The Open Pit Gold Mine Blues
Posted in All that is way fucking wrong, Foes, Orwellian Clownshow, Politics, Us vs. Them on January 31st, 2008 by SaltyFrom the quality blog Way Upstream, comes a cautionary tale via The Tico Times about the promises made by mining companies and the collision of promises with reality. The Bellavista Mine in Costa Rica is an open pit gold mine, that despite Central Sun Mining’s frequent promises and assurances, had the integrity of it’s retention ponds and impoundments compromised by land slides and heavy rains, leaving the surrounding land and water in danger of massive pollution by mining tailings and chemical leftovers, the residues of extracting gold from the rock.
Costa Rica had imposed a ban on opne pit mining in 2002, but the Bellavista’s mining concessions had been granted earlier, so the mine was exempted from the ban and by 2005 was in operation, despite protests from local residents and international environmental groups. Now stop me if this sounds familar:
“the humble local village, with ailing infrastructure, scant jobs, rising crime. An anxious mayor, scrambling to live up to campaign promises of a better life. A people, if not quite desperate, hardly thriving. Enter the brawny transnational corporation, flashing foreign money, with its promises of new jobs, untold riches, better lives, a future for the village’s children. The company, then called Glencairn Gold Co. (now Central Sun Mining, Inc.), launched a public relations campaign.”
Now, the mine is closed, 350 villagers are out of work, and there appears to be surface water pollution, and potential ground water and soil pollution. The reason? Everyone outside of the mine and government blames poor regulation, faulty design and indifference on the part of the owners and the regulators. Central Sun Mining? They blame an act of God and surely accept no responsibility or liability.
