[R-G] Canadian Mine Accused of Causing Skin Infections

[Anthony Fenton]

Wednesday, 11 March 2009

CANADIAN MINE ACCUSED OF CAUSING SKIN INFECTIONS
By Bill Law, BBC news Reporter, Radio 4 Crossing Continents
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7934513.stm

The photographs are disturbing, Mayans young and old covered in  
blisters and welts. Anti-mining activists say the rashes result from  
water polluted by a giant open-pit gold mine located in the Western  
Highlands of Guatemala.

Marlin Mine is owned and operated by a large Canadian corporation  
called Goldcorp. The company strongly denies any link between their  
operation - which in a hot gold market is running 24 hours a day,  
seven days a week - and the ill health of the Mayans.

Responding to the charge, the company said in a statement:  
"Comprehensive sampling conducted by the technical staff of the Public  
Ministry in Guatemala as well as by the Marlin environmental  
department has confirmed that river water quality is not adversely  
impacted by mine operations."

Bill Brassington heads a Canadian union pension fund that invests in  
Goldcorp and has seen the pictures taken by an American non- 
governmental organisation called Rights Action.

He points out that Rights Action has no medical evidence to support  
its claims. Still, as an ethical investor he is worried.

ASSESSING IMPACT

Besides the rashes, Goldcorp has been accused by some Guatemalan  
campaign groups and NGOs of unfair land purchase practices, human  
rights violations and environmental damage to the area surrounding the  
mine.

Critics also say the company is taking huge amounts of profit out of  
impoverished indigenous communities and putting very little back in.

Goldcorp emphatically rejects all those claims.

In a bid to deal with the concerns, Brassington is heading a Human  
Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA) committee. It was set up last year and  
is funded by Goldcorp.

Critics say the offer to pay for the HRIA was Goldcorp's way of  
heading off a potentially embarrassing motion at last year's annual  
general meeting in Vancouver.

Mr Brassington says: "My personal opinion is they have a way to go  
when it comes to community relations."  But he remains optimistic,  
adding that the process is building trust and that community groups  
"seem positive".

However, Professor Douglas Cassel of the University of Notre Dame's  
Centre for Civil and Human Rights declined Goldcorp's offer to tender  
a bid for the HRIA.  "We were not confident that the terms set down by  
Goldcorp would result in a full and independent picture emerging,"  
says Professor Cassel.

It was awarded instead to a Canadian consulting company called On  
Common Ground.

Now Professor Cassel's group is working with the Catholic church in  
Guatemala on a separate HRIA that he hopes will be released at the  
same time as Brassington's.

Grahame Russell of Rights Action, the organisation behind the  
photographs, is dismissive of the Brassington initiative, arguing that  
no-one from the Mayan communities was consulted at any stage and that  
they have no representation on the committee.

"The terms, the rules, the set-up - that was done without any  
involvement of the Mayans.

"Goldcorp and their investors are laughing all the way to the bank.  
the price of gold is the bottom line."

GOLDCORP PROFITS

While other markets continue to collapse, gold is hovering at $900- 
$1,000 an ounce. When the Marlin mine was first costed, the project's  
viability was based on gold selling at $350 an ounce. Not surprising  
then that Goldcorp's fourth-quarter profits in 2008 more than tripled  
to $958m.

Goldcorp insists it is a socially responsible company. It points to  
health clinics open to everyone in the community, micro-finance  
projects and support for local schools as proof of its commitment to  
the Mayans.

In its statement the corporation said: "Our commitment to operating in  
a socially responsible manner informs everything we do as a company,  
and our record for socially and environmentally responsible operations  
is outstanding."

Not so, says Canada's respected Jantzi Social Index which rates  
companies for investors on how socially responsible they are. Last  
year Jantzi kicked Goldcorp off the index citing, among other issues,  
opposition to the mine from local indigenous communities.

Jantzi's Irene Sosa says: "We want to see them being more pro-active.  
Goldcorp needs better consultation with the community. The company  
needs to look at addressing grievances, not dismissing them."