt the project and extract the minerals underground. " Bachelet's advisor agreed. The risks associated with Pascua Lama have outraged environmentalists and demonstrations have been held continuously since the project first came to the public's attention in August, 2004. On Jan. 6 dozens of protesters rallied outside the Canadian Embassy in Santiago's upscale Las Condes neighbourhood, holding flags that read " Stop, Arrêt Pascua Lama " and " No a Barrick, No a Pascua Lama. " Marcel Claude, the executive director of Oceana, the environmental NGO which organized the protest, said the protesters wanted Canadian authorities to hear their rage, especially because the mine will produce up to US$10 billion in profits for the Canadian company, and " do nothing for Chile except destroy its environment. " " Pascua Lama will probably not pay much in taxes (in Chile) and its impact in terms of jobs is insignificant, " Claude said in a press release. " Therefore, we can say with conviction that (Pascua Lama) will contribute absolutely nothing to Chile's development. " Aside from the political debate, the project has encountered numerous technical roadblocks, and cannot move ahead without the approval of the Regional Environmental Commission (COREMA). Barrick has submitted several versions of an environmental report to COREMA, addressing the risks the mine poses. Each time, however, COREMA has asked for revisions of the report. Most recently, on Dec. 30, COREMA asked Barrick, for the third time in the past year, to revise its 5,000-page environmental report and explain certain aspects of its plan to move the three glaciers. In the report, submitted in November, Barrick stated that the company will not move three glaciers to access the mine. Rather, the company asserted that the glaciers are really just " reserves of ice " and that five hectares, instead of the initial 10, will be intercepted by the company. The other five hectares, the company said, will diminish over time through natural melting processes, allowing the company access to the gold reserves (ST, Nov. 14). The environmental commission only gave Barrick one week to address COREMA's questions, leading the company to seek a five-day extension that ends today, Tuesday [January 10]. COREMA will most likely officially give a " yes " or " no " response to the project in February. In the whole of this long, drawn-out process, Barrick can only take credit for one success: the acceptance of the mine by the Huasco Valley's " Junta de Vigilancia, " a group representing 2,000 of the area's farmers. The Junta agreed to a protocol agreement with Barrick Gold that gives local farmers US$60 million in compensation, to be doled out over the course of 20 years. The money, a fraction of what Barrick stands to make if the mine goes forward, is meant to safeguard farmers' interests in the event that their water supplies are contaminated. Environmentalists called the arrangement a bribe. Still, COREMA director Plácido Ávila said the agreement between Barrick and the farmers will not have any weight in the evaluation of the project. " In the evaluation, only technical aspects will be taken into account. The agreement with the Junta is not environmental, therefore, it won't be considered. " -- Barrick Gold Faces Determined Opposition at Pascua Lama and Veladero 21st December 2005 http://www.miningwatch.ca Community groups on both side of the Argentina-Chile border are increasing their opposition to Barrick Gold's proposed Pascua Lama project in Chile, while criticism of its Veladero project already under way on the Argentinean side of the border is also mounting. There have been protests in both countries and even a blockade on the Argentinean side. Environmental Assessment Delayed Again On December 5, 2005, the Chilean National Environmental Commission (CONAMA) extended the deadline for review of Barrick's Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Pascua Lama project to February 16, 2006. The regional environmental commission, COREMA, must review additional information filed by Barrick and submit a summary of its findings to CONAMA for a final decision. Barrick submitted the EIS on December 9, 2004, but has repeatedly asked for the 120-working-day deadline to be suspended to allow it time to respond to COREMA's questions. If COREMA has further questions after reviewing Barrick's recently-filed second addendum, the company could ask to suspend the process again. See the actual files at http://www.e-seia.cl/seia-web/ficha/fichaPrincipal.php?id_expediente=1048260. Long-standing Opposition The Pascua Lama project has been categorically opposed by a broad cross-section of environmental groups in Chile as well as by many of the 70,000 irrigation farmers and small farmers whose livelihoods depend on the water originating in the glaciers at the mine site. Barrick had been working on the project since 1996, pushing for a " mining integration and complementation treaty " between Chile and Argentina that would make the project more lucrative by exempting it - and any other mines in the " border zone " sacrifice area along the spine of the Andes - from all tariffs and taxes, streamlining the acquisition of mineral rights, and allowing free transport of goods and material (including ore and wastes) across the border. The treaty was signed in December 1997, and in 1999 a " complementary protocol " was signed setting out the area covered by the treaty and allowing mining companied free access to water resources within the zone. Minera Nevada, Barrick's Chilean subsidiary, submitted the first EIS in 2000, neglecting to mention the three glaciers standing in the way of the projected open pit mine. The EIS had already been approved before the farmers of Huasco Valley discovered the details of what was being proposed, and they were alarmed by environmental and social risks posed by the project. The project was put on ice for four years due to low gold prices. When the project was resubmitted in 2004, the farmers began to organize against it, supported by church groups and environmental organisations, and backed by affected groups on the Argentinean side of the border - residents of the towns of Calingasta and Iglesia, as well as the wine producers in the province of San Juan. According to its latest information, Barrick is still planning to build an open pit mine, breaking up and moving the Esperanza and Toro 1 and 2 glaciers (or " ice reserves " as the company calls them to avoid acknowledging that they are glaciers). The only difference is that they will leave the Guanaco glacier, 2 kilometres to the south, alone rather than dumping the pieces of the other " ice reserves " on top of it. Protesters Attacked by Police A letter asking for the cancellation of the Pascua Lama project - with over 18,000 signatures - was presented to the President of Chile on November 11, 2005 but was met with police violence. Police charged protesters when they tried to place chunks of ice, representing the glaciers that the project will destroy, in the Plaza de la Constitución in front of the La Moneda government palace (see our web site for the text of the letter in English and Spanish). More demonstrations were held in Vallenar and Santiago on November 12. " Compensation " Deal Challenged In July, Barrick signed a " protocol agreement " with the Huasco Valley Monitoring Committee, representing irrigation farmers in the area. The agreement committed the farmers to bring their concerns about environmental issues like acid mine drainage and the effects of relocating glaciers before a technical committee the company would set up, rather than submitting their questions to the environmental assessment process - effectively promising to withdraw from participation in the public process. In return, Barrick agreed to fund projects worth $60 million - $3 million a year over the projected 20-year life of the mine - if the project is actually approved. The money would go to improve water supply, quality, and usage. Committee board member Mauricio Perelló is supported by a large group of Committee members in opposing the agreement, which was approved without ratification by the membership. The agreement has come under fire from many quarters for putting undue pressure on authorities to approve the project. Its critics included " the head of CONAMA " , according to a November 17 report from BNamericas. However, the previous day when MiningWatch Canada's Jamie Kneen asked Paulina Saball, Executive Director of CONAMA, whether the " protocol " undermines the environmental assessment process by removing key stakeholders from it, she replied that it is an agreement between third parties that the government had no power over, but that it would not affect the process. Saball was in Ottawa for a meeting of the Canada-Chile Commission for Environmental Cooperation, established under the Canada-Chile Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (CCAEC). Diaguitas Claim Indigenous Rights, Ancestral Lands On July 25, the Chilean Consumers' Organisation filed a complaint with the Organisation of American States (OAS) alleging that the Pascua Lama project poses a grave risk to the subsistence rights of the Diaguita indigenous communities in the area, and that the Chilean government would be breaking its international commitments if it approves the project. Specifically, the United Nations' International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights commit the Chilean government to give the Diaguitas water rights " special protection. " The Diaguita people have been waiting over a year for the bill recognizing their aboriginal status to be passed by the Chilean Senate. The Diaguita also claim that historical documents show that part of the Pascua Lama project is on ancestral Diaguita lands " irregularly " acquired by Barrick. See http://www.elmostrador.cl/modulos/noticias/constructor/noticia_new.asp?id_notici\ a=164693. Public hearing denounced as farce in Argentina The government of the province of San Juan announced on November 29th the opening of a new " time line for comments and questions " over the Pascua-Lama mining project now that " Barrick has presented some fundamental technical changes " , according to the provincial Subsecretary of Mining. See: http://www.diariodecuyo.com.ar/home/new_noticia.php?noticia_id=129856. Differing from the process of mining project Veladero, where there was a public hearing only after the official approval of the Environmental Impact Report of the project, the Provincial government decided this time to do a public consultation first. The responses by the public need to be presented in written form to the Provincial government, which will be in charge of approving or rejecting the Pascua-Lama Environmental Impact Report. For mining officials in the region of San Juan, this form of public participation is better than a direct referendum: the government prohibited a nonbinding referendum, open to the entire population, which was to be carried out in Calingasta with the help of the county superintendent. For many activists in Argentina, the Interdisciplinary Evaluation Commission (in charge of evaluating Barrick´s informs) is a farce, and the government is only waiting to see what happens in Chile before making public their own official decision to carry out the project. Veladero Mine Blockaded Meanwhile, on the Argentinean side of the border, the inhabitants of Tudcum blocked the road by-pass to the nearby Veladero mine on November 23, 2005. According to local media reports, they were upset that Barrick was not living up to its promises of employment, as over 20 local people had been laid off by a Zlato, a Barrick sub-contractor, with little possibility of further work for Barrick. More important the jobs, according to those reports, were the threats made by the contractor against municipal officials the prepotent arrogance displayed by the company, who had refused to deal with the issue. The local authorities themselves said they are equally concerned by the pollution produced by the mine, and were determined that no more truckloads of cyanide should go to the mine. On November 30 the police arrested Alfredo Díaz, President of the Neighborhood Union of Tudcum, and his sister Carolina, supposedly based on a complaint from a bus company, Autotransportes San Juan-Mar del Plata, who has been prevented from transporting workers to the mine due to the blockade. However, local people was concerned that the complaint and the arrests were spurious since Díaz said that no buses belonging to the company were travelling in the area while the blockade was in effect. According to local news sources Barrick's site manager, Julio Claudeville, maintains that cyanide is innocuous. Irrigation Farmers and Small Agriculturists of Pinte, Huasco Valley, Under Pressure A field team headed by Federico Mieres, representing the Huasco River Monitoring Committee in Alto del Carmen - the area affected by the Pascua Lama project - has been repeatedly pressuring members of the Diaguita/Huasco Altinos Agricultural Community and residents of neighbouring Pinte demanding that they cease supporting the administrative procedure currently underway that would force the General Water Directorate to invalidate the protocol of agreement signed between the Monitoring Committee and Barrick Gold. This protocol endorses the operation of the controversial mining project in exchange for $3 million annually over the 20 years of Barrick's projected operations in the area. This campaign of threats is a new strategy to weaken, to divide, and to intimidate those who legitimately defend their productive activities, their quality of life, and their ecological security. It is proof of how far Barrick is willing to go in its desperate efforts to develop this unsustainable mining project at any cost. The Chilean Government has remained a mere observer of an endless number of irregularities, instead of assuring that the social processes around the environmental conflicts are transparent, just, and free of illegitimate pressures. Signed: Sergio F. Campusano Villches, President, Diaguita Huasco Altinos Agricultural Community Latin American Observatory of Environmental Conflicts OLCA Village of El Tránsito, December 5, 2005 -- Barrick says to start building Pascua-Lama in '06 by Hilary Burke 10th January 2006 BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) - Canada's Barrick Gold Corp. said on Tuesday it expects to begin building its $1.5 billion Pascua-Lama gold mine project on the Chile-Argentina border this year, despite stiff environmental opposition and with government approval still pending. Barrick spokesman Vince Borg said construction would likely start after the Southern Hemisphere winter, which ends in late September. " We are counting on September as getting a full construction season in. That would keep us on line for our 2009 production start-up, " Borg told Reuters during a telephone interview, adding that 5,500 direct jobs would be created during the construction phase. Toronto-based Barrick (ABX.TO: Quote), slated after a pending merger to become the world's top gold miner, has been trying to prove for more than a year that the Pascua-Lama project in the Andes mountains is environmentally viable. A regional environmental commission in Chile asked Barrick to redesign the project and possibly turn part of it into an underground mine to avoid disturbing glaciers that lie over the area that Barrick wants to excavate. Barrick planned to submit additional information to Chilean environmental authorities before January 10 to further clarify how aspects of the mine plan would respect the environment. A final decision by authorities is expected by March. But Borg said even if a decision came early in the second quarter, the company would still plan to start building in 2006. Barrick is confident the ruling will be in its favour. " We think it's a very worthwhile project that will generate substantial economic benefits to the region and to San Juan (province) in Argentina, and it'll be done in an environmentally responsible fashion, " Borg said. The Pascua-Lama project, which plans to access 17.6 million ounces of gold reserves through an open-pit mine design, has generated controversy in Chile since Barrick opted to revive it over a year ago on a scale larger than a previously approved plan. Environmentalists fear the effects of moving glaciers and say the project will contaminate water resources in northern Chile. Glaciologists cited by Barrick recently redefined the glaciers as ice reservoirs, but that only intensified opposition. Barrick recently improved its takeover offer for Placer Dome Inc. (PDG.TO: Quote) to $10.4 billion, winning Placer's approval for a deal that would turn the two Canadian miners into the world's biggest gold producer. Talk is cheap. Use Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls. 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