I would strongly suggest that the current findings RE: Barrick's Pascua Lama project in Chile will at some point start to show that Barrick has bribed their way to a cover up with both legal as well as political entities in Chile ( see Andronica Luksic et al).This of course inludes the title problems on their Tesoros claims which are non existent to this day!
The BCSC will be puleed in along with many very manty.
excerpt.
An international trend
The Veladero case is not unique in the world. Barrick Gold also has mining projects in Chile, Peru, Dominican Republic, Papua New Guinea, Canada, the United States, Zambia and Saudi Arabia. Many of these mines have a similar history to Veladero.
Research by Human Rights Watch revealed cases of violence, sexual abuse and even murders at the Barrick Gold mine in Papua New Guinea. The researchers also calculated that the mine had spilled an average of 16,000 tons of liquid waste a day into the nearby Porgera River, in breach of international standards.
In Tanzania, the company was accused of paying bribes in cash to the local authorities, and in the Dominican Republic of causing millions of dollar worth of losses to local producers because of water contamination. Meanwhile, in Chile, the government decided to halt the Pascua-Lama project, a Barrick mine on Chilean and Argentine territory, because of environmental concerns.
“When we evaluated Barrick’s operations in 10 different countries, it was easy to discard the bad apple theory. You can see there are systemic problems in the industry,” says Sakura Saunmders, editor of Protest Barrick, a web portal for groups researching and organising around mining issues around the world.
“These companies lie regularly and there are no international laws to make them responsible for their violations. All over the world we see Barrick covering up disasters and carrying out irresponsible mining.”
According to Saunders, one of the reasons Barrick Gold has been able to continue operating in these countries is its communications strategy.
“Barrick puts a lot of money into its charm offensive, convincing people that it is a responsible company. It invests heavily in its image, and many of its cover-ups have been successful,” says Saunders.
In Argentina, the fight against Barrick Gold continues. After the last Veladero spill in March this year, the government of Argentina ordered the suspension of the mine’s activities until it took the necessary safety measures. Two months later, the government of San Juan approved the mine’s improvement plans, enabling it to resume operations in full at the beginning of June.
“It’s a disgrace that they keep giving opportunities to a company that has shown repeatedly that it does not comply with the law and does not respect the environment,” says Aguilar.
The residents of Jáchal are determined to keep fighting until Veladero’s ports are closed permanently.
“Obviously they will keep pushing to continue their activities, but the local residents say ‘no’. We cannot constantly have our hearts in our mouths, worried about whether there will be another spill or not,” says Carpo.
“We will carry on, and we will keep fighting until there is an end to this.”
This article has been translated from Spanish.
movie at 11:00
AI
