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 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?