 |
COLOMBIA: Gold vs
Preservation in the Central Mountains
By Helda Martínez*
CAJAMARCA, Colombia (Tierramérica) - In a protected
area of the Cordillera Central, Colombia's central
mountain range, gold mining plans are clashing with
the desire of farmers, activists and environmental
officials to preserve forests and water resources.
A movement made up of 25 international, national and
local non-governmental organisations is calling on
the government to halt the exploration activities of
the South Africa-based mining giant AngloGold
Ashanti.
The corporation, which has been working in the area
since 2006, is awaiting authorisation to conclude
explorations of a gold deposit situated in the
municipality of Cajamarca in the central-west
department (province) of Tolima, and within the
Central Forest Reserve.
A 1959 law demarcated the reserve in order to ensure
protection of a 1.5-million-hectare strip running
north-south through central-west Colombia and
passing through 10 departments, Tolima among them.
The area holds important water resources, with 160
headwaters and the Coello River basin, as well as
the ecosystems that sustain them: high plateaus,
cloud forests and both protected and productive
forest areas, according to the department's top
environmental authority, Cortolima (Tolima
Autonomous Regional Agency).
In the last decade, the company obtained permits to
explore 27 areas of Tolima, including 15 in rural
Cajamarca. The authorisations came from the
Colombian Institute of Geology and Mining, a
division of the Ministry of Mines and Energy. In
2006, AngloGold Ashanti discovered the gold deposit.
In December 2007, the corporation announced that the
La Colosa site - initially estimated at 12.3 million
ounces of gold - would be one of the world's 10
largest gold deposits.
The firm hired 400 workers in January 2008 and
stepped up exploration, taking water and soil
samples from 74 perforations that were "up to 700
metres deep," said Evelio Campos, coordinator of the
NGO Ecotierra de Cajamarca.
In February 2008, Cortolima director Carmen Sofía
Bonilla requested the intervention of the Ministry
of Environment, Housing and Development to order a
freeze on the mining project.
By law, companies must apply to the Ministry of
Environment for a permit for economic activities in
protected zones. This allows for delimiting an area
where there is only grass and stubble, but it is
intended for basic works that do not affect
protected species, Bonilla explained.
But because the company had failed to apply for the
permit, Bonilla's petition for a freeze was
accepted.
"In February 2008, the mining work was suspended by
order of the ministry," economics student Cristian
Frasser, of the University of Tolima and member of
the NGO Environmental Awareness (Conciencia
Ambiental), told Tierramérica.
But in May of last year, the company formalised a
request to operate on 515 hectares in order to
determine the project's economic and environmental
viability, and the Ministry of Environment gave the
green light, but for only 6.4 hectares.
Hiring has been cut down to no more than 30 workers,
but it is impossible to obtain precise figures
because information about the mining project is
restricted and the army is guarding access to the
mining site itself.
La Colosa is located 5.5 km from the town limits of
Cajamarca and 35 km west of Ibagué, the departmental
capital.
The population of Cajamarca is about 25,000, mainly
small farmers and rural workers. A few are
merchants, with shops around the central square, a
required stop when travelling between Colombia's
central and western regions due to its proximity to
the Pan-American Highway.
The rural portion of Cajamarca municipality is
approximately 500 square km that includes a range of
mountain altitudes, where a variety of crops are
grown, depending on the temperature: coffee, fruit
and vegetables like arracacha (Arracacia xanthorriza),
a tuber cultivated in cooler climates.
Critics warn that agricultural development of the
area is in danger if the authorities give the
go-ahead to mining activities.
The Catholic organisation Pax Christi Netherlands,
lawmakers from across the political spectrum, the
Attorney General's Office and the Ibagué
environmental prosecutor Diego Alvarado have all
joined in the campaign against mining at La Colosa.
At a public hearing held in February, Alvarado
argued that "the gold of La Colosa is dispersed in
the rocks, in concentrations of just a few grams per
tonne, which would require intensive, open-pit
mining, with serious consequences for the region."
That mode of production requires extracting an
enormous volume of rock, which then undergoes a
chemical process of lixiviation to separate out the
gold metal from the rest of the minerals.
"For the lixiviation they will use cyanide, which
makes it impossible to believe that this activity
could be compatible with soil use in areas that are
forest preserve, if cyanide contaminates the
groundwater," said Alvarado.
A study conducted by U.S. hydro-geologist Robert
Moran, hired by Pax Christi, estimated that the
operation would need "one cubic metre of water per
tonne of ore processed per second" in order to
separate out the gold.
According to Moran's report, if an estimated 20 to
30 million tonnes of ore is processed per year, it
would require 630 to 950 million cubic metres of
water annually, or 9 to 24 billion cubic metres of
water over the life of the mine, which is projected
to be 15 to 25 years.
That level of consumption would exhaust the water
supplies that feed "the aqueduct for crops, with 400
kilometres of canals that irrigate rice, sorghum and
cotton in the central and south of the department,
and which supplies water to five municipal
aqueducts," activist Paola Robayo, a forest
engineering student at the University of Tolima,
told Tierramérica.
The authorities will have to decide whether to
cancel the exploration permit, and thus close off
future exploration, or to change the status of the
forest preserve in order to lift the environmental
restrictions.
"We know the influence that AngloGold Ashanti has in
highly corrupt countries like Colombia, which is why
we wouldn't be surprised if they end up changing the
legislation," said activist Campos.
Last month, Rafael Hertz, chair of the company's
Colombia affiliate, told the press that the
ministry's decision is expected in July.
In the meantime, AngloGold Ashanti has invested in
community development projects. "They are painting
houses, paving streets and making donations to
schools," said Campos. The firm also sponsored the
Folkloric Festival of Ibagué, held annually during
two weeks in June.
In an ironic twist, the popular festival also
provided a venue for critics of the mining project
to distribute pamphlets and to display banners of
protest against the company.
(*This story was 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.) |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
