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Goldcorp and Yamana Gold Inc. operating in Honduras. Also in Argentina, sharing half of the shareholding of Bajo de la Alumbrera (Catamarca), a major metal deposits in the world that operates in the open.


By Federico Pablo Basualdo and


Manzanelli *
Surely the decision of the government of Manuel Zelaya to raise wages, include women to compulsory social insurance, to fight the oil monopolies and the willingness to import generic drugs from Cuba, were reaping powerful enemies against him. However, the patience of the coup was definitely filled with the reform proposal mining law.

According to many environmentalists in the region, the story begins shortly after Hurricane Mitch in Honduras, where companies from Canada and the United States promised substantial investments in exchange for a "proper" mining law. In the late '90s (Decree 292/98), reforming the old law of 1968, ensuring huge profits for concessionaires and enabling the use of methods of extraction and exploitation banned in most countries. Among others, limited environmental control and ensured that the exploitation of mines was reserved exclusively private companies, concessions are declared to be irrevocable and enabled the condemnation. At the same time guaranteeing the fiscal stability and the observance of royalties and taxes far below global standards.

With the entry into force of the new rule is fired investments and concessions. So, today, 31 percent of Honduran territory is under concession for mining, while the gold market grew to the point that today is the fifth most important export of the country. In this context, Canadian companies, led by mining projects, became one of the major investors in Honduras.

a result of this growth sector, with the first experiences of open pit mining, has increased pollution complaints and claims by the "unequal distribution of benefits." The resonant cases of contamination have involved two major Canadian companies operating in the region. On the one hand, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Honduras fined the company Goldcorp Inc. (San Martín mine) for discharges of cyanide, which led, inter alia, the deactivation of the land and killing livestock. In addition, Yamana Gold was reported, in August 2007, 5700 liters of water spilled cyanide into the river Lara (San Andrés mine), an action that was interrupted by protests from villagers.

This process, in terms of negative environmental and economic interests of the nation, was discontinued in 2006 when the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional 13 articles of the Mining Act and suggested the drafting of new regulations serve the interests of the republic and the various groups in dispute (Canadian companies and environmental organizations and policies). After almost three years of debate, the May 24, 2009, President Zelaya had Congress a bill to regulate mining. Among the most important tax proposed update of the activity, the prohibition of the use of the method of open pit mining, the consideration of the views of local communities to define the delivery of new concessions and the prohibition of the use of chemical reagents such as cyanide, mercury and arsenic.

While the National Congress was set to begin the parliamentary debate on 16 August, on June 28, the Honduran Armed Forces took control of the government and closed the doors of the legislature. Meanwhile, President National Association of Honduras Metal Mining, which had described the bill as unreasonable and excessive, "he declared in the newspaper La Tribune that the" current political situation was irreversible "and that it presented" an opportunity to produce more and invest more ". Not what you think the huge amount of social and political references persecuted every day in Haiti. Unfortunately

both Goldcorp and Yamana Gold Inc. also operate in our country, sharing half of the shareholding of Bajo de la Alumbrera (Catamarca), a major metal deposits the world which operates in the open. Sharing practices deployed in Haiti have been the focus of many complaints by environmental pollution and damage to the health of people exposed to waste, so much so that the vice president of Minera Alumbrera is currently prosecuted by the federal Justice, accused of "pollution dangerous to health."

addition to consuming 90 percent of the electricity of Catamarca, Minera Alumbrera results in the generation of electromagnetic fields, increasing the risk of childhood leukemia. Even Andalgalá Hospital confirmed that respiratory disease of children se duplicaron durante los años de explotación de la mina. La preocupación de los catamarqueños se extiende por la inminente producción metalífera en Agua Rica, donde Yamana Gold detenta la totalidad accionaria de la concesión. Cabe resaltar que la exploración y explotación minera cuenta, actualmente, con significativas ventajas comparativas, producto (además de la dotación de recursos naturales del país) de un marco normativo sumamente atractivo para las empresas extranjeras, en detrimento del patrimonio nacional. Entre otras, la estabilidad fiscal, las exenciones impositivas por la importación de bienes de capital, el régimen de amortizaciones aceleradas y las insuficientes políticas arancelarias (Fees and royalties of 3 percent of face value of mine) allow unprecedented rates of return: net income of Minera Alumbrera was "only" 60 percent in 2007.

The serious economic and social consequences, and now also political, caused by the particular form of exploitation and powerful foreign interests that dominate the mining scenario in the region, and local-level elements are unavoidable to consider the dispute current funds from the distribution of benefits of Minera Alumbrera national universities of our country. Acceptance of the 86 million dollars, arising from activity by companies such as Goldcorp and Yamana Gold Inc., by national universities is not only a complacent attitude polluting practices and foreign ownership of national heritage but also sordid with the deployment of destabilizing policies in the region.

* Sociologists - UBA.

http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/suplementos/cash/17-3977-2009-08-02.html