[R-G] Mining companies under microscope

[Anthony Fenton]

Mining companies under microscope
Do Canadians support activities of our mining companies in the world's  
developing countries?
October 29, 2008
Kathleen O'Hara
http://news.guelphmercury.com/Opinions/article/397416

Earlier this month, while Canadians were in the process of selecting a  
slightly-new government to lead them over the next few years, Canada's  
reputation abroad was tarnished at an important international  
conference in Barcelona. Not deliberately, but unavoidably.

The damage to our country's image occurred during a meeting of the  
International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which bills itself  
as "the world's oldest and largest global environmental network."

More than 8,000 of the top thinkers and actors in the field of  
sustainable development, including representatives from government,  
business, the UN, non-governmental organizations, and academia were  
there to find solutions to various green problems.

Where did Canada come in? Among the attendees were Indians from the  
Amazon region of Colombia, who had travelled a long way from their  
rainforest home to speak out against what they feel will be a very  
destructive mining project that's being planned and aggressively  
promoted by Canadian mining interests.

The deep-drilling gold mine, which would follow the veins of shiny  
metal as it winds its way through the Earth, is the brainchild of  
Vancouver-based companies Frontier Pacific Mining Corp. and Cosigo  
Resources Inc. It would be situated on top of a highly sacred site for  
Amazonian Indians.

This is a bit like drilling through the floor of Westminster Abbey or  
any beloved place of worship.

According to Martin von Hildebrand, a longtime supporter of indigenous  
rights in Colombia, who was also in Barcelona, the Indians can't  
understand the Canadian corporations' desire to plunder and desecrate  
such a remote and blessed part of nature.

"These people have a very refined, special feeling for the energy of  
the earth," he explained during an interview.

Their spiritual leaders or shamans, he noted, are highly in tune with  
that energy, which they claim to sense emanating from the ground.

Von Hildebrand, whose German father founded the prestigious University  
of the Andes in the Colombian capital of Bogotá, pointed out that the  
Indians also find the act of mining gold beyond their comprehension:  
"If Mother Earth has kept gold -- and oil -- in her womb, that's the  
way it's supposed to be," he said, trying to convey the Indians' way  
of thinking, which is so different from ours. Otherwise, he added,  
they believe it will cause illness and social problems - a view most  
of us in the developed world are starting to come to terms with.

Unfortunately, the Indians, who have been granted a large piece of  
land the size of the United Kingdom in the western part of Colombia,  
don't have subsoil rights to that land. In other words, although they  
can safeguard the plants and animals, along with their own way of life  
and culture, they can't legally prevent the miners from boring  
underground in search of profits.

Therefore, the Indians have asked the Colombian government to convert  
their threatened sacred area into a national park, where the subsoil  
would be legally protected.

This land transfer, however, requires a consultation process, which  
the Canadian mining companies are doing their best to influence.

According to von Hildebrand, Cosigo representatives have been busy  
telling the Indians that the gold extraction will not affect the  
environment -- an unlikely occurrence since the process usually  
requires digging through tons of rock to find even one ounce of  
precious metal.

They have also been trying to entice the Indians with promises of  
health care and education funding (already supplied by the government)  
-- and with cold hard cash.

Indeed, money is being used to sway the Indians to vote against the  
required park consultation process -- and, therefore, the park itself.  
Von Hildebrand said young people are the most vulnerable to such  
enticements. "They have not come to a deep stage or understanding or  
seriousness that would prevent them from agreeing to vote for the mine."

So, the Indians and their supporters, such as von Hildebrand, are  
spreading the word in Barcelona and elsewhere against this Canadian  
project -- and, at the same time, exposing some of the worst elements  
of our country's economic foundations.

Sadly, this Colombian project isn't an isolated example of Canadian  
mining companies running amok in the relatively pristine lands of  
other nations. They are also threatening Indian territory in the  
Andean Cordillera region of Colombia, as well as indigenous lands in  
Peru and Brazil.

In fact, if you check the website of Canadian-based Mining Watch,  
there is a long list of locations -- from our own Arctic to Turkey,  
Tanzania, Thailand, and the Philippines -- where local citizens are  
waging battles against what they see as unsustainable developments.

Of course, in the long run, it will have to be Canadians themselves  
who say "no" to this kind of economic aggression perpetrated in their  
name. We have to come to the conclusion that the protection and  
conservation of the planet are Canada's priorities, not exploitation  
and destruction.

As von Hildebrand pointed out: "We know that the planet is at stake  
and we don't have a second one to live on."

Areas like the site he is fighting to save in Colombia might be "the  
last refuge."

Kathleen O'Hara writes for the Winnipeg-based Issues Network.