EL SALVADOR:
"Life Is Worth More than
Gold" Say Anti-Mining
Activists
By Raúl Gutiérrez
SAN ISIDRO, El Salvador
(IPS) - Peasant farmers
from the northern
Salvadoran province of
Cabañas fear that mining
operations planned for
the region will consume
30,000 litres of water a
day, drawn from the same
sources that currently
provide local residents
with water only once a
week.
Environmentalists and
experts have also warned
that if the operations
that are now awaiting
legal permission
actually begin, the
cyanide that would be
used by the Canadian
mining company Pacific
Rim to extract gold and
silver could contaminate
the area's groundwater
and soil.
Cabañas ranks second
only to Morazán as the
province with the
highest rate of poverty
in this country, where
over 55 percent of the
population officially
lives under the poverty
line. According to the
United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP),
it has the worst score
on the Human Development
Index, a composite
measure that takes into
account school
enrolment, life
expectancy and per
capita income.
Miguel Fuentes, a
43-year-old campesino
(peasant farmer), has
spent his whole life on
a quarter-hectare plot
of land where he grows
corn and beans and lives
with his wife and four
children in a dirt-floor
house made of sheet
metal, adobe and wood.
Two years ago, he
travelled to Valle de
Siria, in neighbouring
Honduras, where he saw
for himself the
pollution and
respiratory and skin
ailments suffered by the
people living in the
vicinity of the Entre
Mares mine, 120 km from
Tegucigalpa.
"Mining is not advisable
in such a small and
overpopulated area,"
Fuentes told IPS,
especially since "nobody
takes responsibility
afterwards for the
damage it leaves
behind."
The El Dorado mine
project that Pacific Rim
plans to undertake near
the community of San
Isidro, 65 km from San
Salvador, is just one of
25 potential mining
sites currently under
exploration along the
northern fringe of the
country, stretching
along a volcanic chain
rich in precious metals.
The mining permits
granted by the Ministry
of the Economy and the
Ministry of the
Environment and Natural
Resources have been
suspended due to
opposition to the
projects and because the
Ministry of the
Environment must carry
out a strategic
environmental study on
mining as a prerequisite
for the adoption of a
new regulatory regime by
parliament.
In El Salvador, a
country of 20,000 square
km with a population of
5.9 million, the data
available show that
mining activity has
historically been
sporadic.
Records show that in the
late 19th century, a
handful of projects were
undertaken but had
practically disappeared
in later years. They
were revived in 1940 but
had almost all been
abandoned by the 1950s.
Mining has never been a
significant economic
activity here, and
according to figures
from El Salvador’s
Reserve Bank, in 2006
the mining industry
contributed just 32.7
million dollars
(including stone
products) to the
country's total gross
domestic product of over
18.6 billion dollars.
Between 1948 and 1953,
the New York-El Salvador
Mining Company worked
the El Dorado mine but
pulled out, according to
environmentalists,
because the technology
available at the time
did not allow for the
extraction of the gold
and silver that have now
been located by Pacific
Rim.
El Dorado covers 144
square kilometres. The
exploration phase that
concluded in 2006 and
involved an investment
of 28 million dollars
uncovered deposits of at
least 1.2 million ounces
of gold and 7.4 million
ounces of silver.
Luis Trejo, an
environmental advisor to
Pacific Rim, told IPS
that at current world
prices, each ounce of
gold could fetch 700
dollars.
He also maintained that
the company would create
2,000 direct and
indirect jobs and would
pay the Salvadoran
government at least
three percent in taxes
on its gross sales.
In 2007, the mining
company launched a major
advertising campaign
using radio and vehicles
with loudspeakers that
drove through nearby
communities to promote
so-called "green mining"
while handing out school
supplies, fertilisers
and livestock vaccines.
Trejo acknowledged that
"cyanide is a hazardous
substance," but said
that the human body is
able to "assimilate" it,
since it occurs in
natural form in foods
like cassava, grapes and
almonds.
In October 2005, U.S.
hydrogeologist Robert
Moran conducted a
technical review of the
El Dorado Mine Project
Environmental Impact
Assessment submitted by
Pacific Rim. Moran was
critical of the
company's report,
charging that it did not
provide the necessary
data to determine the
effects of mining on
water resources.
According to his review,
neither the general
public nor the
Salvadoran regulators
have been adequately
informed regarding the
possible environmental
or socioeconomic impacts
to the local
populations.
Moran, who has carried
out similar studies in
other countries of
Central America, also
said that a large
percentage of similar,
modern gold mining
operations throughout
the world do generate
negative environmental
impacts, which often do
not become visible until
after a mine closes.
Francisco Pineda,
coordinator of the
Association of Friends
of San Isidro-Cabañas,
said that cyanide and
acid drainage from the
mining operations would
contaminate the same
sources of water used to
supply the majority of
communities in the
region.
"We are not opposed to
the activity, but rather
to the harm it causes,"
stressed the
environmentalist, who
added that in any case,
"green mining doesn't
exist, it's merely a
publicity campaign."
The Salvadoran Bishops'
Conference has joined
the opposition to the
mining project. In a
statement released in
May 2007, it warned that
"mining causes
irreversible damage to
the environment and
surrounding
communities."
Residents of the
community of San
Sebastián, in the
eastern province of La
Unión, sued the Commerce
Group mining company in
2007 for the pollution
of numerous local rivers
with iron, copper and
aluminum, products of
acid drainage allegedly
caused by the
exploitation of a nearby
mine between 1950 and
1981.
Lourdes Palacios, a
lawmaker from the
leftist Farabundo Martí
National Liberation
Front (FMLN), has
charged that Pacific Rim
"negotiated" with the
right-wing National
Conciliation Party (PCN)
to introduce a bill in
parliament that would
create an independent
authority to regulate
mining, stripping the
ministries of this
power.
"The PCN initiative is
nothing other than a law
drafted by the mining
companies," declared
Palacios.
The bill does not take
into account the
environmental strategic
study, and would give
the independent
authority the power to
grant "mining
concessions" of up to 46
years, Ligia Guevara,
from the coalition of
social organisations
known as Mesa Frente a
la Minería, told IPS.
PCN legislator Orlando
Arévalo acknowledged
that his party had
presented the bill
denounced by Palacios,
but denied that it was
drafted by Pacific Rim.
In his view, mining
activity requires three
requirements that El
Salvador lacks: "A clear
regulatory framework, a
monitoring agency that
enforces the law, and a
classification of
companies that comply
with international
standards."
He added that this would
be difficult to achieve
"because we are victims
of corruption" and
admitted that he does
not have a solution for
fighting this scourge.
The Mesa Frente a la
Minería submitted a bill
in 2006 that would ban
the mining of metals
because "it places
present and future
generations at risk."
But the bill was
shelved, noted Palacios.
Sitting in front of a
poster that reads "Life
is worth more than
gold," Irene Castillo
and Nelson Ventura,
environmentalists from
Cabañas, said "human
life cannot be sold for
a pittance, and this is
what we are talking
about in the case of
mining." |
