Barrick Gold in Chile: ‘We regret environmental problems, we’ll comply’

Barrick Gold in Chile will comply in enviromental issues, not in Dominican Republic

 

Canadian mining company Barrick Gold Corporation said today that it will comply with the details of the resolution of Chile's Superintendent for the Environment (SMA) in which the authority fined the company US$ 16.4 million.

As Digital Journal reported earlier today, Chile’s SMA announced a fine of about 16,4 million dollars to Barrick Gold for violating several regulations and environmental compliance resolutions. Additionally, the authority instructed Barrick Gold to stop construction activities at the Pascua Lama project until contaminated water management systems could be implemented in the manner provided in the Environmental Qualification Resolution that approved the operations, but the company had failed to put in place.



Today the company issued a statement saying it will build temporary structures to gather, transport and discharge water into a settling basin north of the mine and will monitor the environmental variables affected by the operation which threaten Andean glaciers very important to local indigenous Diaguita communities.

""We deeply regret that Pascua Lama has suffered difficulties in its construction and we will endeavor to rectify the problems and meet the terms of the approved project. We are respectful of the institutions of the countries in which we operate, and consequently, we will act according to the resolution."" said Eduardo Flores Zelaya, president of Barrick Gold South America, and Senior VP of Pascua Lama, according to LaTercera (in Spanish).




Furthermore, the company’s website posted a declaration which includes the following statement: ""Barrick is fully committed to complying with all aspects of the resolution and to operating at the highest environmental standards." "





After reading this ,,we ask our self several questions:

How come they were can comply in Chile and Nevada but not in Dom. Rep. ?

How come that nobody says nothing either?

Why the Dominican government is not forcing them to comply with environmental issues in the last "happy agreement"?

Why they didn't talk about reforestation, jobs for the poor people in the area , water treatment facilities,hospitals for the people that eventually will get sick, etc?

How come that the Dominican government haven't seen a dime yet?

Now we certainly have more questions than answers..

Barrick agrees to pay fine to Chileans, nothing to Dominicans

Barrick Gold pays $11.6-million Pascua-Lama fine ...

Santiago — Reuters

Published Friday, May. 31 2013, 6:30 PM EDT



Barrick Gold Corp. has paid a discounted $11.6-million (U.S.) fine for serious environmental violations at its suspended Pascua-Lama gold project, a spokesperson for the company said on Friday.

Last Friday, Chile’s new environmental regulator ordered the controversial $8.5-billion project be halted and fined the world’s biggest gold miner around $16-million.

Chile’s President says Barrick Gold Corp. must follow 23 steps to comply with orders from his country’s environmental regulator, a message that underscores the tough road ahead for the company to get its crucial Pascua-Lama gold project back on track.

Sebastian Pinera, in Ottawa to discuss Canada-Chile economic relations, admonished Barrick for its handling of the $8.5-billion (U.S.) mine development so far.






So, let me see If I understand:

• Barrick Gold agree to pay to Chile the fine ( nothing to the Dominican counterparts)

• No foreign investment run away of Chile because of the fine

• The did have resources to pay a fine , despite what their executives were saying recently

• Dominicans haven't seen a dime yet after the famous agreement

• Barrick Gold will keep polluting the environment, the rivers, dams and air with tons of cyanide and mercury as they always do everywhere in the world...

• We, Dominicans , are the most naive human beings on planet Earth

Nobody is going to do nothing? Nobody is going to say nothing either?What the hell I am missing over here?

Unfinished business

The Barrick Gold issue



Everyone is happy about the big agreement of the Dominican government  with Barrick Gold related to Pueblo Viejo Gold mine in Cotui, but there are certain issues not finished yet..
 In a press conference after a meeting of several hours between senior officials and Barrick Gold executives in the National Palace, the government announced the pact to amend the contract, to be submitted to Congress as soon as possible.

 Among other points, the agreement will raise Government revenue by more than US$1.5 billion over the project's duration, in addition to the US$10.0 billion projected in March 2013, and raises the profit split from 37.1% to 51.3 % for the country, and lowers Barrick’s from 62.9% to 48.7%

Everything looks clear in the agreement..except for a couple of things:

• We haven't seen a dime yet..

• We haven't get clear what is going to happens with the millions in fines of BG that they already owe to the Dominican state.. ..

• 
  Do BG have any plan to employ Dominican people instead of bringing more peruvians?

• What is going to happens with the cyanide and mercury? How are they going to clean that mess?

• What is going to happens with the crops of cocoa beans, coffee beans and fishing infrastructure that we had before..?   Any reforestation plans either?

• Did anybody realize that we are pushing for more marginality of Dominican people by allowing the eviction of 600 families?

• So far, instead of bringing prosperity to Cotui area, BG only brought misery , illness, cyanide, evictions, and poverty..
  What the government, in charge of protecting its people ,is going to do about it?

• Is there any plan study to analyze the horrendous environmental consequences of Barrick Gold in DR?

2000 years later..I still hearing Jesus saying, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing. .

Barrick Gold to seal reviewed Dominican mine contract next week

 

Santo Domingo.- Several senior executives of Barrick Gold Corp. will visit the country in the next few weeks to endorse the contract renegotiated with the Dominican Government.

The announcement comes two weeks after Barrick Gold capitulated before president Danilo Medina’s stern warning to review the gold mining contract to give the country a faire share of the income.

Once the preliminary agreement signed May 8 is ratified, it would be submitted to Congress, which is expected to approve the amendment.

The government officials who participated in the talks to rewrite the contract for the mine at Pueblo Viejo (northeast)  have continued holding meetings to hammer  out some details.

A source quoted by hoy.com.do said despite the announced preliminary agreement, it’s a complex negotiations involving several new financial aspects, especially for the Canadian miner.

The source also notes that while gold’s price of US$1,600 an ounce was used as the reference in the renegotiation, what should be done regarding its current downward trend must still be established.
 
 ________________________________________________________________________

 The source didn't mention that BG keeps the same operational cost as it was in 2008, so it keeps a VERY good deal for BG.

The conversation of BG and the government were about the financial issues.They haven't talk about pollution, eviction ,unemployment, cleaning the cyanide and mercury from the rivers and dams, , water treatment program , health issue, dead crops and what are they going to do with the 600 families they left without water in that area.

The situation now is unbearable for those people living in the second poorest area of Dominican republic


The government was supposed to be protecting their people. So far it seems like another scam to me.


Time to be good Dominicans and support our brothers and sisters in that deprived area.We need to be proactive and keep our natural resources.

Time to say no to Barrick Gold !

Barrick Gold Fined $16M For Environmental Problems At $5B Pascua Lama Project In Chile

Chile blocks Barrick Gold mining project

 

Diaguita Indians celebrate victory in seeing mining giant Barrick Gold Corporation fined for environmental violation.

More bad news for some embattled gold miners. On Friday, Barrick Gold was halted around noon in New York as reports surfaced indicating the Chilean government had forced the company to “paralyze” its operations in Pascua Lama, one of the largest gold and silver resources in the world into which Barrick has poured nearly $5 billion in. Silver Wheaton , a joint-venture partner in the project, was halted a few minutes later.

According to Chilean daily El Mercurio, Barrick will be fined about 8 billion Chilean pesos, or $16.4 million, given the company’s failure to comply with environmental regulation. Beyond the fine, Chile’s Superintendent for the Environment, Juan Carlos Monckeberg Fernandez, has established that all construction activity at Pascua Lama must stop immediately.


The Pascua Lama project is located in the Andes Mountains, between Chile and Argentina. Barrick had already announced its operations in Chile were halted in its latest earnings release, as the company was assessing environmental and regulatory requirements, while negotiating with a court of appeals. Barrick has invested nearly $5 billion in Pascua Lima, which holds almost 18 million ounces of proven and probable gold reserves and 676 million ounces of silver.

The main problem appears to be the water management systems at Pascua Lama, El Mercurio reported. The open-pit mining project has the potential to contaminate water in the area, and according to the Chilean government, Barrick hasn’t taken the proper precautions, precautions it had agreed to previously.

It hasn’t been a good year for gold, or anything related to it. Major mining companies have all suffered steep stock price declines. Barrick Gold is among the worst performers, down more than 40% in 2013, but others like Newmont Mining NEM -0.78% and Goldcorp are also well in the red, down more than 20% each. Gold prices have also taken a beating, with bullion currently trading below $1,400 an ounce.

                                 Diaguita people

 People from the Diaguita indigenous group whose community lives downstream from the mine allege that their water supply and glaciers have been contaminated by the construction work.

The Diaguita people who live in small towns along rivers that flow down from the mine were feeling a sense of victory on Friday.

"Even though we seem so small, we could beat Barrick, which is a giant," said one community member Osvaldina Guzman Villegas.

 
______________________________________

Barrick Gold  couldn't fix the contamination issue in Chile, so they lost their mine.Now we are having the same issue in Dominican Republic, but in way worst situation because we are a way smaller country that can not hold so much cyanide, mercury and led.

We need to take care of our people as well, specially the ones that lives in the small towns along the rivers of Cotui.

Eventually we are becoming the Chernobyl of the Caribbean.

The question is: Is BG REALLY trying to stop the pollution in DR?

Nixed nickel mine is Dominican environmentalists’ 3rd major victory

 
Santo Domingo.- In the heels of the United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) report that Xstrata Nickel Falcondo’s plan to mine Loma Miranda isn’t feasible, civil society groups were quick to demand its designation as a National Park.
 
The report against the planned mine marks the third major victory for the country’s environmental movement, after the ban on development of the Bahia de las Aguilas beach, and the construction of a cement plant near the Los Haitises National Park.

The UNDP said of evaluation of the environmental impact assessment by the firm, said the Falcondo’s project neither meets environmental, social nor sustainable development requirements.

In a press conference Thursday, UNDP officials headed by country representative Valerie Julliand listed the deficiencies found in the Falcondo study, noting that the miner didn’t take into account the growth in water consumption nor an analysis on the project’s impact on rivers. "Given the deficiencies in the environmental impact study, it’s concluded that the Loma Miranda project doesn’t meet the environmental and social requirements and therefore, the country’s sustainable development."

The UNDP official said relevant issues were omitted, such as ecosystem services and risk, and were considered only those relating to mining activity and not those of social biophysics.

Technology

The report notes that aside from those considerations, Falcondo did submit a novel project with new mining technologies in areas of sediment and runoff management and the reforestation process in the affected areas.


 
 Academy of Sciences

Dominican Republic Academy of Sciences president Miltiades Mejia said once again its technicians showed they possess the knowledge to express objections on topics such as Loma Miranda, when they called the project as unsustainable and counterproductive while taking into account the population’s views.
"Our proposal today is to designate Loma Miranda a National Park and ask Environment minister Bautista Rojas to enforce Law 64-00 in the case of Xstrata Nickel’s operation, to start restoring the mined areas, as the Law stipulates," Mejia said.

Bonao supports
The Bonao City Council yesterday issued a resolution to support the city of  La Vega’s demand that Congress declare Loma Miranda a protected area, according to a proposal submitted by Senator Euclides Sanchez.
 
Falconbridge willing to dialogue and to improve
Meanwhile Xstrata Nickel Falcondo said it would carefully analyze the UNDP’s report on mining viability of its project near La Vega.

                                                            Conclusion
So far it's a great achievement by the Dominican society to stop this private sector threat, but people haven't stop thinking about the environmental impact of having Barrick Gold pouring tons of cyanide on the tiny island of Santo Domingo and the impact of the wild life, the crops and the human being  living there.

Everything is happening little by little in front of our noses, till it would be to late.

The situation in DR will be simply unbearable.

It will be like having a major atomic dirty bomb in the middle of the island, with a complete devastation and deadly chemical and mineral pollution everywhere.
 
People is waiting for a report of the department of public health and what are they going to do about it.

It's time to preserve our legacy and national patrimony .

It's time   to learn  the repercussions and to be aware of the great danger that we have as a nation Cyanide pollution could be lethal..We need to stop them!
We need to put our grain of sand  for our future generations..

Let's do it!

Organizations keep claiming 5% of the benefits from the Barrick

About 106 organization of Cotui demanded 5% of the benefits from the Barrick Gold
They deposit yesterday a document in the Palacio Nacional with their claims




Santo Domingo.Representation of 106 organizations and unions of Sanchez Ramirez deposit yesterday a document in the National Palace about their position of what they understand should be included in the agreement between the government and the Barrick Gold

Between the issues they want the 5% of the benefits of the exploitations , an improvement over the the environment issue, they want to have an open union of Barrick employees,warranty for the supervision, accounting and transportation of the production, and that the dominican state should have more control, between different issues.



Óscar Pérez Núñez,speaker of the group say they were concern because in the agreement signed between the government and Barrick Gold they barely mention the people from Cotui affected by the mining company


He mention that after the beginning of the exploitation, Cotui is suffering from a big pollution, situation that make people get sick with fever, vomit and diarrhea.

Pérez Núñez said that they are thinking leaving the province and everything behind due to the high contamination int the area

Pérez Núñez, mention in the letter, addressed to the president Danilo Medina, they suggest to give Cotui a 5% of the resources for an institution that would be concern with the problems of the province of Sanchez Ramirez



We have mention this before, over and over.. And people haven't pay attention of some of the inner problems of the community: health, contamination, employment ,water, clean environment,etc.

These affected communities is going to be a reflection of what is going to happens to the rest of the Dominicans.

We can keep talking , and Barrick gold keep taking gold out of DR,we keep their cyanide and mercury and we haven't seen a penny yet of BG.

Somehow, this drama remind me the biggest claim of Jerry Maguire: Show me the money

it's like a never ending situation with BG, when some people come from over seas assuming how naive are Dominicans, while they keep taking the gold away, over and over and over again.

Is there something that we don't know yet?

When this is going to stop?

Edited on 5/23/2013 9:08 AM by ohhhvictor.

Barrick Gold weighs fewer mines

Barrick Gold weighs fewer mines


New York - Barrick Gold, the biggest miner of the metal by sales, is considering shrinking in size as the company focuses on returns over production volumes, chief executive Jamie Sokalsky said.

“Being more profitable is better than being bigger,” Sokalsky said yesterday at the Bloomberg Canada Economic Summit in Toronto.

“If we divested of some of those smaller, higher-cost assets and came down to a suite of assets that are long-lived and lower-cost and more valuable, I think that ultimately that can be a better investment proposition.”

Gold producers are trading at their cheapest in more than a decade relative to the broader market, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, as investors flee the industry amid rising mining costs, project delays and asset writedowns.

Sokalsky, who took over as chief executive of the Toronto-based company 11 months ago, is reviewing growth plans and pursuing asset sales as gold trades at a two-year low and is poised to end a rally that has extended for 12 straight years.

Barrick, the owner or part owner of 27 mines, rose 4.3 percent yesterday to C$19.88 in Toronto.

The company closed at a two-decade low on April 17, losing its position as the top gold miner by market value to Vancouver-based Goldcorp Inc last month.

It makes sense for Barrick to shrink, said George Topping, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus in Toronto.

Selling the company’s Australian assets would be “a good place to start,” he said.

Barrick is working with Bank of America Corp. and UBS AG on a possible sale of Australian mines, two people with knowledge of the matter said last month.

Resource Nationalism

“At the 8 million-ounce level, with 26 or so mines it’s very difficult to focus,” Topping said yesterday by phone.

“In order to have better managerial control you’re better off with fewer but much larger assets, preferably in the same north-south time zones.”

It’s easier to manage a company with fewer assets, said Sokalsky, 55.

The location of mines has also taken on a greater importance because of an increase in so-called resource nationalism, in which governments seek a bigger slice of revenue.

After a dispute with the Dominican Republic, Toronto- based Barrick on May 8 agreed to amend a lease governing the Pueblo Viejo mine in the country.



The conclusions:

• BG had the pressure on after loosing Pascua lama (Chile Argentina)

• BG lost the mines of Tanzania and China last years

• BG is going to fire sell the Australian mine

• The importance of Pueblo Viejo mine is HUMONGOUS for BG assets

• The rules of the game for pollution had changed for good in affected countries

• These news have affected the price of Barrick Gold stock (ABX) , therefor , their market capitalization.ABX is experimenting a bear market right now.

• They haven't release any statement about the future of the 600 families affected by BG contamination.

• They haven't release any statement about any reforestation program and water treatment program for Cotui-Pueblo Viejo

Event though a lot of people are happy with the financial agreement with BG, some of the inner needs of a lot of Dominicans haven't been fulfill yet like  health, employment,heavy pollution,evictions, housing, water, etc, etc.
People is still waiting..
 

The dark business of Barrick Gold





I was reading the news about the new agreement with Barrick Gold and the government., and I could tell that a lot of people were already celebrating the great achivement but certain things cached my attention.

• In the last interview with the 400 intoxicated Peruvian miners, they were complaining that BG took their passports and documents..Why is that?
  They are forced to work, no option whatsoever outside of BG, they are violating Dominican immigration laws because so far, none of them have working papers by the Dominican state, as some Haitian does.
  No employment for dominicans whatsoever in one of the areas of DR with the highest unemployment rate !!

Of course, if they don't like their job no more, they are not cover by Dominican law or any labor department.No money whatsoever..

• How come that Barrick Gold have the power for the eviction of 600 families of Cotui? isn't the government the first one that were supposed to protect them?

• With the last contract , people is very happy but they haven't stop thinking about the island in 25 years.
  The waters and land of the Cibao is already very contaminated, the heart of agriculture in the Caribbean..And it's only the first year! .
  Does it worth it? How come BG never reimburse them?

All Dominicans will be eventually a victim of that dark contamination: rich, middle class , poor as well.
They are going to leave over here a pool of cyanide, a simple Chernobyl of the Caribbean.

People will struggle over here for surviving!

Every penny we ever build in tourism or agriculture will be lost !




This is why not even reforestation can work:

• When you cut a tree for wood purpose , you still have land for the next tree.

• When you cut a tree for open  mining you use explosive to remove the vegetable lawyer of soil , living only caliche behind ( nothing can grow up out of there)

• They already use the water for cleaning their cyanide and mercury ..not for water thousand of acres of land..And that water can not be used for ANYTHING either

No water, no soil, no reforestation capacity, no will..NO WAY








 


In other countries , like Colombia, mining companies before they start operations, they have to pass an auditing for environmental impact by the government.And a third private party auditing the mining companies and the government as well.!
I 've never heard anything like that in the last speech of BG or the government

The level of contamination in our country is already very high.And when the water is over , the amount of money offered by Barrick Gold will be worthless.People is going to be fighting them for their right to live !.

If people think it twice about these topics that I mention before, they wouldn't be so happy celebrating.
If people think it twice , they would realize that Barrick Gold so far has only bring destruction , evictions, illness, contamination and misery to dominicans

So you, as a conscious dominican..What are you going to do now?

Barrick Gold Pollution

 Pollution of Barrick Gold in Dominican Republic



Everybody is happy with BG agreement with the government last week , everything happily settle down for financial issues, but there is anything made to shrink the environmental impact ?
Barrick Gold has been accused of a number of environmentally unsound practices by environmental groups.
The company has countered accusations by activists, challenging the accuracy of criticisms.

Criticisms include poisonous spills of cyanide , mercury and other heavy metals in Hatillo and Margajita and Yuma river, leading to environmental damage and the poisoning of human populations.



The director of Corporación del Acueducto y Alcantarillado de Santo Domingo (CAASD), architect Alejandro Montás, declared that the Hatillo dam is contaminated by Barrick Gold and can not be used no more for human consumption




Dead fishes from Hatillo dam.

Water depletion is a major negative consequence of gold mining, not to mention the poisoning of thousand of fishes, cattle and crops.. The large amount of water required to run a gold mining operation exacerbates its impact on local communities of Cotui and Cibao valley, many of which are already experiencing drought.

Last year not 106 as they claim, but 400 peruvian miners show up at Centro médico Ureña Hernández of Cotuí, in DR with symptoms of intoxication.

The base of Cotui economy is not mine activities but agriculture production, mostly exportation of pineapple

There is a very delicate balance in Dominican ecosystem , and now everybody seem unfriendly to the natural resources situation.






 A lot of people are complaining about the pollution left behind by the Rosario, but the super negative impact of Barrick Gold is unbearable..Once the gold oxide was processed, the sulfides were exposed and the mine was abandoned to its fate, allowing acidic waters from the Margajita River to drain away to the Hatillo Dam.

The acidic water is the result of a mixture of rainwater and the minerals from the gold sulfides that have remained exposed.

Another legacy of negative environmental impact from Rosario is the accumulation of heavy metals like iron, copper, and mercury , but now is way worst with Barrick Gold new damn El llagal and at at the site of the old plant and the sludge from Mejita and Margajita Rivers.


 



El Llagal , new illegal dam made by Barrick Gold




The contaminated Margarita river
 

Maguaca river


 Contaminated Margajita River by Barrick Gold according to the  president of Miguel de Peña García Fundation

There must be a serious environmental  plans to clean the cyanide and mercury from DR , because the damage could  be intolerable for any kind of vegetable animal or human life.Otherwise, get ready to start pointing fingers, as we did a couple weeks ago..

Somebody have to take the responsibility for no taking care of our natural resources, because once they  are lost, they will be lost forever.

Somebody better be responsible for the ecological mess in our fragile ecosystem!

The gold have some value but our land and our people health is worthless?

Is it ok that we get our rivers and lakes full of cyanide and mercury and nobody complains about it?


Are we conscious that no fish, animal life or  vegetable life  can ever grow up in such poisonous conditions?

Did we ALL get insane?