New reports highlighting the environmental dangers posed by mineral exploitation at the Mining Arch of the Orinoco River National Development Strategic Zone have emerged, as Venezuelan officials try to convince Russia’s Alrosa (MCX:ALRS) to invest in the project.
Best known as the “Mining Arch,” the project is a 111,843 Sq.Km concession area (12.2 per cent of the country’s landmass) for mining gold, diamond, iron, copper, bauxite, coltan, among other resources. Its main purpose is to bring cash into a country at the brink of default due to its $140 billion external debt, devalued currency and three-digits inflation rate.
Nicolás Maduro’s government also says that the Arch would help curb long-standing illegal mining practices taking place in the southeastern Guayana region, comprised by the Amazonas, Delta Amacuro and Bolívar states. The gold-rich area, with reserves that the officials estimate in 7,000 tonnes of gold, is almost entirely controlled by gangs, who carry out bloody battles to mark off the boundaries of their mining territories.
But environmentalists, university experts and Indigenous communities don’t think that the proposal to regularize activities in the area by opening it to multinational mining corporations would drive illegal miners away. They believe the opposite would happen and, on top of that, Venezuela’s section of the Amazon rainforest would be at risk. In their view, mining should be entirely banned there.
Photo from Virginia Behm’s report.
In the hope of gathering attention and prompting action, geographer from the Andes University, Virginia Behm, together with Lucio Marcello, an ecologist at the University of the Highlands and Islands’ Rivers and Lochs Institute and Founder of Listen to the Amazon, just published an interactive report titled “Orinoco’s Arco Minero: A Mega-mining threat to the Venezuelan Amazon.”
“The maps below are intended to alert the national and international community about some of the impacts that the Orinoco Mining Arc[h] project will have on the Venezuelan Guayana, which constitutes the upper reaches of the Guiana shield, part of the Amazon rainforest,” they state at the top of the minisite.
The lack of proper environmental assessment about the potential impacts of establishing huge mining sites in the region is their main concern, as they note that the small towns surrounding the Arch are not only home to several Indigenous tribes, but also host the country’s most important river systems which are protected under a Special Administration Regime.
The experts also write that the cumulative polluting effects of extracting resources simultaneously from both the Mining Arch and the bitumen-rich Orinoco Oil Belt could be irreversible.
On top of the already widespread use of mercury by artisanal miners, they worry that pollution would just get worse once big companies set up large tailings dams containing water contaminated with cyanide.
The full report is available on https://virginiabehm.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=18e425a6057945af9ad56e8af989a656
7 Comments
bongiojf
When it comes to Environmentalist concerns I’m a fatalist. I hate to see the Amazon dug up for short term gains but I fear that the desparate despot will stop at nothing to save his hold over the country. He has already sold future oil product well into the next decade with absolutely no benefit to the venezualan people. Same deal here. There is no chance that environmental concerns will be considered when selling of the birthright of venezuelans.
Goldfinger
Who would build a job there if you cant feed yoru people. King blond is right about a civil war. If your going to die of starvation or being killed by the regime you might as well take a few of the regime with you. Those are the lessons from History that will be ignored again.
Nordbird
Indigenous people are illegally mining in protected areas, with massive environmental damage. Same story in many other developing countries. If a country can’t even enforce its own laws, foreign investment is highly unlikely.
Gerald Lohuis
Developing the Mining Arch with the richest & vast amount of minerals will restore the health of people with jobs & needed finances to feed the people.Past leaders thought they could rely solely on oil.Then what happened oil tanked from $100 down to $30 which forced country to diversify correctly into other resources.So, they need funds to pay bond payments.Right now only oil exports is only source of income.Need mining opened up to restore finance of the Country.
Scott Wood
Yeah and I am working for a large international mining company that does not discharge Cyanide laden material to the tailings facility. How do we do that? We have a Cyanide destruct circuit. We also recover the mercury left behind by the artesanal miners so it does not remain in the evironment. All our discharged water does not leave the minesite until it is scrubbed to drinking water standards. If done properly mining is a win-win for all involved except for the Anti-Mining NGOs. I would worry if I was any company offered the chance to mine in Venezuela. There is no honor in Maduro and I would worry about being ripped off when the contract doesn’t suit him.
Juan Yang
Environment is much before mining economic, although Chemshun Ceramics Manufacturer depands on mining companines by industrial alumina ceramic wear liners in website http://www.chemshun.com
Richard Jinks
I am looking for a coal wholesaler in Venezuela, can anyone help please. Thank you.