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The Diaguita indigenous community in Huasco Alto, surrounded by rich gold, silver and copper deposits in the northern Chilean region of Atacama, are engaged in a struggle to prevent mining projects from infringing on their territory and destroying their way of life and ancestral identity.

On the evening of July 22nd, Barrick security guards open fired on the local villages using high powered assault raffles, M16 and shot guns on the harmless villages. The reckless use of excessive force resulted in instant death of the late Gipson Umbi. In the last few weeks, three more locals have died under mysteries circumstances at the mine site. 

For more photos/captions, contact: sakura.saunders[at]gmail.com 

Meeting Crashers: Anti-mining activists confront shareholders at AGM

Tonight a number of activists with Protest Barrick Toronto crashed an African Medical Research and Education Foundation (AMREF) gala, for which Barrick was a "Gold" sponsor. While not criticizing AMREF work, the protesters were critical of the NGO's praise of Barrick's work in Africa. They passed out fliers to gala participants until they were escorted out by AMREF security.

They highlighted the still unresolved Bulyanhulu massacre, the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of people at the Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi mines, the current jailing of 13 villagers for protesting displacement at Barrick's Buzwagi mine, and the lack of tax revenues that goes to the people of Tanzania.

These issues have previously been highlighted by reputable Tanzanian organizations such as the Lawyer's Environmental Action Team (LEAT) and Norwiegan Church Aid in Tanzania.

Read "A Golden Opportunity? Justice and Respect in Mining," written by Mark Curtis and Tundu Lissu, published by Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT), National Council of Muslims in Tanzania (BAKWATA), and Tanzania Episcopal Conference.

Read LEAT's response to the CAO report on the Bulyahulu mine.

View LEAT's page on Barrick's Bulyanhulu Mine.

The world's largest gold mining company is claiming from the small not-for-profit publisher and the authors of "Noir Canada", $5 million in compensatory damages, and $1 million in punitive damages, which represent 25 times the annual operating revenue of Écosociété.http://slapp.ecosociete.org/en

find out what you can do to help!

Greg Palast will interview Indigenous People who are fighting Barrick Gold's operations on their lands.

The night will include an interview with Human Rights Defenders working on the Bulyanhulu massacre in Tanzania. The Bulyanhulu mine is owned and operated by Barrick Gold, the largest gold mining company in the world.

Thursday 1st May @ 5pm

Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery Street
Lower East Side, Manhattan

Cost: $5 - $10 (sliding scale)

For more info: 1 347 439 5839
http://www.protestbarrick.net

San Juan, Argentina:  Argentine national Ombudsperson Eduardo Mondino has recommended that metals mining exploration and operations be immediately suspended in a zone in the northwest of the province of San Juan.  The report is based upon evidence presented in a lawsuit filed by environmentalist Ricardo Vargas in the Argentine supreme court.

This high-mountain zone of the Andes range, containing the UNESCO-protected San Guillermo wilderness, is home to unique and widely biodiverse species ranging from llamas to mountain lions to lichens, and harbors the glacier systems which produce the water vital for the agricultural provinces below.  This zone, known to mining firms as "Argentina's Gold Belt" is slated to be Argentina's next "Mining Sacrifice Zone,"  a center of mining exploration and activity, with dozens of firms, led by Barrick Gold, carrying out exploration and mining activities, in a context of political corruption, plunder and corporate favoritism.

The lawsuit (Nº 5945/04, titled "VARGAS, RICARDO, Regarding Environmental Damages Caused by Mining Operations in the Province of San Juan"),  is  waiting to be heard in the Argentine Supreme Court, but is already producing repercussions for the mining industry.  The lawsuit claims that Barrick Gold's mining operation Pascua Lama has been illegally permitted by the province of San Juan.  The justification is based on multiple grounds:   First, that the contamination, health effects and extraction of water resources will extend to and harm multiple provinces;  second, that the project is being built in the very heart of the UNESCO-protected San Guillermo World Biosphere Reserve; and finally, that the bi-national nature of these projects demands a federal-level environmental approval process, which was never carried out.

The lawsuit will halt all mining projects in the zone, including Pascua Lama and some ten other projects in advanced stages of progress,  and subject them to a new Federal-level Environmental Impact Review process.

Mondino, the national Public Ombudsperson, visited the region last week and collected evidence of the growing effects of mining activities upon public health, cancer rates and drinking water contamination.  The report published demonstrates the multi-provincial plume of contamination and desertification already created by mining operations such as Barrick's Veladero; and indicates the alarming extent to which further mining operations will affect the region in general.  The ombudsperson's report is directed to the National Parks Administration, the Government of the province of San Juan and the Federal Government.

Vargas, a former high-mountain guide intimately familiar with the San Guillermo reserve,  has been struggling against the proliferation of mining projects in the zone for some eight years.  His lawsuit is part of a surge of activism against mining projects in San Juan, on the part of citizens alarmed not only by Barrick's Pascua-Lama/Veladero project, but by the proliferation of literally dozens of projects in this emerging national mining sacrifice zone.

David Modersbach
National University of Rosario
Encuentro por la Biodiversidad
dmoders@yahoo.com

This April and May, hear voices of communities directly affected by the operations of Barrick Gold. "Meet the Resistance" brings together community voices from Australia, Papua New Guinea, the U.S., and Chile to share their experiences in going up against the world's largest gold miner.

Check more link for schedule!

see bios for the presenters.

Thursday, September 6  kicked off Merrill Lynchs Canada's 13th Annual Mining Conference, an invitation-only conference for institutional investors, mining analysts and the executive management of North American mining companies. During this conference, the Canadian Institute for International Affairs hosted a forum on "Canada's Responsibility Abroad," a meeting stacked with industry representatives, attended by a government agency, and organized to promote Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the mining industry. The meeting was countered by a group of protesters outside and inside the forum; the protesters demanded mandatory regulation of the mining industry and handed out information illustrating the abuses of this industry abroad, including specific critiques of Barrick Gold pointing to their repeated misrepresentation of information in an attempt to appear socially responsibile.