Pascua Lama and George Bush Sr.

[neonlyte]

Anyone Stateside heard anything about this?

The project is called PASCUA LAMA. The company is called Barrick Gold. The operation is planned by a multi-national company, one of whose members is George Bush Senior.

The Chilean Government has approved the project to start this year, 2006. The only reason it hasn't started yet is because the farmers have got a temporary stay of execution. If they destroy the glaciers, they will not just destroy the source of specially pure water, but they will permanently contaminate the 2 rivers so they will never again be fit for human or animal consumption because of the use of cyanide and sulphuric acid in the extraction process.

Every last gramme of gold will go abroad to the multinational company and not one will be left with the people whose land it is. They will only be left with the poisoned water and the resulting illnesses.

This is part of a long message forwarded to me by a reputable source, never heard of it or read about it.

EDIT: Found a link - Canada Mining Watch - they want to remove 10 hectares (45 acres) of glacier above the snow line to undertake a mining operation. What's a a few more hectares if it means people will make money.

 

[Pure]

very interesting, neon,

rape-the-landscape--open pit-- mining is increasing hard to carry out in the states. these third world countries are a push over. a open pit in the Andes, a glacier partly removed, some Indians displaced, what's the big deal?

===
Snopes addressed the story, apparently because of some emails circulating to save the glaciers and rivers and someone asked if it was a hoax. Snopes decided it's not a hoax and gave some interesting info at

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/pascualama.asp


here is a link to Reuters Canada, just in

Barrick says Pascua Lama on track

Wed May 24, 2006 5:57 PM EDT

http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/ne...MINERALS-CHILE-BARRICK-COL.XML&archived=False


SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - Canadian miner Barrick Gold (ABX.TO: Quote) said on Wednesday the remaining details of its $1.5 billion Pascua Lama gold project were on track for final approval by the Chilean government despite environmental and community opposition.


At a world mining conference in Santiago, Igor Gonzales, president of Barrick Gold South America, said the problems the Pascua Lama project is confronting are no different from those of its other projects.


"The biggest challenges we are facing by far, in both South America and Africa, are social in nature," said Gonzales.

The project has faced strong criticism from environmental and community groups worried about water pollution and wary of the project's original proposal to remove glaciers in the Andes mountain range.


The project received tentative approval from the Chilean government in February, but awaits approval from Argentina.
Barrick, with 22 mines in four continents, is the world's largest gold miner.


Barrick said the Pascua Lama project entails an investment of about $1.5 billion and has reserves of some 18.3 million ounces of gold, which will be accessed through an open-pit mine over a period of 20 years.


Gonzales stressed the importance of Barrick investments in South America, especially in Peru, Argentina and Chile, which together represent about a third of the firm's gold reserves.
Gonzalez also said its Chilean copper mine, Zaldivar, which last year produced 123,286 tonnes of copper cathode, was not for sale, even though copper is not the company's main focus.


© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.