I sat in for a weekend Encuentro in Chicomuselo where social fighters from Guatemala came to share their experience about the mining industry. The purposes of the weekend were to learn about the consequences of mining, the global struggles against it, and to begin organizing resistance here before the mines come in and set up shop. For two days 80 members from the surrounding communities of Las Flores ejido came together to hold workshops and discussions from 7 in the morning to 9 at night. We got a lot of work done, and realized more than anything the enormity of the challenge facing these communities.
The communities which sit upon such astronomical mineral wealth live simply. They live and farm the mountain ranges where the soil is shallow and the harvest bleak, while the fertile valley farmland below is monopolized by large-scale fincas and agro-business. Representatives from the mining company enter the communities painting a rosy picture of development. The people are told that their land is poor for farming and would be better put to use for its mineral resources. The company will pay handsomely for the property, give the community a cut of the profits, and create employment for all. This will automatically spur development, leading to roads, jobs, schools, and health care. Many communities are immediately won over by this offer.
When a mining site is being considered, prospectors and engineers enter the territory without community permission and start taking rock samples. If the site appears to be a good investment, the mining company goes to the federal government to seek formal contracts. This is to legitimize the expropriation of land. If communities refuse, the government can step in and force them to sell the land in the name of ‘national interests’. The contracts also fix the compensation rate. In Guatemala the rate has been fixed to 1% of company profits, 0.5% to the federal government and 0.5% to the affected community. That means that if a mine earns US $50 million in a year, an entire community is only left with US $25,000 to share.
There are a few other compensations aside from ‘profit sharing’. The mine worker on average makes about US $10 a day for 12 hours of work. A single-family property on average sells for US $400. The mining company argues that this is more money than the families are able to acquire using their own means, thus signifying progress. This assumes a strange definition of ‘progress’. The property is paid for, but the establishment of a mining site uproots an entire village, and members of the now-divided community need to find other places to live, and quickly spend the newly acquired money on a new house. The workers are paid, but at great risk to their personal health, without any type of medical insurance for when they become ill or injured. The compensation is pocket change for the mining company, and doesn’t lead to any long term-sustainable growth. In certain cases, communities have forced the company to construct roads, to which they agreed reluctantly. However, due to lack of regulation these companies leave without fulfilling their commitments.
Aside from all of this, the decision making process is hardly democratic. Instead of seeking community-wide consensus, companies buy out individual families one-by-one. Once the first wave of families has sold out, the company raises the stakes. As remaining families realize the deterioration of their community, they all eventually accept the rising prices and sell. The company doesn’t need to pay off all of the affected communities, just those who occupy the area containing the future mining site. However, the ecological impact ranges much further than the top of the mountain. All of the trees and vegetation are cleared out, destroying an entire ecosystem. Dynamite blasts are used for the initial excavations, damaging houses within a several mile radius, houses pertaining to families who were never entered into the dialogue. The blasts send cracks up walls, break apart foundations, and create landslides.
Once established, a typical gold-mining site creates innumerable environmental and health issues. The most efficient and inexpensive method of extraction is open-pit mining, and also the most deleterious. An open pit mine converts an entire mountain into a hole in the ground, and everything that once lived on that mountain is destroyed. Modern day mining searches for the smallest traces of gold in huge quantities of earth. In these regions, every 16 tons of earth produce about 1 oz. of gold. To efficiently locate and extract these minerals, the earth is filtered chemically. The earth is put into a large tank filled with a chemical mixture, the principal ingredient being cyanide. The chemicals leech out traces of gold and other semi-precious minerals and sink to the bottom for collection.
An average mining site uses 6 tons of cyanide per day. It is difficult to gage how much cyanide leeches into the groundwater, but it only takes a quantity the size of a grain of rice to kill a person. Mining companies assure that the poison is “disposed of properly”, but in Central America there is no way of checking this, and there are no records whatsoever regarding waste disposal. In some regions small traces of cyanide have been known to remain in groundwater systems for up to 20 years. The use of cyanide is banned in most countries; however these companies pay no mind to what health risks it brings the people of Mexico.
The other issue is water. In one mining site alone, the chemical process uses about 250,000 liters of water per hour, whereas a local family uses about 21 liters per day. Doing the math, it would take one family 20 years to use the amount of water that the mine uses only in one hour. We can only imagine how much water the mine uses over a course of a year. Frequently after a mining site leaves, communities are left with water shortages. On top of that, the very little water they have left is contaminated.
Now after several decades of open-pit mining in Guatemala, workers and families are experiencing serious health issues. The most common effect is skin disease resulting from chemical and mineral exposure, and many workers develop permanent blisters and rashes all over their bodies. Lung disease is also common due to the large amounts of dust and particles put into the air during excavation. In addition, minerals once stored inside the earth are leeching into the groundwater, including lead, zinc, and iron. Many of these minerals are known to be poisonous, however all can cause damage in large amounts. Whether it is because of the cyanide or the lead in the groundwater, health complications are rising in communities located in or around mining sites. These are lifelong damages that cannot be repaid, not even with 0.5% of one’s profits.
Any promise of development is pure marketing. Years have past, and many of the communities are much worse off than before. The company mines for several years, but disappears when the work is done, along with all of the jobs it had promised to create. Of course it doesn’t deal with any of the wreckage left in its wake, including health problems, pollution, and depleted water sources. The people are left diseased, jobless and landless. Their insufficient compensation runs out quickly, and the depressing reality hits them. They’ve been robbed. They’ve been robbed of the little they once had.
It is difficult to say what will come of the communities in Chicomuselo. Canadian Blackfire already has one mine in operation in Chicomuselo in ejido La Grecia. The community as a whole is paid US $6,000 a month. The mine agreed to build a road for the community, but so far has only built a 8km stretch between the center of Chicomuselo and the mine. Of the 130 families who live there, the mine has created employment for about 25 men. However, now La Grecia is making more serious demands of the mine. They sealed off access to the mine and are demanding that Blackfire installs electricity, running water, and a public park. The resistance here is growing.
It is a formidable challenge to oppose the mining company. If even one person sells, it starts a chain reaction of settlements. The only effective resistance movements are organized and unanimous. This is why this encuentro in Las Flores has been called; to rapidly educate and organize everybody that lives in these parts in order to prevent the beginning of the end. However, history has shown in Guatemala that even after communities democratically decide that they do not want mining companies in their hometowns, the government sends military and police forces to help the process along. Like any effort in direct democracy in this country, the struggle will be met with brute force, and will take time.
