Scarce water in Argentina threatened by Barrick gold mine
From the article:
For nearly a year and a half, local residents in the northwestern Argentine province of La Rioja have been blocking the road that climbs up to the Nevados de Famatina mountain to protest a gold mining project that they say will pollute the water in the country’s driest district.
"The mountain is our only source of water, and it regulates the region’s climate," said Marcela Crabbé, a shopkeeper in Chilecito, a city of 45,000 located 30 km from Nevados de Famatina. "One hundred years ago this was a mining zone, but that left the area neither gold nor progress, just a huge environmental debt," she told IPS.
Chilecito and Famatina -- a town of less than 8,000 people located 20 km from the mountain it takes its name from -- are in the northern part of La Rioja, in the foothills of the Andes mountains, some 1,200 km northwest of Buenos Aires.
More than 2,000 people took part in the latest protest against the mine, earlier this month.
Criss-crossed by dry river beds, and with virtually no surface water, La Rioja is Argentina’s most arid province. It obtains its water from wells more than 200 metres deep, and from mountains like the 6,250-metre Nevados de Famatina, which provide water during the thaw period. If this melt water is polluted, the very survival of the two nearby towns would be in danger.
La Rioja Governor Luis Beder Herrera himself acknowledged this month that the province’s biggest problem is the lack of water: "We are the only province which practically has no rivers; water means everything for us." Nevertheless, his administration has promoted mining activity.
"I don't understand people who say we are going to pollute," said the governor. "I don't know of a single case of people who have died of this famous pollution. They are trying to scare people, but we aren't going to bring this to a halt."
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Their only source of water.
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- JanforGore
- added this
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- Vierotchka
- added August 26, 2008
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Raping the planet for profit as people lanquish in poverty. Barrick Gold in Papua New Guinea... so when their management states their work is not harmful to the environment, you know it's the $$$$$$$$$$$$$ talking.
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Planned environmental devastation of the Andean Cordilleros
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Bush's daddy is also aligned with Barrick Gold. What a surprise.
Human rights:
In addition to the Indigenous Rights at the core of most of Barrick's projects (U.S., Australia, Chile, and PNG), Barrick's mine security has been accused of human rights abuses at Barrick's mines in Tanzania and Papua New Guinea.Political influence:
Here is a list of Controversial Characters associated with Barrick:Brian Mulroney: A former Prime Minister of Canada, Mulroney is well known for negotiating NAFTA, guaranteeing vast quantities of Canada's energy resources to the United States under the guise of Free Trade. (he has also recently been implicated in a corruption scandal for receiving $100,000 from a corporation for which he sat on the board... I can bet you a sentence on this (and a source) if you like.)
George Bush Sr. (past senior advisor): George Bush was on board around the time that Barrick got a Nevada mine (on Western Shoshone traditional land) containing $10 billion in gold by paying the US Treasury less than $10,000. The US Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt called this deal, "the biggest gold heist since the days of Butch Cassidy," and "a form of legalized extortion."
Peter Munk (chairman and founder): Munk initially got set up in the gold business with funds from Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi*. He now has his own private island in the Georgian Bay and the University of Toronto Center for International Studies named after him.
Gustavo Cisneros: The media mogul of Venezuela, Cisneros hit the international spotlight for his alleged role in the failed coup to oust Hugo Chavez.
Khashoggi is a well known Saudi arms dealer who was a conduit in the Iran-Contra Scandal, or the deal by which the U.S. used profits from arms sales to Iran to fund the Contras in Nicaragua against the Left-wing Sandinista government.
In Tanzania, it has been almost ten years since an estimated 30,000-400,000 small-scale miners were forced off the Buyanhulu mine site to make way for corporate mining. That deal was brokered by Sutton Resources’ CEO James Sinclair, who was a friend of the president of Tanzania and several senior ministers, as was his daughter.
Accusations of high-level nepotism have since plagued the Bulyanhulu operations, with allegations of millions in tax evasion surfacing last year. Additionally, just this July, the Tanzanian government was criticized for signing a mining agreement with Barrick prematurely, and selling it’s 15 percent stake in the Bulyanhulu mine for too little.
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Not forgetting the systematic damage and pollution of large swaths of the Amazon river and many of its tributaries done by those seeking for gold in which cyanide is used for extracting gold from low-grade ore by converting the gold to water soluble aurocyanide metallic complex ions. This method poisons the water, kills the fish and other river animals, and poisons people who live downstream. Greed knows no limits.
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yes, and we're digging ourselves into oblivion.
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- JanforGore
- 4 months ago
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