Environmental groups in Argentina criticize suspension lift against Barrick Gold mine

[Judi Lynn]

Environmental groups in Argentina criticize suspension lift against Barrick Gold mine
The Associated Press
Published Friday, September 25, 2015 3:55PM EDT



BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Environmental groups in Argentina on Friday criticized a judge's decision to lift orders suspending operations of Barrick Gold, the Canadian-owned mine that recently had a cyanide spill.

Groups including the Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers argued it was too soon for investigators to know the severity of the spill or whether the problem had been corrected.

"We need to see the results" of the environmental tests, said local Greenpeace activist Gonzalo Strano.

On Tuesday, investigating Judge Pablo Oritja suspended all operations using cyanide at Barrick Gold's Veladero mine, about 786 (1,265 kilometres) northwest of Buenos Aires.

More:
http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/environmental-groups-in-argentina-criticize-suspension-lift-against-barrick-gold-mine-1.2581630

[center]

Judge Pablo Oritja[/center]
Monday, September 21st 2015 - 08:19 UTC

Barrick Gold cyanide spill in Argentine mine analyzed by UN team of experts


A group of United Nations experts have started to analyze water samples in the Argentine northeastern province of San Juan where a spill from a malfunctioning cyanide pipeline in a gold mine belonging to Canada's multinational Barrick Gold has caused a water emergency. The Veladero mine in San Juan is one of the largest in Argentina and apparently the spill reached the rivers Jachal, Las Taguas and Blanco.


Officials from the the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) arrived in San Juan as part of an agreement to audit mining projects and are currently analyzing the samples. The results of will be handed over directly to the Argentine Judiciary.

The Barrick Gold Canadian multinational company admitted that at least 224,000 liters of a “cyanide solution” have been spilled and said it was waiting on laboratory results over the substance.

Judge Pablo Oritja, in charge of the investigation, is currently seeking to determine whether there was human negligence on the cyanide spill as the malfunction could have been caused due to a lack of maintenance. Oritja visited the affected area on Friday and said that Barrick’s emergency plan didn’t work, pointing that a floodgate that should have been closed to avoid the spill was actually open.

“The key issue here is why the emergency plan didn’t work, which could have avoided the cyanide from reaching the river. The floodgate was open and we are now investigating the reasons behind that,” Oritja said over the weekend.

More:
http://en.mercopress.com/2015/09/21/barrick-gold-cyanide-spill-in-argentine-mine-analyzed-by-un-team-of-experts

[bananas]

1. Barrick Gold censored Greg Palast, the IPS news agency, and probably others.

I want to add this because there are always people just learning about this kind of behaviour - including people who read Greg Palast in the UK not knowing they've only been getting part of the story:

http://www.utne.com/community/the-truth-buried-alive.aspx

By Greg Palast, From The Best Democracy Money Can Buy
April 2003

<snip>

This damning story, and the one we ran last week, were both deleted from the British edition of Palast’s book for fear they would run afoul of that country’s draconian libel law—which makes it a crime even to print a true story if the facts could harm the reputation of a person or company.

—The Editors

<snip>

Bad news. In July 2001, in the middle of trying to get out the word of the theft of the election in Florida, I was about to become the guinea pig, the test case, for an attempt by a multinational corporation to suppress free speech in the USA using British libel law. I have a U.S.-based Web site for Americans who can’t otherwise read my columns or view my BBC television reports. The gold-mining company held my English newspaper liable for aggravated damages for my publishing the story in the USA. If I did not pull the Bush-Barrick story off my U.S. Web site, my paper would face a ruinously costly fight.[1]

Panicked, the Guardian legal department begged me to delete not just the English versions of the story but also my Spanish translation, printed in Bolivia. (Caramba!)

The Goldfingers didn’t stop there. Barrick’s lawyers told our papers that I personally would be sued in the United Kingdom over Web publications of my story in America, because the Web could be accessed in Britain. The success of this legal strategy would effectively annul the U.S. Bill of Rights. Speak freely in the USA, but if your words are carried on a U.S. Web site, you may be sued in Britain. The Declaration of Independence would be null and void, at least for libel law. Suddenly, instead of the Internet becoming a means of spreading press freedom, the means to break through censorship, it would become the electronic highway for delivering repression.

And repression was winning. InterPress Services (IPS) of Washington, DC, sent a reporter to Tanzania with Lissu. They received a not from Barrick that said if the wire service ran a story that repeated the allegations, the company would sue. IPS did not run the story.

<snip>

[bananas]

2. 2007 Corpwatch report on Barrick

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2465401

Barrick's Dirty Secrets: Communities Respond to Gold Mining's Impacts Worldwide

CorpWatch
May 1st, 2007

Canadian-owned Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold producer, is exploring, building and operating huge, open-pit gold mines on nearly every continent on the planet.

On average, gold mining today produces 70 tons of waste for every ounce of gold, while also consuming and polluting massive amounts of water. An estimated 50 percent of these mining operations occur on native lands.

For many Indigenous peoples, who often rely on their environment for food and necessities, mining threatens not only their livelihood, but also their spirituality and traditional way of life.

These new "modern mining" projects leave thousand-year legacies of acid mine drainage, destruction of ecosystems, disease, and regional climate change. Riches in the form of gold, silver and copper are exported to first world shareholders, leaving behind poverty, dependency and pollution.

A new CorpWatch report details the operations of Barrick gold in nine different countries, focusing on the efforts on the part of the communities to seek justice

<snip>

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14466