ENVIRONMENT:
Mexicans Protest
Canadian Mining Company
By Stephen Leahy*
TORONTO (Tierramérica) -
Residents and activists
from the central Mexican
state of San Luis Potosí
travelled to Toronto to
tell the shareholders of
a Canadian mining
company that their
investments are at risk
because the
billion-dollar Cerro San
Pedro gold and silver
mine is illegal and
environmentally unsafe.
The trip ended Jun. 17
with delegation member
Armando Barreiro, a
national lawmaker, being
roughed up by Toronto
police after he had made
his presentation before
the annual shareholders
meeting of Metallica
Resources Inc., owner of
the open pit mine.
Barreiro, of the leftist
Democratic Revolutionary
Party (PRD), had stated
that the Mexican
Congress was about to
pass a bill aimed at
closing down the mining
project and that a
Mexican member of the
board of Metallica
Resources was under
criminal investigation.
"This was an aggression
and a lack of respect to
someone who immediately
identified himself as a
representative of the
Mexican people,"
Barreiro told
Tierramérica. "This
aggression is in deep
contrast with the
peaceful and respectful
attitude with which we
conducted ourselves."
The police also
restrained and removed
Juan Carlos Ruiz, a
history professor at the
Colegio de San Luis, who
was part of the
delegation organised by
Frente Amplio Opositor,
an anti-mining group.
"We want the Canadian
people to be aware their
investments have serious
environmental and social
damages in other
countries," Ruiz had
told Tierramérica
earlier through a
translator. "The mining
is right next to
monuments of national
importance."
"A historic church has
several large cracks
because of the dynamite
explosions from the
pit," he said.
The village of Cerro San
Pedro, some 400
kilometres north of
Mexico City, is right in
the middle of the
18-month-old San Xavier
mining operation, a
subsidiary of Metallica.
Some 150 people live in
the 400-year-old
village, and roughly
20,000 in the
surrounding towns, in a
region where mining for
gold and silver has long
been a fixture.
The local people are not
opposed to underground
or shaft mining, as has
been done for hundreds
of years. What they
overwhelmingly oppose is
a huge open pit mine
with millions of tonnes
of ore being treated in
the open with large
amounts of cyanide.
Of the 20,000 local
people surveyed by the
Frente Amplio Opositor
in 2006, 19,500 said
"no" to the project,
said Ruiz.
On its web site, the
company displays another
poll, conducted by
Epiica and published in
March 2007, in which 55
percent of those
interviewed who said
they knew about the
project said they agreed
with it, 31.3 percent
said they disagreed, and
13.7 percent were
undecided.
One of the biggest
concerns is water. The
region is semi-arid and
water is in short
supply, but a series of
underground aquifers
provide water for local
residents and the state
capital San Luis Potosí,
a city of one million
located less than 20 km
from the mine site.
Not only does the mine
require an estimated 32
million litres of water
per day, there are
serious concerns that
the cyanide will
contaminate the
aquifers, says
hydrologist Mario
Martínez, resident of
Cerro de San Pedro.
"There are cyanide heap
leach pads (large pools)
right on top of an
aquifer," Martínez told
Tierramérica through a
translator.
Once the ore is removed
from the Cerro de San
Pedro pit, it is trucked
two km to specially
prepared outdoor pads,
where a solution of
water and cyanide is
sprayed on the ore to
dissolve the gold and
silver out of the rock.
The water is treated to
remove the precious
metals and recover some
of the cyanide. The
"spent ore" is removed
and piled into hills
that Martínez says are
already more than 20
metres high thanks to a
daily deposit of 32,000
tonnes.
"Sixteen tonnes of
sodium cyanide are being
used daily, and there is
a great risk it could
seep into the aquifer,"
he said.
The mining company
assures that the cyanide
is managed in a closed
circuit and that the
surface of the leaching
pools are covered by
special plastic
membranes, injected with
air and monitored by
leak detectors.
The local residents also
worry that the
cyanide-saturated
mountains of spent ore
could pollute surface
water after rains.
Cyanide is very toxic to
fish and other water
species.
Not surprisingly, the
mine has been the centre
of controversy for many
years. Ten court
injunctions have been
obtained to stop the
project over the past
six years, according to
Ruiz. "Federal and state
officials are not
applying the law," he
said.
Although a local court
cancelled the mine's
operating permits, the
federal government re-authorised
the project, observing
several aspects of the
environmental impact
study.
Subsequent rulings were
downplayed by federal
officials, who argued
that municipal agencies
did not have the
authority to approve or
reject this type of
project.
But the Frente Amplio
Opositor maintains that,
according to
environmental law, the
company cannot operate
without municipal
authorisation. "We want
government officials to
respect the rule of law.
This mine should not be
in operation," said
Ruiz.
Metallica is a small
gold and silver mining
company, headquartered
in Toronto. Involved in
exploration in Chile and
Alaska, Cerro San Pedro
is its only mine in
production.
A wholly-owned Mexican
subsidiary, Minera San
Xavier, operates the
mine and Metallica
projects that it will
extract an estimated 1.5
million ounces of gold
and 62.1 million ounces
of silver over the next
eight to 10 years.
Tierramérica contacted
Metallica for an
interview but received a
negative response by
email: "Today was an
Annual General Meeting
where we approved a
merger with Peak Gold
and New Gold. We are
currently in a PR
(public relations)
blackout. Feel free to
contact me after June
30," signed by Rhonda
Bennetto, director of
investor relations and
corporate
communications.
"Cyanide heap leach
mines have a chequered
environmental record
around the world," says
Payal Sampat of the
U.S.-based environmental
group Earthworks, which
in 2004, in cooperation
with Oxfam, launched the
"No Dirty Gold" campaign
in an effort to get the
industry to improve its
mining practices.
Thirty leading jewellery
companies agreed to buy
only gold from companies
that follow the "golden
rules" of responsible
human rights and
environmental standards.
The rules do not exclude
heap leach operations,
which comprise the
majority of large gold
mine operations. They do
oppose locating such
mines near fragile
ecosystems and require
that companies obtain
informed consent of
affected communities.
According to Barreiro,
more than 200
legislative deputies and
57 senators in the
Mexican Congress have
signed a bill to close
the Cerro de San Pedro
mine and require
Metallica to pay for
environmental damages.
The bill will be debated
in the next session. In
April, a similar bill
did not win the
necessary votes.
"The mine will be
permanently closed this
year," said Ruiz. "The
investors should be
aware of this."
(*Stephen Leahy is an
IPS correspondent.
Originally published by
Latin American
newspapers that are part
of the Tierramérica
network. Tierramérica is
a specialised news
service produced by IPS
with the backing of the
United Nations
Development Programme,
United Nations
Environment Programme
and the World Bank.)
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