Chile court rules for Indians against Barrick Gold
Chile court rules for Indians against Barrick Gold
Updated: 11:49 a.m. Monday, July 15, 2013 | Posted: 11:49 a.m. Monday, July 15, 2013
The Associated Press
SANTIAGO, Chile —
An appeals court in Chile has ruled against the world's largest gold mining company, favoring Chilean Indians who accuse the company of contaminating their water downstream.
The judges unanimously ruled that Barrick Gold must keep all its environmental promises before moving forward with construction of the Pascua-Lama mine at the very top of Chile's mountainous border with Argentina.
The ruling says Barrick also must repair environmental damage to the Estrecho and Huasco rivers, and monitor the condition of three glaciers next to the mine project.
Chile's environmental watchdog already ordered construction stopped until Barrick builds systems to keep the mine from contaminating the watershed below, but Monday's ruling also demands river repairs.
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Chile court formally freezes Barrick's Pascua-Lama mine
Mon Jul 15, 2013 2:30pm EDT
* Court suspends project until environmental standards met
* Indigenous groups say project hurts water supply, glaciers
* Chile environmental regulator has also suspended gold mine
SANTIAGO, July 15 (Reuters) - A Chilean appeals court on Monday formally suspended Barrick Gold Corp's controversial $8.5 billion Pascua-Lama gold mine until the company builds infrastructure that will prevent water pollution.
In April, the Copiapo Court of Appeals temporarily and preventively froze construction of the project, which straddles the Chile-Argentine border high in the Andes, while it examined claims by indigenous communities that it has damaged pristine glaciers and harmed water supplies.
On Monday, the court said it was ordering a freeze on construction of the project until all measures required in the government's environmental license for adequate water management, "as well as urgent and transitory measures required by the environmental regulator," are adopted.
Chile's environmental regulator has also suspended Pascua-Lama, citing major environmental violations, and asked Barrick, the world's top gold miner, to build water management canals and drainage systems. Barrick has said it is fully committed to complying with all aspects of the regulator's order.
More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/15/chile-barrick-court-idUSL1N0FL10H20130715?rpc=401
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From 2005:
Barrick Gold Strikes Opposition in South America
by Glenn Walker, Special to CorpWatch
June 20th, 2005
“Barrick! Listen! Chile will not surrender!, No to Pascua Lama!,” roared a crowd of protestors as they paraded through the streets of Santiago, Chile. The crowd was addressing Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold, in response to the company's proposed bi-national “Pascua Lama” open-pit mine on the border of Chile and Argentina.
In what has so far been the climax of a campaign that is quickly gaining momentum, the protestors gathered on June 4th in both Santiago, Chile's capital city, and in the northern city of Vallenar, near the Pascua Lama site. Each protest drew an estimated 2,000 people in a lively atmosphere of carnival and traditional dance and ritual. The groups condemned Barrick Gold’s plans as greedy, heavy-handed, and called the proposed mine an environmental and social nightmare, shouting, “We are not a North American colony!”
Barrick Gold, a powerful multinational already notorious for its dealings in North America, Australia and Africa, plans to extract an estimated 500,000 kilograms of gold (along with silver, copper and mercury) from the site over a 20 year period. Before doing so, however, the company will relocate significant parts of the Toro 1, Toro 2 and Esperanza, three giant Andean glaciers. Barrick hopes to transfer the three glaciers to an area with similar surface characteristics and elevation by merging the three into the larger Guanaco glacier.
~snip~
As with many gold mines, the Pasuca Lama mine would employ cyanide leaching for on-site processing of the ore. Cyanide is a chemical compound which, even in very small quantities, is extremely toxic to humans and other life forms. If leaked from a mine site or spilt during transportation, it can quickly cause massive toxicity problems for an entire ecosystem, while mobilizing other persistent and toxic heavy metals, as well.
More:
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12447
