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Protesters against Barrick Gold start 105 mile march
posted on: Apr 1 2010 10:13 by Royston. Viewed 784 times.
"Green is worth more than gold'' was the slogan chanted by hundreds of people protesting about contamination at the Barrick Gold mining project as they started a 105 mile protest march.
"The concession to Barrick Gold is a shameful agreement,'' said political analyst and candidate for deputy Pedro Catrain, while marching with hundreds of people, many of them young environmentalists, who wore shirts with the slogan ``Barrick out '.
The consortium Pueblo Viejo Dominicana Corporation (PVDC), formed by Barrick Gold and Goldcorp, acquired the company, Placer Dome in 2005, which had, since 2001, the operating license of the former mine located 105 kilometers north of the capital, but had not yet begun to exploit it.
In late 2009, PVDC succeeded in getting an amendment in Congress to the contract that extended permission to extract gold, silver, zinc and copper to a greater extent than the mine of Pueblo Viejo with conditions under which the Canadian company would begin to pay the State once it had recovered its total investment and delivering returns above 10%.
Catrain and the civil action group, Autoconvocados, participating in the march, demanded that the contract be reviewed and that the company repairs the environmental damage that has already been done in the area. Other more radical protesters are demanding that the Canadian firm leave the country altogether.
"Barrick's contract should be terminated," insisted youth leader Alexander Mundaray, from the "Lucha X tus Derechos',' organization .
In addition to Autoconvocados and "Lucha X tus Derechos'", representatives from the Academy of Sciences and various candidates for public office are using the event to publicize their various points of view.
Protesters set out on Wednesday afternoon from Santo Domingo and headed toward the town of Pedro Brand, which will be the first of three stops for the night before arriving at noon on Saturday at the entrance of the mine, where they intend to establish a camp.
PDVC announced in late 2009 it will invest 3,000 million dollars, the largest foreign investment received by the Dominican Republic on one project, to begin extracting gold from Pueblo Viejo in the fourth quarter of 2011.
The mine was in operation by local company, Rosario Dominicana, from 1975 to 1999, and left environmental damage valued by the Dominican government at US$75 million.
These damages are sulfide contamination of the Mejita and Margajita rivers, whose waters run red due to chemicals and end up in the Hatillo Dam, which in turn provides irrigation for the main rice growing area of the country.
The mining company has insisted, through press releases, that it has not yet begun operation of the mine and that pollution is due to the work of Rosario Dominicana, who disappeared 11 years ago.
To solve the pollution left by Rosario, PVDC says it "brings to the Dominican State, without any conditions, the sum of 37 million dollars,'' according to Barrick Gold press releases.
A week ago, the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) and the Academy of Science recommended the state to temporarily suspend the contract with Barrick Gold to determine the causes of the recent poisoning of more than 340 employees of the mine.
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