Cyanide Heap Leaching and Acid Mine Runoff - A Futaleufu River Valley preview?

This is the story of the struggle to save the famed Blackfoot River (memorialized in A River Runs Through It) from a proposed leach mine. It documents the enduring but sad legacy of mining throughout the state of Montana--cyanide-laced groundwater, acid mine drainage, and the failures of a boom and bust economy. It speaks from the hearts and minds of men and women who are fighting to save their vanishing heritage. Private property and the right to make a short term profit face off against the rights of future generations to experience the spirit, physical beauty, and health of the wilderness.

Canadian gold mining corporation, Gabriel Resources Ltd. halts Romanian project as support sours - NGO's influence cited

For Gabriel Resources Ltd., things were looking up until last spring.

After years of turmoil, the company's Rosia Montana gold project in Romania was proceeding well, with support at the local and government levels. There was ongoing opposition from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), but work at the project continued despite their interference.

Then, around the start of June, the government abruptly changed its tune and grew hostile toward Gabriel, eventually suspending the permit-approval process at Rosia Montana altogether. That led to yesterday's announcement from the company that it is laying off most of its workers and cancelling a land-acquisition program.

Gabriel says it does not know exactly what caused the about-face by the Romanian government, which is led by a coalition of two parties: the National Liberal party and the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania.

"We've been told that we've been traded, that the ethnic Hungarian party wanted to stop our project, and the Liberal party wanted something else, and they traded us," Richard Young, chief financial officer, said in an interview. "We're not sure. But we've seen a clear sea change in the actions of this government."

He is not certain how much of an impact the NGOs had, but said there is "no question" that they influenced some stakeholders. Gabriel's situation highlighted the growing issue of political risk, which is affecting mining projects around the world.

Toronto-based Gabriel is trying to redevelop a deposit that has been mined on and off for nearly 2,000 years. The company has poured more than $300-million into Rosia Montana and has proved and probable reserves of 10.1 million ounces of gold.

Here is the full article.

Battle over gold mine plan that would create giant cyanide lake.

NESTLING amid rocky crags, lines of beech trees and chimney smoke rising from rustic cottages, Rosia Montana looks the very image of rural calm in the Transylvanian alps. In fact, this village has become a battleground in Europe's biggest single environmental struggle.

For 11 years, conservationists and a Canadian mining giant have been locked in a battle over £5 billion worth of gold sitting in the soil - Europe's biggest gold deposit.

It is a battle that has now reached its climax, with the company, Gabriel Resources, suing the Romanian government in the hope it will finally clear the way for mining to begin.

Gold has been mined at Rosia Montana since Roman times. The remains of their workings honeycomb the crags around the valley. The seams are now exhausted, but gold remains scattered across the valley in the form of dust. Put together, this dust amounts to 330 tonnes of gold and 1,400 tonnes of silver.

But gathering the dust is the problem. The only way to get at the gold is to soak the soil and rock with cyanide. This process, named cyanide leaching, dissolves the gold, but leaves behind a mountain of toxic sludge. About 20 tonnes of sludge are created to get enough gold to make a single ring.

"You can't even imagine how bad it will be, we are talking about the biggest ecological disaster in Europe," says Sorin Jurca, a leading light in the local conservation group, Alburnus Maior. "We are talking about a lake, a cyanide lake."

Gabriel Resources insists safeguards are being added that will see the valley landscaped and the toxic lake covered with a layer of clay. "We've got a solid project," says director Richard Young.

Conservationists disagree. Their movement has grown to embrace 80 organisations, including Greenpeace, the Orthodox church and the government of neighbouring Hungary, which will bear the brunt of any cyanide spill into local rivers.

Opponents and company have been deadlocked. But in September a new, minority government took office in Romania. Conscious of the country's deteriorating image in the West, it suspended consideration of an environmental permit for the mine.

Here is the full article.

Argentine Supreme court upholds Chubut Province ban of cyanide leach mining - local protest crucial to the verdict

BUENOS AIRES, Apr 20 (IPS) - Environmental activists in Argentina applauded an Argentine Supreme Court ruling against a projected open cast gold mine using cyanide, pointing out that it set an important legal precedent.

The Supreme Court did not rule on whether or not the gold mine project planned by the Minera El Desquite SA mining company in the southern province of Chubut would cause environmental damages, nor does the verdict prohibit the company from operating.

But the lawyer for the residents who mobilised against the mine, Gustavo Macayo, told IPS that with this ruling, "all legal recourse has been exhausted," and "the stoppage of the mineworks was upheld."

Besides, the decision will also have other repercussions, because it "recognises the power of provinces to regulate the protection of the environment locally, and to regulate or restrict activities, even when they are permitted under national laws," said the lawyer, who lives in Chubut.

The Supreme Court rejected a suit brought by Minera El Desquite, a subsidiary of the Canadian mining company Meridian Gold, after it had lost cases at every local and appeals court in Chubut province, where its Cordón Esquel mining works have been at a standstill since 2003.

The court threw out the company's argument that its project, blocked by provincial laws, was permitted under national laws. In their Apr. 17 ruling, the magistrates held that there was "no conflict," because the state sets "minimum protection standards" which the provinces have the right to extend as they see fit.

A law passed in Chubut in 2003 "absolutely prohibits" open cast metal mining, as well as the use of cyanide for gold and silver mining in the province, and the company had not fulfilled the environmental requirements established by local law.

Argentina is experiencing a mining boom, driven by high international metals prices and legislation that encourages investment in the sector. The number of mining projects, which are concentrated in the west of the country, along the border with Chile, has grown by 400 percent in just over two years.

The El Desquite mining project concession was awarded by the provincial government of Chubut in 2002. Gold was to be extracted from an open pit mine and leached from the ore with cyanide.

But the ski resort town of Esquel, population 40,000, is only six kilometres away from the projected site, and residents organised against the mine because of potential air and water pollution.

They formed a citizens' assembly, whose biggest achievement was getting the municipal government to hold a non-binding plebiscite in 2003, in which 81 percent of residents said "No" to the mine.

One month before the plebiscite, a provincial court accepted an appeal for legal protection and suspended work on the mining project until an environmental impact study was carried out and was submitted to a public hearing for approval. The company, however, did not take those steps, and instead appealed to other courts.

Although El Desquite's project in Esquel remains blocked, the company's concession from the provincial government is still valid. Residents protested against this on Mar. 23, when they celebrated the fourth anniversary of the plebiscite.

The Supreme Court ruling was a victory for organisations that are against mining projects involving the use of cyanide.

"Residents' demonstrations, the plebiscite and the rulings of provincial courts had already demonstrated the legitimacy of these demands, but the Supreme Court decision sets an important precedent," Javier Rodríguez of the Chubut Antinuclear Movement told IPS.

Rodríguez, an anti-mining activist who works with movements in several provinces, said that in any event, court decisions were not enough. "Social mobilisation is essential. As a judge in San Juan once told us, 'the people have to come out on the streets'," he said.

The Supreme Court decision was "a blow to open cast mining. It sets a very important precedent, as it imposes complete cessation of work until the province's legal requirements are met," said the head of the Centre for Human Rights and the Environment (CEDHA), Daniel Taillant.

In an interview with IPS, Taillant said there was a rising trend in social protests over environmental problems in Argentina in the last five years. He said that the justice system "reflects" that trend in its verdicts, and cited the case of the Riachuelo in Buenos Aires, Argentina's most polluted river.

In that case, the Supreme Court ordered the national, provincial and municipal governments as well as the factories polluting the river to present a drainage and sanitation plan to clean up the river and curb pollution, as well as a policy to deal with the environmental impact on the health of people living in neighbourhoods along its banks.

CEDHA pointed out that further small victories had been won in other provinces, through local legal decisions and laws. In the northwestern La Rioja province, Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold was forced to halt its plans for a mine in the Famatina range after the province passed a law against using cyanide.

A similar ban was approved in the neighbouring province of Tucumán. In both cases, CEDHA noted, the decisions by the provincial legislatures were prompted by pressure from citizens' assemblies opposed to projects because of potential pollution of the air, soil and water.

"Public opinion is playing an increasingly important role in setting public policies on the environment," Taillant said. (END/2007)

Barrick Gold Corporation abandons mine in Argentina citing RABID LOCAL OPPOSITION – cites rising Resource Nationalism as cause

Translation: The World against Barrick Gold / Here are the guilty henchmen of the bi-national Pascua Lama mining project: Mulet, Frei, Trivelli

Risky business

[Thu, 22 Nov 2007] IT’S A TWO-HOUR charter flight to get to Cerro Vanguardia, the AngloGold Ashanti gold mine tucked away in the nether regions of Patagonia, Argentina. At the mine the landscape is oddly reminiscent of the Karoo.

St Julian, 150km to the east, is the nearest settlement: a craggy, windswept town that derives much of its employment from AngloGold’s open pit operations. While there are benefits for places such as St Julian from the mining that impacts on its community, other provinces in the country are turning their backs on the prospect of digging for minerals.

That’s just one element of the growing trend known as resource nationalism. Central and provincial government, local communities plus pressure groups – either working together or in isolation – are harassing resources companies: in general, lobbying for a larger share of revenues or raising environmental concerns. In Argentina, the La Rioja, Rio Negro and Tucuman provinces have totally banned open pit mining.

Earlier this year the provincial government of Mendoza province, known for its vineyards and ski resorts, banned open pit mining. The ban was short lived but sent up a warning flare for those mining in Argentina.

The opposition to mining in some areas isn’t necessarily resource nationalism in its true sense: which is to say, governments leveraging their power to gain more for the country. But it is a reflection of a growing trend, where communities and governments are increasingly aware of how they can influence what happens around them, on occasions shunning investment in their local resources and at other times welcoming it but demanding a larger slice of the pie.

In March, Barrick Gold said it would leave the site of its proposed mine in the Famatina Mountains in the Argentine province of La Rioja after rabid local opposition. Provincial governor Angel Maza, which the local opposition claimed was too close to Barrick, was suspended.

Such experiences haven’t deterred mining companies in their quest for resources in Argentina. AngloGold continues to invest in Cerro Vanguardia. It’s lifted by $1m its five-year, $20m exploration budget as it looks to expand production past the mine’s current life of 2018. Other companies continue working on various projects and diversified resources company Xstrata may start developing a new copper mine in Argentina’s San Juan province in year a or so.

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Power sees resource nationalism in its many forms and as part and parcel of current resources business. He says integration into and acceptance by the local community is key for any successful Brownfield and, in particular, Greenfield mining operation in many emerging markets.

A number of South American countries (apart from Argentina, where most of its indigenous people were wiped out by the Spanish invaders) have large, indigenous under classes. As democracy grows many politicians in South American countries aim to represent those communities, turning to them increasingly for support.

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The speed of Chinese growth and that country’s emergence as an economic and increasingly political powerhouse also plays a part in resource nationalism. “Chinese demand for resources is growing exponentially and China’s prepared to write cheques to obtain access to resources. The price at the margin isn’t something they’re overtly concerned about.”

Says Powers: “They’re bringing a can-opener – in terms of funding for infrastructure projects, often rail and road links that would enable any mine to transport its minerals from isolated areas to market. I suspect when the minerals become available China (where it’s invested in infrastructure, etc) will have the first right of refusal.”

Here is the full article.

Kinross Gold, owner of the Espolon Claim, prepares ground for cyanide heap-leaching in Alaska’s biggest gold mine – environmental challenge expected

Kinross Gold Corporation, Fort Knox gold mine tailings dam.

Excerpted

Fairbanks Gold Mining Inc., the operating company at Fort Knox, has received nearly all the permits necessary for the heap leach project, Baker said, although the company anticipates a possible challenge to the wetlands permit recently issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “That will be apparent in the next few weeks,” he said.

Construction crews have started stripping work for the heap leach, although not much more can be completed in winter, he said. Provided any permit challenges are resolved, construction of the valley heap leach is anticipated to progress in 2008 with possible placement of material, Baker said.

Once completed, anticipated gold recovery from the heap leach is 60 percent to 70 percent, Baker said.

Kinross also reported that the company is in the process of completing the necessary land transaction for the Phase 7 pit expansion project. Baker said the company was negotiating with state and federal agencies for access to that mineralized area, located on the west side of the existing pit.

Fort Knox is currently the largest single source of produced gold for Kinross Gold, which acquired the Fairbanks gold mine in the late 1990s. The company also owns mine properties in Canada, the Lower 48, Brazil, Chile and Russia.

Here is the full article.

See the future of the Futaleufu River Valley - Kinross Gold Corporation - US Mining Property Slideshow

Some photos of various Kinross Gold Corporation mines in the states of Alaska and California. With the lax environmental laws Chile has in place and a government that caters to the extraction industries this is what Kinross Gold Corporation and Geocom Resources plan for the future of the Futaleufu River Valley.

Modern Mining Myths

Modern Mining Myths

Modern metal mining is producing a legacy of dead rivers, ruined landscapes, and groundwater dangerously polluted by heavy metals and chemicals. Ecological damage of this magnitude isn't just happening in countries with lax environmental regulations. It's also happening in the United States, despite environmental laws like the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Clean Air Act.

Part of the problem is that modern mining with its open pits, massive waste rock dumps and toxic processing chemicals has outstripped environmental and mining regulations. They simply weren't written to deal with massive open pits over a mile wide, mountains of waste rock and water pollution that can last 1000 years. And where regulations prohibited some actions, such as dumping tailings in stream drainages, industry has successfully gained exemptions to the law.

Another part of the problem is perception. Greenwashing by the mining industry portrays mines as strictly regulated facilities that temporarily use the land with minimal lasting effects. Public relations campaigns by industry trade groups, such as the Gold Institute, imply that with modern technology, mining nowadays poses little risk to the environment or public health. This article looks at two major mining components - cyanide leaching and "zero discharge" tailings impoundments - in an effort to explode these myths.

Cyanide - Mining's Poison Pill

Used to process both base and precious metals, cyanide is the reagent of choice at modern mines. 85% of the world's gold is produced through the cyanide leach process. Although acknowledging cyanide's acute toxicity (1 teaspoon of 2% cyanide solution will kill an adult) the mining industry maintains that accidental releases of cyanide are rare, but that when they do occur, impacts "are transient and the recovery of the environment occurs in a short period."

However, that claim is not born out on the ground; lots of mines leak lots of cyanide into ground and surface waters. In Idaho, the Grouse Creek mine had numerous violations discharging cyanide at levels two to five times higher than allowed. Even after mining ceased in 1997, cyanide continued to leak into nearby Jordan Creek at levels harmful to aquatic life. At the Beal Mountain, Kendall, Golden Sunlight and Zortman-Landusky mines - all in Montana - numerous cyanide spills and leaks contaminated drinking water aquifers and killed streams. These weren't transient effects. Because of persistent cyanide contamination, Pegasus Gold had to provide an alternative drinking water source to the town of Zortman, and Placer Dome bought out landowners downstream of the Golden Sunlight mine . In fact, Montana has so many streams and aquifers contaminated with cyanide from mining operations that, in 1999, a citizen's initiative to ban new cyanide leach operations passed by a healthy margin. Clearly Montana taxpayers, after watching their streams die and faced with a clean-up bill of close to $60 million, didn't buy industry's argument that cyanide doesn't cause long-term problems.

"Zero Discharge" - Fact or Fiction?

Most mines process millions of tons of ore a year. The consistency of wet cement, tailings are what's left over after the ore has been processed. Current practice for permanent tailings storage is to construct a dam across the mouth of stream, divert the stream, and dump the tailings in the drainage. At Ft. Knox, outside of Fairbanks, for example, over 1,000 acres of the upper Fish Creek drainage will be consumed by tailings.

See the full article at: Northern Alaska Environmental Center.

Canadian, Goldcorp's open pit, cyanide-leeching mine runs up against local opposition in Guatemala

Guatemala: Trial of "GoldCorp 7" Begins

[Wednesday, 14 November 2007 ] On November 12, 2007 the oral presentations in the trial against the "Goldcorp 7" began. This is a politically laden case against seven Mam-Mayan community members from the very villages in the municipality of San Miguel Ixtahuacan (department of San Marcos) that are being gravely harmed by Goldcorp's open pit, cyanide-leeching mine.

BACKGROUND

On January 9, 2007, representatives from the Mam-Mayan villages that neighbor the "Marlin" mine in San Miguel Ixtahuacan, San Marcos, Guatemala, operated by Goldcorp Inc's wholly owned subsidiary Montana Exploradora, visited the mining company office. They presented a petition to Goldorp Inc. requesting a resolution to a number of problems suffered due to mining operations.

COMMUNITY CONCERNS INCLUDE:

* Extremely low payments made to local families for lands acquired, according to testimonies, under false pretenses and in some cases through coercion.

(This is typical, see: In Chile, Precious Lands Often Go for a Pittance - Barrick Gold Corporation Pays $19 Dollars for 20,000 Acres )

* Destruction of dozens of homes due to the use of explosives.

* Water contamination (due to use of cyanide and release of heavy metals due to the open pit mining process) resulting in health problems of people and livestock.

* Water depletion due to an apparent lowering of the regional water table resulting in the drying out of wells and natural springs, and some crop failure (ex: fruit trees).

On January 10, community representatives returned to the Goldcorp offices for the response to their petition. According to testimonies, company representatives not only denied all responsibility for the problems, but also insulted them. The community representatives left the company's installations and began walking to their homes. About two kilometers from the mine entrance, members of Goldcorp's private security company attacked the campesinos throwing rocks at them and firing guns, and attempted to force one man into a company car.

The men defended themselves as best they could. Though they suffered some injuries, they escaped and called the police. The police came but did not take testimonies or initiate the necessary investigation into the actions of Goldcorp's security company.

That afternoon, upon hearing the response of the company to their petition, approximately 600 members of communities that neighbor the mine (Agel, San José Nueva Esperanza, Salitre and San José Ixcaniche, of the municipality of San Miguel Ixtahuacán, and Tzalem of the municipality of Sipacapa) peacefully blocked roads to the company installations.

According to testimonies, on January 11, in the midst of the growing protest, community representatives, accompanied this time by the Human Rights Procurators Office (PDH), visited the company offices again to solicit dialog with the company in relation to the damages suffered. The Canadian security manager insulted them (calling them trash, murderers, etc.), and threw them out of the offices.

That day anti-riot forces of the National Civil Police and between 300 and 500 Guatemalan Army soldiers arrived.

Here is the full article.

Making Gold Miners Pay

"Thanks, mountain!" says the grizzled old prospector played by Walter Huston, in the 1948 movie The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, after he and his young partners erase evidence of their digging before heading back to civilization, burros laden with gold dust.

Huston's benevolent gesture was a sentiment decades ahead of its time. Today, gold and other precious-metal mining companies are extracting bounties of ore, leaving behind scarred mountainsides, toxic acid-rock runoffs and waste-rock dumps — and although much of the damage is on public land, the mining operations, most of which are multinationals, are not required to pay royalties on precious-metals production, and many escape liability for environmental restoration.

That tradition may be about to change. Last week, as the price of gold hit a 28-year high and platinum prices set records, a new bill was being debated by the House Natural Resources Committee, which could force the mines to pay up. For 135 years, the mines have taken wealth out of the public domain under the protection of the General Mining Law — a let-'er-rip relic of the wild frontier past that allows mines to stake claims on almost any federal land. Since the law's enactment in 1872, the U.S. government has given away more than $245 billion in mineral reserves through patenting or royalty-free mining, says Rep. Nick Rahall, the West Virginia Democrat who is behind the new bill. Compare that, he says, to the $35 billion the Treasury has reaped from coal, oil and gas produced on federal lands between 1994 and 2001 alone. "So with that scenario," says Rahall, "we are indeed Uncle Sucker."

Rahall's bill would require companies to make royalty payments on "net-smelter" profits from ore mined off federal claims. Two-thirds of those collections would go toward remediation of the $32 billion in environmental mining damage already incurred in the U.S., and one-third to help local communities adversely affected by mining operations. "We're trying to put some fair return to the American taxpayer for the use of their land," says Rahall, the new chairman of the House Interior Subcommittee. "Whether it's coal or gold mining, there are social and economic impacts that are just the same, which is why we ought to be treating all these extractive industries the same."

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Indeed, in Montana's Little Rockies, a gold mining operation that was abandoned in 1997 after 20 years of cyanide leaching — a method of dissolving gold from ore rocks — is still polluting the area and costing millions in public funds to monitor and treat groundwater. Pegasus Gold, the Canadian mine operator, which has since filed for bankruptcy, paid no royalties on the gold it extracted from the area, and now the Ft. Belknap Tribes of Montana, whose reservations adjoin the Little Rockies mining district, says its surface waters are showing unacceptable levels of iron, arsenic, zinc and nickel. "Our biggest fear is that the [U.S. Bureau of Land Management] and the state will not have to provide enough money to run ... water-treatment plants after August 2008," says Dean Stiffarm, environmental liaison for the tribes. "There will be only enough funding to run them six months a year."

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But there are some in the industry who think the royalty will actually be a boon for business. Gold mining's biggest market, the jewelry retailers, support Rahall's bill saying that environmental responsibility is what more and more of its customers are looking for: at least 80% of gold consumed goes to the superfluous bling of human adornment, and some of those customers are feeling ethical pangs.

Tiffany and Co. CEO Michael J. Kowalski early last year signed onto the "No Dirty Gold" campaign launched by the mining-reform advocate Earthworks and has drawn most of the large retailers into supporting Rahall's reform effort. The last thing image-conscious companies like Tiffany want is to be linked to controversies such as that over conflict diamonds, portrayed in the movie Blood Diamond, nor do they want to be seen as callous parties to mining disasters. "Our customers were anxious to be assured that the metals and gemstones used in Tiffany products were extracted and processed in socially and environmentally responsible ways," says Kowalski. "We come to this, not as conservationists or environmentalists, but simply as business people who really are responding to market forces. So this is not about opposing mining; this is about supporting responsible mining."

Here is the full article.

Espolon Gold Mine owner, Kinross Gold Corp. to use Cyanide Heap Leaching in Alaska - Is this the future of the Futaleufu River Valley?

FAIRBANKS (Nov. 9, 2007) -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is allowing a mining company to use large batches of the toxic chemical cyanide at the Fort Knox gold mine.

Fairbanks Gold Mining Inc. will use the chemical to lengthen the life of the mine by extracting fine particles of gold from extremely low-grade ore. The process is known as heap leaching.

A permit from the corps allows Fairbanks Gold Mining Inc. to start building a heap leaching facility at the mine, 26 miles northeast of Fairbanks. The permit allows the company to discharge waste into federal wetlands.

Mine officials estimate the heap leaching facility should extend the life of the operation by several years.

Fairbanks Gold Mining, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Canadian mining giant Kinross Gold Corp., originally expected Fort Knox to last until 2010. The heap leaching process should keep the mine active until 2014 and the processing facilities going through 2019.

The processing facilities will be around longer than the mine because Fairbanks Gold Mining has been stockpiling millions of tons of low-grade ore with an eye toward using the heap leaching pit to extract more gold.

Here is the full article.

About the Esquel Project - 100% Owned by Meridian Gold

Esquel Project

In July 2002, Meridian Gold Inc. completed its acquisition of Brancote Holdings Plc, 100% owner of the Esquel gold deposit. Esquel is a high-grade , low sulfidation, epithermal vein gold deposit located in the Cordon de Esquel in the northern Province of Chubut (Patagonia), Argentina. Mining properties cover an area of at least 1,400 square kilometers and are located near an established infrastructure, which facilitates positive logistics for the development of the mine. As of year-end 2002, existing mineral resources are estimated above 3 million ounces of gold at an average grade of 8.5g/tonne. The project is currently paused and there are no current timelines for permitting or construction.

Host rocks on the Esquel property consist mainly of sub-horizontal andesitic rocks of Jurassic age with minor intercalations of marine and shallow lagoonal, carbonaceous sediments. Tuff units overlie the carbonaceous horizons. Sub-volcanic intrusions of syn- and post-Jurassic age are common as dikes and plugs in the volcanic units.

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Quartz deposition in veins are classic epithermal, open-space deposition. Veins contain quartz and chalcedony with adularia, and show a wide variety of textures. Two types of quartz-chalcedony veins occur on the property: one type is cream-colored, massive to banded veins; the other is dark-gray to black veins containing carbonaceous material. Some intervals of dark veins contain high gold grades. Both types contain ore-grade gold mineralization.

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Meridian Gold is not currently doing any exploration work at Esquel, and remains paused with respect to this project due to the community's concerns. In 2003, the Company hired Business For Social Responsibility ("BSR") to assist in its community relations efforts in Esquel. The BSR report was issued to the community of Esquel in August and Meridian Gold is analyzing the report and the concerns of the local citizens. Meridian Gold continues to evaluate all options related to this project to best protect shareholders' interests.

Here is the full article.

Revisiting the Esquel Gold Mine Protest - Argentine community wins mining moratorium

Excerpted:

Esquel Celebrates One Year Referendum Anniversary

March 2004. The citizens of the Patagonian town of Esquel, Argentina held a four day event to mark the anniversary of their historic 2003 referendum. On March 23, 2004, several thousand people participated in a rally in Esquel to voice their opposition to the proposed mine.

Meridian Gold Inc., headquartered in Reno, NV, is proposing to develop an open-pit gold mine 7 kilometers upstream from the town of Esquel (population approximately 30,000) in Patagonia, Argentina. Today, the natural beauty of the Esquel region attracts tourists, fishermen, and biologists from around the world.

The proposed open-pit mine would use cyanide to extract the gold. The company proposed to bury solid waste from the mine in pits. Lake Esquel will most likely be used as a tailings dam for liquid wastes flowing downstream from the mine site. In addition, the Esquel mountain range is covered with faults and fissures that could cause toxic waste from the mine to seep into the groundwater.

Merdian has tried to soft pedal the environmental impacts of the proposal with a flawed Environmental Impact Assessment. A March 2003 independent evaluation of that assessment reveals the inadequacies of the EIA. Written by Dr. Robert Moran, the report Esquel, Argentina: Predictions and Promises of a Flawed Environmental Impact Assessment demonstrates that Meridian's proposal "[...] is the classic example, which is all too common in Latin America, where an EIA describes short-term benefits and solutions, but fails to even begin to consider long-term consequences."

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Protests against the proposed mine are growing . Marches on December 4, 2002 and January 4, 2003 each drew more than 4,000 people. . Soon after the referendum in March 2003, Meridian hired a consultant to identify the concerns of the Esquel community. The resulting report, prepared by Business for Social Responsibility, states that the company "never did provide adequate information about how it intended to transport, use and destroy the cyanide used."

Meridian claims that the project will not move forward without the support of the community. But exploration activities continue, and in August 2003, Meridian registered Willimanco I, another gold deposit site even closer to Esquel. The company has also appealed to the Supreme Court of Argentina to overturn a ruling by the Provincial Court of Chubut against the project.

Here is the full article.

Manufactured Landscapes - Nature Transformed by Industry, by Edward Burtynsky

Film Awards

Best Documentary – 2007 Genie Awards
Best Canadian Film – Toronto International Film Festival
Best Canadian Film & Best Documentary - Toronto Film Critics Association Awards
Nominated for Grand Jury Prize- Sundance Film Festival 2007

About the Artist

Edward Burtynsky is internationally acclaimed for his large-scale photographs of nature transformed by industry. Manufactured Landscapes – a stunning documentary by award winning director Jennifer Baichwal – follows Burtynsky to China, as he captures the effects of the country’s massive industrial revolution. This remarkable film leads us to meditate on human endeavour and its impact on the planet.




Reviews

"The upright, two legged naked ape that appeared in Africa 150,000 years ago has become an immense force. Our species is now altering the physical, chemical and biological features of the planet on a geological scale. This film let's us look at the impressive, yet troubling scale of our impact. Everyone should see it!"
- DAVID SUZUKI

"A protracted exploration of the aesthetic, social and spiritual dimensions of industrialization and globalization... Raises some sigificant and sobering questions about the impact that we, as humans, make on our environment"
- NEW YORK TIMES

"Manufactured Landscapes tracks the beauty and the horror of industry's imprint on the earth"
- NOW MAGAZINE

Excerpts From the DVD:




More Information:

See the official trailer here: Manfactured Landscapes Trailer
Purchase the DVD video here: Manufactured Landscapes Video
Buy the book here: Manufactured Landscapes Video

The Gold Link – Moving Mountain Ranges for Jewelry

Eighty five percent of the world’s gold production goes to the fabrication of jewelry. This is a visual story of the water, landscape, and people at the source of a new Andean gold supply located on the border of Argentina and Chile.

Pascua Lama Gold Mine: A Contemporary Quest for El Dorado

Pascua Lama Gold Mine Background

Pascua Lama is a mining project consisting of the open-pit exploitation of a deposit of gold, silver and copper ore and its processing to produce doré (gold and silver) and copper concentrate.

The deposit is located high in the Andes on the Chilean-Argentinean border, about 150 kilometres to the south-east of the city of Vallenar in the Commune of Alto del Carmen, Province of Huasco, III Region of Chile.

The nearest communities are Chollay and Las Breas, located 35 and 55 km away, respectively.

The project is bi-national in that it will have workings and operations in both Chilean and Argentine territory. In Argentina, the project is located about 300 km to the north-east of the city of San Juan, in the Department of Iglesia, Province of San Juan.

The operational area is established according to Additional Protocols 20 and 23 of the 16th Economic Complementarity Agreement of negotiated between Chile and Argentina within the framework of the 1980 Treaty of Montevideo.

A large part of the open pit will be in Chilean territory, as well as a waste rock dump, the processing plant, primary crusher, mine equipment maintenance complex, and powder magazine for the storage of explosives.

These facilities will be located in the headwaters of the Estrecho River, tributary of the Chollay River, at 4,400 metres above sea level.

In Argentine territory a smaller portion of the open pit will be built, along with a waste rock dump, a processing plant, a tailings pond, the construction camp (for 4,000 people) and operation camp (for 1,000 people), in addition to a private aerodrome.

The ore will be extracted of the mine at the rate of 15 million tons per year and sent to a primary crusher in Chilean territory, to reduce its size. Then it will be transported by means of a conveyor belt to processing facilities located in Argentine territory, crossing the border through a 2.7 km long tunnel.

In the processing plant the ore will undergo secondary crushing, milling, and washing operations.



The so-called refractory ore will be processed by means of conventional flotation to obtain copper concentrates. The non-refractory ore, as well as wastes from the flotation circuit, will be processed by means of leaching with sodium cyanide, precipitation with zinc, and refinement to obtain “doré” metal.

The water requirement for the Pascua-Lama Project will be 370 l/s in total. This demand will be supplied from the Taguas River in Argentina.

Barrick is proposing to extract additional water in Chile for the operations of the mine and factories, with an estimated requirement of up to 42 l/s that will be taken from the Estrecho and Toro rivers. Barrick will have the corresponding utilisation rights under the legislation of each country.

There will be terrestrial access from both sides of the border. In Chile access will be from the city of Vallenar, via the road that connects Vallenar with the Alto del Carmen area, followed by a secondary road to be developed up the entire Carmen River valley.

The amount of the investment has been estimated to be 950 million dollars.

The Project has a productive life of 20 years according to the present reserve estimates, and it will produce 5,000 tons of copper in concentrates, 615,000 ounces of gold and 18.2 million ounces of silver annually.

The companies developing the project are: Company Minera Nevada S.A. in Chile, and Barrick Exploraciones Argentina S.A. and Exploraciones Mineras Argentinas S.A., in Argentina.

Glacier removal and handling

The information available in the EIA only establishes that this will have an approximate surface area of 10 hectares and that “the sectors of glacier that will have to be removed will be determined with the appropriate lead time in accord with the updated mining plan.” There are no estimates of thickness or the equivalent in water.

The lack of relevant technical expertise in removing glaciers implies an irreversible environmental impact. What is certain is that the three affected glaciers would suffer an environmental impact. Nevertheless, there is no certainty whatsoever of what the impact would be on glaciers or permafrost (frozen rock or soil) from the road network and the associated stabilization measures that generally involves the use of salts.

Here is the full article.

The Environmental Cost of Chile's Gold Mines

The spending power of people from emerging economies is driving the price of gold up to record highs. but at what cost? A controversial mine in northern Chile could threaten one of the most fertile valleys in the driest area of the country.

Chilean authorities outraged over new leak at Los Pelambres mine

Over 300,000 Liters Of Toxic Liquid Spilled In Latest Accident

(Nov. 1, 2007) Chilean authorities expressed outrage Wednesday when informed of a Friday-night toxic leak at a tailings dam in Region IV’s Los Pelambres Mine. That leak, which lasted five hours before mine officials notified authorities, was disclosed to the press Tuesday evening.

Los Pelambres is 60 percent owned by Chile’s powerful Luksic family and administered by Antofagasta Minerals, the mining arm of the family’s economic empire. (ST, Aug. 23) This is the second time since August that the plant has been responsible for a toxic spill.

“This most recent spill happened during a 40 minute time span at about 4 a.m. As soon as we received word of the accident, we immediately went out to the scene to investigate what happened. Still, we were not able to make it out to the mine until about 11 a.m,” Marcelo Gamboa, the head of Region IV’s Environmental Authority (COREMA), told the Santiago Times.
Radio Universidad de Chile reported that toxic residue flowed from the facility at a rate of 128 liters per second, resulting in a spill of more than 300,000 liters in the surrounding area. Officials believe that the waste traveled some two kilometers before entering the nearby Cuncumén River and its tributaries. A faulty pump, they say, was the source of the accident.

Radio Universidad de Chile also quoted Los Pelambres mine officials, who said the liquid contained 1,500 milligrams of sulfate and 0.2 milligrams of molybdenum per liter - quantities that are highly toxic for local flora and fauna.

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This latest spill follows allegations that the mine spewed toxic water into the Cuncumén River in early August. According to mine officials, one of Los Pelambre’s major valves ruptured on August 3, allowing some 5,000 cubic meters of water to leak from the plant to the area surrounding it.

While company officials claim that the leak was not toxic, CONAMA suspects otherwise. CONAMA officials detected abnormally high amount of pollutants, including sulfur, in the Cuncumén River shortly after the accident happened.

“There was a deliberate attempt on part of the mine’s employees to not inform local governing bodies. This meant that samples of the surrounding area were taken too late to have confirmed the spill,” local Dep. Renán Fuentealba (DC) told reporters at the time. He went on to state that the pollution could potentially affect the nearby Choapa Valley’s agricultural production and that dozens of dead fish had already turned up in the river.

Here is the full article.

Photo Credit: Edward Burtynsky, an artist who explores landscapes transformed by industry. Here is his webpage: Manfactured Landscapes.

Cleanup of the Upper Blackfoot Mining Complex

Twilight of the Dam

LINCOLN - As the pool of water recedes behind the Mike Horse dam, so does the threat of another blowout.

At this time of year, the pool typically is at one of its lowest levels. And on a recent crisp fall day, amid howling winds and a hint of snow, a backhoe operator was carefully digging a V-shaped ditch 4 feet deep, just above the western boundary of the pool, which will completely drain it.

This is one of the first long-awaited steps toward restoring the headwaters of the famed Blackfoot River to its original state.

The work is oddly reminiscent of another man-made effort decades ago, when a crew carved a similar trench into the hillside to do what they're doing again today - rerouting Beartrap Creek around what most people call the Mike Horse dam.

Technically, the Mike Horse dam is an impoundment, not a bona fide dam constructed to hold back water. It originated in 1941, when ore was pulled from deep within the bowels of the nearby Mike Horse Mine. After the metal was extracted from the ore through a milling process, the wet tailings ran down a sluice next to Beartrap Creek, where they settled and excess water evaporated or seeped through the mound of tailings.

It's been decades since tailings were placed here, but the seeping is still taking place, sometimes at up to 500 gallons per minute. The giant slope that's the face of the impoundment is moist and spongy when trod upon; the metals that make their way through the ground with the water, now and in the past, have painted the soils bright orange, coal black and salty white.

At the base of the dam, where Mike Horse and Beartrap creeks meet, fluorescent green plants thrive in the metal-laden water.

"It only used to discharge during the springtime," notes Charlie McKenna, an engineer with the Helena National Forest. "But now, even when the water level is low behind the dam, water leaks through it.

"When the water level is high, it leaks like a sieve."

The Blowout

The impoundment and nearby mining sites are part of the Upper Blackfoot Mining Complex, 16 miles east of Lincoln and about 50 miles northwest of Helena. The land on which the Mike Horse dam sits is part of the Helena National Forest's Lincoln Ranger District.

Various entities have worked claims in the complex, but Asarco was the primary operator and created the ditch that funneled Beartrap Creek around the impoundment, according to a history of the site by David Stiller, who wrote a book about the Mike Horse and its impact upon Montana's environment.

On a cool, wet June day 32 years ago, the upper ditch gave way after days of powerful rainstorms cut loose landslides. The creek water mixed with trees, rocks, rain and melting snow, with the debris blocking the only spillway.

Cresting the 50-foot-tall impoundment, the water took bite after bite through a 100-foot-wide section on the east side, eventually carving a deep "V" through the dam and sending 100,000 tons of tailings into the headwaters of the famed Blackfoot River, immortalized in Norman Maclean's novel "A River Runs Through It."

The blowout caused a toxic stew of heavy metals to rush downstream, killing thousands of fish and all other aquatic life for 10 miles of the Blackfoot River. It became the poster child for environmental groups calling for the cleanup of the Upper Blackfoot Mining Complex, as well as other abandoned properties throughout Montana.

The Anaconda Co., which leased the mine and mill operation from Asarco, repaired the impoundment by November 1975. The new structure was 50 feet high, 500 feet long and 25 feet wide at the top. Upgrades made in 1980 raised the impoundment by two feet.

By this time, Beartrap Creek was flowing directly into the pool behind the dam. It's still considered a "dead" stream below the dam, devoid of fish.

Concerns were raised about the old impoundment in 1964, 1972 and 1974, before the blowout and dam repair.

Questions began circulating a few years ago about the new structure's stability.

A 2005 study by the U.S. Forest Service, which owns the land on which the dam sits, called the structure "compromised," and noted it had several large voids in it. Last spring, water was seeping through the dam at around 400 to 500 gallons per minute.

Here is the full article.

U.S. Gold Mining Company Geocom to Strip Mine Chilean Patagonia - Espolon and Futaleufu River Area

The international Gold mining company Geocom Resources, along with Kinross Gold Corp., both United States based companies are quietly buying up the mineral rights to the Espolon Valley in the heart of the Chilean Patagonia totaling over 91,000 hectares (353 square miles), with over 318 claims in the region X.

The international Gold mining company Geocom Resources, along with Kinross Gold Corp., both United States based companies are quietly buying up the mineral rights to the Espolon Valley in the heart of the Chilean Patagonia totaling over 91,000 hectares (353 square miles), with over 318 claims in the region X. We are closely watching these developments as Gold mining operations have the potential for incredible environmental devastation, even under the closest regulation. We need your help to insure the environmental assault on South America's Patagonia is brought to the full light of day. We even have a simple email in both Spanish and English prepared for you to help us let everyone know.

Geocom y Kinross Gold Corp., started quietly investigating the Gold mining possibilities in the Espolon valley just outside the town of Futaleufu in the Northern part of the Patagonia several years ago. The project was shelved for several years, and recently the company has again brought the the project to active status. They are also currently investigating other mining opportunities around the Patagonia including copper mines. Every indication is that this project will seriously go forward as the Gold and other minerals are relatively accessible, but at the cost of the environment of the Futaleufu and Espolon river valleys.

Espolon lake, Espolon river, and the Futaleufu river at risk

The Espolon Valley is located upriver in the tributaries to the Espolon Lake and the river Espolon that flow in to the Futaluefu river. The location of the proposed mining operation is on the watershed directly upstream from the town of Futaleufu approximately fifteen kilometers, in one of the most environmentally sensitive points in the Patagonia. Ultimately the Espolon valley watershed flows all the way to the Pacific Ocean, passing numerous other communities along the way. Sustainable Development vs. Environmental Destruction.

This watershed is also key to the tourism industry, that has been heavily invested in by such organizations as the inter-American bank, the Chilean government, Douglas Tompkins, and others as a means of sustainable development and to protect the environment of the region. The Espolon lake and river is the spawning grounds for trout and salmon, a key source of tourism revenue. The Futaleufu river is World famous as one of the top white water rivers in the World. Simply the basic disturbances inherent in strip mining operations, let alone the contamination from toxic chemicals used in Gold mining operations, will insure the total destruction of the ecosystem, economy, and will have a serious environmental impact perhaps as far as the Chilean coast of the Pacific ocean where the fishing industry would be devastated.

More than 350 Square miles of the Chilean Patagonia at risk

The mining company is buying mineral rights to approximately 91,000 hectares in the area. Mineral surveyors that have worked in the area for the company have indicated that it may be one of the riches deposits of gold ever discovered in Chile, and perhaps South America. There is also reports of deposits of Copper in the same area of the Espolon Valley.

Argentina has already rejected similar projects just across the boarder from Chile's southern region X, where the Futaleufu river flows across the boarder and the Espolon river enters the Futaleufu river just about 20 km from the proposed mine.

Here is the full article.