El Salvador: Communities Oppose Pacific Rim Mining Project

El Salvador: Communities Oppose Pacific Rim Mining Project

Tuesday October 11, 2005

By Leonel Herrera - Redacción Diario Co Latino

Several communities of the Salvadoran province of Cabañas are opposed to a gold mining project planned by the transnational company Pacific Rim in the municipality of San Isidro.

According to the Ministry of Economy, there are currently 23 permits for the exploration for gold and other metals, centered in the mountainous region of the departaments of Santa Ana, Chalatenango, Morazán, San Miguel, La Unión and Cabañas.

In the last department, located to the north of the capital San Salvador, the Canadian company Pacific Rim is already operating, and has requested the permits for full operation of the mines El Dorado Sur and El Dorado Norte, in the municipality of San Isidro.

Pacific Rim has been waiting for approval from the Ministry of Environment since September 2004, and meanwhile environmental and community organizations have reacted with criticism about the negative impacts that these projects will have against regional ecosystems. They organized a forum, "Mining: Opportunity or Threat?" in which participated dozens of residents of San Isidro.

Francisco Pineda, representative of the local communities, and María Elizabeth Velasco, member of the Environmental Committee of Cabañas, claim that carrying out the mining project will cause irreparable environmental damage. "The contamination of the water and damages to human health are irreversible," they say.

At the forum, organized by the Association for Social Economic Development, members of communities affected by mining projects in neigboring Honduras participated. "I urge you all to struggle to prevent this project so the same thing won't happen to you that happened to us," said José David Morales, resident of Valle de Siria.

"In Honduras they are abandoning agricultural activities because of the contamination of the soil and quitting fishing because of the death of the rivers. This is going to happen in El Salvador if you don't stop this project," warned Morales.

Community representatives also denounced the lack of transparency on the part of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN), in awarding of environmental permits to Pacific Rim. They claim that the public was only given ten days to present objections to the Environmental Impact Report made by the company. "It is not possible to review a document of more than 4,000 pages, in English, a document which, furthermore, was not even made public," says Antonio Pacheco. According to Pacheco, the Ministry "doesn't want the public to know about the environmental impact of the project," and "wants to award the permits immediately, without any other studies than the one presented by the company. The Ministry has the obligation to carry out its own studies regarding the viability of the project, because it is obvious that the company is not mentioning negative impacts to the water, to the agricultural soils, and to the lives of the residents."

The project will run for ten years. The first two years will consist of the construction of facilities necessary for the extraction and processing of the metals, the following six years will be the exploitation of the gold deposits, and in the last two years, the closing of the mines.

The Association of Social Economic Development (ADES) has shown that the mining project will earmark only 1% of their profits to the municipality and another 1% to the Salvadorean national government, that employment will be minimal and temporary, and that the damages to the environment and health of people in the region will be irreparable.