dividing and polluting
yanacocha gold mine in
peru
“Had they just shot me in the head,
I would have felt better. Nothing could be
worse than seeing my daughters suffer and
hear them tell me about the tremendous pain
in their eyes, their backs, their heads,
day in day out. What can a father say to
his sick children? How can I explain that
the world’s richest gold mine sitting on
that mountain does not want to help
us?”
Alfonso Charrasco, more than three years
after the mercury spill that forced him and
his family to flee their birth village.
©
sjoerd
panhuysen
corporations newmont [usa],
buenaventura [peru]
High up in the mountains behind the
beautiful town of Cajamarca in the Peruvian
Andes, the Yanacocha gold mine carries out
its operations. It has already leveled five
mountains, and is heading towards its sixth
target, Mount Quilish. The local
municipality is fiercely opposed to the
exploitation of Mount Quilish, the source
of their drinking water. Ten years of
living beside the continent’s largest gold
mine has taught them a lesson: “no
more”.
The Yanacocha mine is a
251-squarekilometer open pit mine located
18 kilometres from the town of Cajamarca.
The World Bank’s IFC has provided loans
totaling US$150 million and has a 5% equity
investment in the mine, which is a joint
venture with Newmont (US) and Buenaventura
(Peru). According to the IFC, its
involvement ensures adherence to the
highest social and environmental standards,
which supposedly makes Yanacocha an example
of best mining practice. However, according
to the local people, the region of
Cajamarca would be better served by
investments in tourism, forests and
agriculture.
The mining operations, which use large
quantities of cyanide in a very fragile
region, have contaminated the water
sources, leading to the disappearance of
fish and frogs. Cattle have become sick,
the air has been polluted, and medicinal
plants have been lost. All of this was
recently confirmed through an independent
environmental audit by a Colombian
consultancy firm.
Campesino communities living close to
the mine have put forth an official
complaint, asking for funding to clean up
their water. They also demand a reclamation
and preservation program for medical
plants, a fish and frog repopulation
scheme, and compensation for former
landowners in the form of equivalent land
and funds to reestablish farms. Although
many of these measures would cost a
fraction of what this profitable gold mine
earns, the communities are still waiting.
In the meantime, they have called upon the
World Bank Group and Newmont to stop the
expansion to Mount Quilish. Furthermore,
Peru's constitutional court has ruled that
expansion can only take place if the
corporation can prove that mining will not
endanger Cajamarca's drinking water.
a toxic tragedy
On June 2nd, 2000, a truck from the
Yanacocha mine spilled 151 kilograms of
liquid mercury along a 40-kilometer stretch
of highway passing through Choropampa and
two neighboring villages. People gathered
up the mercury, believing it to be a
valuable metal. According to conservative
government estimates, more than 900 people
were poisoned. Symptoms of mercury
poisoning (skin irritation, headaches,
diminished eye sight, kidney problems,
stomach aches, etc.) emerged a few days
after the spill. Several of the victims
were hospitalized, and one woman went
blind.
Suffering from the effects of the
mercury spill continues today. Juana
Martínez from the Choropampa Defense Front
said: “Several children have been born
missing fingers and toes. Nothing like this
ever happened in our village before the
mercury spill.” Miscarriages are also
occurring at an alarming rate, while
children suffer from chronic nosebleeds,
respiratory infections, loss of sight and
hearing, chronic migraine headaches and an
inability to concentrate
The community of Choropampa has called
for an evaluation of the spill’s health
impacts, the presence of a doctor to
monitor the situation, and economic
compensation for health damages and
business losses. However, Yanacocha’s
responses have been unsatisfactory. In
April 2003, the company published a report
of the spill that ignored the direct
impacts on human health. The IFC
commissioned a lengthy dialogue process
that, after two years, resulted in two
studies that have yet to be finalized.
Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Choropampa
still have not received adequate treatment.
They feel abandoned and contaminated.
divided communities
Although the Peruvian government
established a special law to ensure that
half of the taxes paid by the mine would be
invested back into the region, Cajamarca
has become the second poorest district in
Peru since the start of mining operations
in 1993 (FONCODES). Yet while Cajamarca’s
rural poverty increases, a few individuals
in the city benefit tremendously. This
unequal distribution of the mine’s costs
and benefits has caused major conflicts and
an overall atmosphere of suspicion.
Displacement has forced people into the
city, where they have no way to make a
living. Traditional practices are being
forgotten, and families are losing their
community support structures. This has
resulted in a significant increase in
domestic violence and other social ills.
Cajamarca now has a booming prostitution
trade in which girls as young as 14 sell
themselves to miners, with no protection
from HIV and other sexually transmitted
diseases.
In 2001, allegations surfaced that
Newmont paid Peru's former chief of
intelligence, Vladimiro Montesinos, to
bribe and extort Peruvian judges in the bid
for Yanacocha. In a videotape, Montesinos
is shown pressuring a judge to rule in
favor of Newmont. After further evidence
came to light in 2003, US federal
authorities have begun to investigate the
allegations. However, despite having a zero
tolerance policy against corruption, the
IFC has so far refused to undertake its own
investigations
victory
In september 2004, after 2 weeks of
protests and road blocks that shut down the
city of Cajamarca, Peru, the Minister of
Energy and Mines met the protestors'
demands and withdrew Newmont Mining
Company's permit for mining on Mount
Quilish.
More
information
.
more pictures at
international financial
institutions
more information:
National Coordination of Mine Affected
Communities:
www.conacami.org.pe
(spanish)
Project Underground:
www.moles.org
Ecovida:
www.ecovida.org
(spanish)
Guarango Cine y Video:
www.guarango.org
Oxfam America:
www.oxfamamerica.org
