Gold giant clashes with Chilean farmers and church groups

Gold giant clashes with Chilean farmers and church groups

-14/06/06

By Fran Race

One of the worldís largest mining corporations, Barrick Gold, is locked in dispute with thousands of Chilean farmers and church workers over a mine that will provide gold and silver supplies for the next 17 years.

The company is seeking to mine under three of the major glaciers in the Andes, which feed 70,000 Chilean farmers and constitute one of the purest water supplies in the world.

The project is called Pascua Lama, a bi-national open pit straddling the Argentina-Chile border. It is expected to have a life of 17 years, extracting 615,000 ounces of gold, 30 million ounces of silver and 5,000 tons of copper annually. It requires an estimated investment of 1.5 billion US dollars ñ but at high risk to the environment, say critics.

Farmers, church groups and environmentalists fear that extracting these minerals will cause catastrophic damage to the ecosystem, polluting some of the purest water in the world and denying it to farmers and their communities who depend upon the fragile natural balance for their survival.

Cristina Hoar, a Catholic mission worker with the Servants of the Holy Spirit, has been instrumental in raising the profile of the anti-Pascua Lama campaign.

“When I was living in the area, I saw how the company provided funds to the community to get them to change their mind about the project,” Hoar, who now lives in Santiago, told IPS News.

Environmentalists say that the biggest consumers of irrigation water in the Huasco Valley, who were initially opposed to the project, are now working closely with Barrick. If Pascua Lama is given the green light, they will receive 60 million dollars from the company for infrastructure works, they claim.

A range of theories have been suggested as to how the mining company will access the valuable minerals underneath the glaciers. One idea was that they would move three glaciers (Toro1, Toro2 and Espernanza) so that they would bond with another one.

After protests of farmers and environmentalists this proposal was withdrawn by Barrick in late 2005. The company denies charges that scientific reports had been manipulated to classify the glaciers as masses of ice that could be destroyed.

The risks associated with Pascua Lama have outraged the objectors, and demonstrations have been held continuously since the project first came to the publicís attention in August, 2004.

On 6 January 2006 dozens of protesters rallied outside the Canadian Embassy in Santiagoís upscale Las Condes neighbourhood.

Marcel Claude, the executive director of Oceana, the environmental NGO which organized the protest, said the demonstrators wanted the Canadian authorities to hear their rage, especially because the mine will produce up to 10 billion US dollars in profits for the Canadian company and ìdo nothing for Chile except destroy its environment.î

Lucio Cuenca, director of the Latin American Observatory of Environmental Conflicts (OLCA) says that in Chile, as in the rest of Latin America, there is an unequal distribution of natural resources and of the environmental and social costs of their exploitation.

He points out that poor rural communities and indigenous people are hurt the most by inappropriate projects of this kind.

“In Chile, the worst cases of social and environmental injustice are seen in the commodity export sectors, like forestry, mining and agriculture,” he adds.

This echoes the ethos behind a new campaign about the impact of gold mining. Nodirtygold.org combines the efforts of Earthworks and Oxfam America. Among the projectís aims is to raise awareness of the wastefulness and environmental impact of gold mining, prevent exploitation of local communities and support more ethical, less wasteful forms of extraction.

Barrick Gold has been asked by the campaign to clean up its act. The company has been invited to a summit between the Council for Responsible Jewellery Practice and other leading mining organisations later in June 2006.

There are also fears about future potential conflicts over water. The Global Policy Forum reports that as the worldís population continues to expand, water supplies are under intense pressure ñ stoking disagreements between nations that share transboundary freshwater reserves.

ìAbout 20 percent of the world’s population does not have access to the safe drinking water which we take for granted,” says Gordon Young, director of the World Water Assessment Programme at UNESCO. His hope is that water conflicts can continue to be resolved peacefully and fairly.

Fran Race is a reporter for Ekklesia and a member of All Hallows Anglican church in Leeds.

[Also by Fran Race on Ekklesia: New Archbishop to launch forum in terror link city; German churches to be peacemakers during World Cup; Pakistani Christian woman charged with blasphemy is bailed; US President criticised for failure to support Muslims; Catholic priest expelled from Saudi Arabia; Christians urged to speak up over Tibet; Ecumenical movement needs vision of the young; Monks roll out bio-farming in Africa; Dalai lama urges Christians not to convert to Buddhism]

Gold giant clashes with Chilean farmers and church groups

-14/06/06

By Fran Race

One of the worldís largest mining corporations, Barrick Gold, is locked in dispute with thousands of Chilean farmers and church workers over a mine that will provide gold and silver supplies for the next 17 years.

The company is seeking to mine under three of the major glaciers in the Andes, which feed 70,000 Chilean farmers and constitute one of the purest water supplies in the world.

The project is called Pascua Lama, a bi-national open pit straddling the Argentina-Chile border. It is expected to have a life of 17 years, extracting 615,000 ounces of gold, 30 million ounces of silver and 5,000 tons of copper annually. It requires an estimated investment of 1.5 billion US dollars ñ but at high risk to the environment, say critics.

Farmers, church groups and environmentalists fear that extracting these minerals will cause catastrophic damage to the ecosystem, polluting some of the purest water in the world and denying it to farmers and their communities who depend upon the fragile natural balance for their survival.

Cristina Hoar, a Catholic mission worker with the Servants of the Holy Spirit, has been instrumental in raising the profile of the anti-Pascua Lama campaign.

“When I was living in the area, I saw how the company provided funds to the community to get them to change their mind about the project,” Hoar, who now lives in Santiago, told IPS News.

Environmentalists say that the biggest consumers of irrigation water in the Huasco Valley, who were initially opposed to the project, are now working closely with Barrick. If Pascua Lama is given the green light, they will receive 60 million dollars from the company for infrastructure works, they claim.

A range of theories have been suggested as to how the mining company will access the valuable minerals underneath the glaciers. One idea was that they would move three glaciers (Toro1, Toro2 and Espernanza) so that they would bond with another one.

After protests of farmers and environmentalists this proposal was withdrawn by Barrick in late 2005. The company denies charges that scientific reports had been manipulated to classify the glaciers as masses of ice that could be destroyed.

The risks associated with Pascua Lama have outraged the objectors, and demonstrations have been held continuously since the project first came to the publicís attention in August, 2004.

On 6 January 2006 dozens of protesters rallied outside the Canadian Embassy in Santiagoís upscale Las Condes neighbourhood.

Marcel Claude, the executive director of Oceana, the environmental NGO which organized the protest, said the demonstrators wanted the Canadian authorities to hear their rage, especially because the mine will produce up to 10 billion US dollars in profits for the Canadian company and ìdo nothing for Chile except destroy its environment.î

Lucio Cuenca, director of the Latin American Observatory of Environmental Conflicts (OLCA) says that in Chile, as in the rest of Latin America, there is an unequal distribution of natural resources and of the environmental and social costs of their exploitation.

He points out that poor rural communities and indigenous people are hurt the most by inappropriate projects of this kind.

“In Chile, the worst cases of social and environmental injustice are seen in the commodity export sectors, like forestry, mining and agriculture,” he adds.

This echoes the ethos behind a new campaign about the impact of gold mining. Nodirtygold.org combines the efforts of Earthworks and Oxfam America. Among the projectís aims is to raise awareness of the wastefulness and environmental impact of gold mining, prevent exploitation of local communities and support more ethical, less wasteful forms of extraction.

Barrick Gold has been asked by the campaign to clean up its act. The company has been invited to a summit between the Council for Responsible Jewellery Practice and other leading mining organisations later in June 2006.

There are also fears about future potential conflicts over water. The Global Policy Forum reports that as the worldís population continues to expand, water supplies are under intense pressure ñ stoking disagreements between nations that share transboundary freshwater reserves.

ìAbout 20 percent of the world’s population does not have access to the safe drinking water which we take for granted,” says Gordon Young, director of the World Water Assessment Programme at UNESCO. His hope is that water conflicts can continue to be resolved peacefully and fairly.

Fran Race is a reporter for Ekklesia and a member of All Hallows Anglican church in Leeds.

[Also by Fran Race on Ekklesia: New Archbishop to launch forum in terror link city; German churches to be peacemakers during World Cup; Pakistani Christian woman charged with blasphemy is bailed; US President criticised for failure to support Muslims; Catholic priest expelled from Saudi Arabia; Christians urged to speak up over Tibet; Ecumenical movement needs vision of the young; Monks roll out bio-farming in Africa; Dalai lama urges Christians not to convert to Buddhism]