chile-gold mining

chile: gold mining

Toxic tailings. Heavy metal contamination. Displacement of communities. Water depletion. Hazardous working conditions. Human rights violations. These are just a few of the potential repercussions of the voracious global appetite for metals and precious metals such as uranium, gold, silver and platinum.

Sharbot Lake, Canada. Lake Cowal, Australia. Mt. Tenabo, Nevada. Porgera, Papua New Guinea. Tambogrande, Peru. Sipacapa, San Marcos, Guatemala. Cerro San Pedro, Mexico. And this is a very incomplete list of the places and communities affected by the mining industry.

These are battles of epic proportions. These are showdowns that pit innumerable Davids against the most powerful of Goliaths. In sum, these are conflicts that are eerily similar in terms of the concerns voiced by communities that are stifled by the seeming inability of companies to deviate from purely economic calculations of costs and benefits. The opposition is dismissed as being anti-development without adequate consideration of what they are for…water, self-determination, land rights, a sustainable livelihood, cultural and environmental patrimony, the sacredness of the land, consultation. In effect, it is a clash between distinct visions of development and how natural resources are best used. The voices of those who question the environmental, social, cultural, political and economic impacts of mines at the community level are drowned out by the booming voices of CEOs, governments, international banks and lending agencies promising profit.

This is a battle that began 12 years ago in the Huasco Valley of Chile, a fertile agricultural oasis surrounded by stark desert. The Pascua Lama mine is an invention of Barrick Gold, a Canadian company and the world’s largest gold company. As initially proposed, this monolithic, open-pit gold mine straddling the border between Chile and Argentina would require the partial removal of three glaciers, something never before attempted. The melt from these glaciers forms two rivers that flow down the mountain range, giving life to the Huasco Valley below. For those living in the valley, there is much more to the story of Pascua Lama than 20 years of profitable gold extraction. For the farmers, for the indigenous Diaguita who have populated the valley for over 500 years, there is the very real prospect that these rivers may become contaminated or simply dry up, that the topography that is key to a sacred relationship with the land will be changed forever. These people are not convinced that all that glitters is gold, and so, they are challenging this form of development; they are trying to make their voices heard. And, what they are saying is “Water is worth more than gold”, “People are worth more than gold”, “Water yes, gold no”.*

The Paradigm Shift Project will document the challenge being mounted by these communities, and, in so doing, educate the Canadian public as to the international debates regarding Chilean gold mining, and show how they can directly help to protect the rights of these indigenous peoples.

Field research, including filming of a documentary, is currently scheduled to commence in January 2012. An accompanying curricula guide will be written upon completion of the film.

*Slogans taken from the No a Pascua Lama website.