Last Sunday I
decided to go for a walk. This is not an unusual thing for a Sunday, but this
walk was around an area which, if the provincial government of Galicia and a
Canadian gold mining company get their way, will soon no longer exist. At least
not as a place in which you would want to take a walk.
The area in
question is in Corcoesto in the Costa da Morte, no more than 8 kilometers from
a pristine wetland area which hosts many species of wildlife. The river Anillons
then flows in the Ria de Ponteceso and on into the sea. It is a place of silence and very rare beauty.
I drove through
Corcoesto twice without ever realizing it was there. It is a typical Galician “aldea”: a tiny
gathering of granite cottages, corn cribs and barns with cows chewing the
cud. Donkeys are still widely used in
place of tractors and some carts still have wooden wheels. The population is
aged. The women wear black or the ubiquitous blue apron seen all over Galicia.
It is well known
that Spain is undergoing a serious recession. The unemployment rate is in excess
of 25% and considerably higher amongst people under 25. Few stay in the
countryside or continue the family tradition of farming.
So you would
imagine perhaps, that a mining initiative might be just the ticket to revitalize
the economy in this community. You would think that the majority of the people
here would welcome the mine and certainly certain interested parties would tell
you that this is indeed the case.
It is not.
The sign in the photo above reads, in Galician: "A Pyramid of Greed".
I went to
Corcoesto to join a walk of 12 kilometers around the proposed site .We walked
along crystal rivers and tracks fringed with foxgloves, through oak and pine and
eucalyptus. There was no sound except our hushed voices and the sounds of our
boots on the gravel. I tried to envisage the site as it would be with its
plant, its open pit, its mine workings, its waste dump, its heavy construction
vehicles. I tried to imagine the noise of dynamite and the rumble of trucks as
the gold was taken away. I tried to imagine the smell of dust not gorse and wild roses. I couldn’t do it for too
long. It made me want to cry.
The old man on
the horse told me that his blood pressure has shot up since December just
wondering if the axe was going to fall.
The woman told me she would have joined the walk but her arthritis was
too bad. She was afraid. The young girls told me that the environmental cost to
this area would be devastating and that the mine would be in operation for eight
years only. The man in the T-shirt wondered just how much of the wealth their
ancestral land would yield would trickle down to the community; how many high
end jobs would be given to outsiders. We agreed it was not an optimistic
thought.
The Romans came
to Galicia for gold. The city of Ourense receives its name from the precious
metal. Oro is the Spanish word for gold. Even today in Corcoesto above the river there are
the remains of a mine shaft dating from 1895 through to 1910 and various
exploitations have been carried out during the earlier part of the 20th
century. As gold prices fell, the mine workings became unprofitable and were
abandoned, However, with today’s premium price for gold, eyes have returned to
Galicia’s potential, and believe me there is still a fair bit of it!
How much? Well, it depends on who you talk to. The
Corcoesto load runs right through the Costa da Morte from Malpica in the north,
and stretches to the Portuguese border at Tui almost 200 kilometers away. The problem is, that despite the firms marketing strategies, it is not easily available: what there is left is only in tiny microparticles. In order to release it, the rocks have to be pulverised and cyanide used. Arsenic is also then released into the air as a result of the explosions. In such a rainy climate this means leaching of highly toxic waste into the groundwater.
The precedent for this mine should not be
lost on anyone who fears for the total environmental destruction of this very
beautiful and green province.
How serious is
the environmental impact?
I hope I won’t
be infringing on anyone’s intellectual property if I quote the contents of a
letter sent to the European Parliament. I have yet to find whether the
questions which follow it have been answered:
“The Galician government has adopted a law regulating industrial policy in
Galicia with the aim of boosting investment in Galicia's industrial fabric. Its
objectives include the development of strategic industrial projects involving
proposed investments in industrial plants that are expected to result in a
significant expansion of Galicia's industrial fabric. A series of conditions
are laid down. Projects must lead to the creation of at least 250 jobs, and
proposals must be backed by an undertaking (including partnerships) which will
make the required investment.
Under this legislation, a Canadian company has proposed to open an
open-cast gold mine in the district of Corcoesto (A Coruña). The environmental
impact of this project is beyond doubt, since the extraction of 30 000 kg
of gold will produce 6 million tonnes of waste. A residents' association
set up to oppose the project estimates that the mine will be operational for
10 years. The company itself envisages a 20-year lifespan.
Moreover, the mining methods used may have a serious impact on the natural
environment, in particular water, since they involve a cyanide-based extraction
process. The European Parliament resolution of 5 May 2010 on a
general ban on the use of cyanide mining technologies in the European Union
called for these methods to be banned by the end of 2011. The citizens' action
group against the mine has also complained that the correct procedures for
informing the public were not complied with and that no economic guarantee or
commitment has been given to offset the inevitable impact that the mine will
have”
1. Is the Commission aware of this situation?
2. Given that it involves a cyanide-based extraction process, does the
Commission believe that this project complies with Community regulations?
3. What steps will the
Commission take to ensure that this goldmine project complies with the
procedures guaranteeing public information and transparency that are required
under Community regulations?
The man in the expensive white
car near the church didn’t want to comment that much was clear. I asked if he
thought it would impact on the life of the people in Corcoesto: “It’ll be a bit
noisier”, he said. Did he think that most people were for or against it? “About equally based.”
The video from the Canadian Edgewater Exploration company on the environmental impact of the site goes
further: in a poll of 2012 “80% of neighbouring municipalities welcome the
project”. Neighbouring Municipalities, note; not people. The politicians want
it, but the people don’t.
The video also states quite
specifically that the life expectancy of the mine is 9 years. This is at odds
with the 20 years also claimed by the mining company elsewhere.
In nearby Carballo, a town
virtually created from wolfram mining through the 1950’s, a recent demonstration
drew well over a thousand demonstrators from this tiny community. This Sunday a much bigger "manifestación" is
planned for Santiago de Compostela.
I’ll be with them. Some things
simply must be beyond money even in a country desperate for it. The price of
gold can never equal the cost of what would be lost in Galicia forever.
“Soy contraminante!”
