Honduran addresses mining issues

[subsuelo]

the Sault Star

A community development leader from Honduras will talk to Saulites about what he says are a Canadian mining companies' harmful practices in his country, Feb. 27 to 29.

Pedro Landa, who runs a Honduran agency called Caritas Tegucigalpa, said he better understands his country's delicate environmental situation since Hurricane Mitch hit the nation in 1998.

"My country's vulnerability (is) largely due to the abuse and irrational exploitation of nature historically undertaken in Honduras," said Landa, in a recent press release.

The advocate's work is not limited to the environment; for the past 20 years, Landa has also worked to eliminate poverty and

more here

[Judi Lynn]

1. Curious about what company(ies) might be involved, I did a quick search:

FEATURE - Honduran villagers battle over Canada-owned mine

HONDURAS: November 29, 2002

SAN IGNACIO, Honduras - Under a harsh sun, elderly Honduran peasant farmer Guillermo Velasquez looks with dismay across his dry lands to an open-pit gold and silver mine run by a unit of Canada's Glamis Gold.

Velasquez, 80, owns around 12 acres (5 hectares) in the municipality of El Porvenir in central Honduras and has not left his lands since he was born. For decades, he has devoted his life to farming grain, vegetables and livestock.
Nearby in San Ignacio municipality, Minerales Entre Mares, a unit of Glamis Gold, has run the San Martin gold and silver mine since 1999.

Velasquez and others like him contend mining has devastated the forests and dried up water sources in their poor valley. Faced with the possibility mining could start in their areas, they are locked into conflict with their neighbors in San Ignacio, who largely support the existing project and the money it has brought.

"They are totally destroying our forest. I am ready to fight against that company. We want it to leave. We will give our lives for that if we have to," said Velasquez, pointing to a huge gash in the hillside under a cloud of dust where mining was under way.

"We no longer have any water here. The rivers and ravines are dry and the wells don't give us water any more either," he said.

More:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/18834/story.htm

Oh, God, this is a very old, and ugly story, isn't it? Corrupt local government officials selling out the interests and well-being of their poorer, and more HONEST countrymen. Jeezus H. Christ. I despise the criminals in this country who still promote this evil like the corroded, depraved tools they are.

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Report
Protests Mount Against Mining Giant
By Stephen Leahy

The Canadian mining giant Goldcorp, which runs the largest gold mine in Mexico, is racking up complaints about its environmental violations. In Honduras, officials are considering legal action.

TORONTO, (Tierramérica).- Dangerous levels of lead and arsenic have been found in the blood of Honduran villagers living downstream from a controversial gold and silver mine owned by Canada's Goldcorp Inc., the world's third largest gold mining firm.

According to the ecologists who organized the study, lead and arsenic levels in the blood were higher than the maximum recommended by international standards (70 ug/dl) in a sample of 10 people who live near the San Martín mine, in San Ignacio, a municipality located in the central Siria Valley.

The study, presented last year and downplayed by the mining industry, is just one more item in the growing file opened in Honduras against the company operating the mine, which has been the target of local and international protests since it opened in 1999.

Although it is operated by Entre Mares, a Honduran company that is a subsidiary of the Canadian Glamis Gold Ltd., it is now under Goldcorp Inc., based in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, which bought out Glamis in November.

That takeover makes Goldcorp the third largest gold producer in the world, with mining concessions throughout the Americas and Australia.

One of the firm's most ambitious projects will be launched in Mexico, in Zacatecas state, for which Goldcorp obtained mining permits in mid-January in an expedited way. At a cost of 882 million dollars and proven and probable reserves totaling an estimated 9.98 billion ounces of gold, Peñasquito would be the country's largest gold mine.

Goldcorp, which proudly proclaims on its website that it is "The world's lowest cost gold producer", maintains several conventional open-pit mines, like San Martín in Honduras, which use a water-based sodium cyanide solution poured over huge piles of ore to separate the gold.

The used cyanide solution is a deadly toxin and has to be carefully stored. This process is in common use, but environmental experts says it consumes huge amounts of fresh water and generates highly toxic byproducts, including heavy metals like mercury and arsenic, and can contaminate water sources that are used for human consumption.

More:
http://www.tierramerica.info/nota.php?lang=eng&idnews=98

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Thursday, November 29, 2007
Environmental destruction and and Health Harms in the Siria Valley, Honduras.

(A Good Reason Why Not to Buy New Gold Jewellry )

In October Rights Action led an educational delegation to Honduras, to investigate the environmental destruction and health risks caused by the Goldcorp Inc. owned gold mine, in the Siria Valley, Department of Francisco Morazan, Honduras. During our three day visit to the region, we were hosted by the Siria Valley Environmental Defense Committee, a local organization that has been reporting on the effects of the mine over the past 6 years.

Goldcorp’s heap- leach mining operation is harmful to the environment and the health of the surrounding communities for a variety of reasons: the use of cyanide to leech gold from excavated ore exposes the area to heavy metals. Multiple health harms are associated with heavy metal contamination, including skin diseases, skin infections, hair loss, respiratory problems and birthing complications. In addition, substantial amounts of water are used in heap-leach mining, resulting in regional water shortages.
(snip)


Excavated ore is moved to large heaps, and saturated with cyanide solution that slowly leaches down through the heaps, and then channeled to tailing pools. The Siria Valley Environmental Defense Committee told us that some of the pools are not lined with plastic sheeting, which minimizes cyanide leeching into the groundwater, in order to cut costs. Low cost production also means there are no covers to prevent wildlife entering the pools.
(snip)







The most extreme case we saw was in the relocated community of Palo Ralo de San Jose. A 2 yr old girl, Lesly , has impaired motor ability - she cannot walk or hold her upper body upright. The fact that her father worked for 7 years in the mine, dealing directly with dangerous chemicals is suspected as being the cause of her disability.

Goldcorp/ Entre Mares has stated that the cause of the health problems in the communities surrounding the mine is lack of hygiene .
(snip)

http://gmeyerphotography.blogspot.com/

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Got that? Goldcorp/Entre Mares says the reason Honduran people in the area become seriously ill is because they are UNCLEAN!

Could anything be dirtier than the conscience of Goldcorp CEO Ian Telfer?



Goldcorp CEO Ian Telfer, right, and Glamis Gold President and CEO Kevin McArthur