Finally, there is reason to be concerned with the omnipresent dangers of acid drainage - where heavy metals in the rock released through blasting wash into the water that flows downstream from the mine --and of cyanide spills, Cuenca said, like the kind that have contaminated areas around other gold mines, from the United States to Romania to Papua New Guinea. In 2000, there was a spill of 65,000 litres of petroleum at the mine, Cuenca said, the same could happen with sodium cyanide.
Westhoff said the mine is designed so that natural streams are diverted from areas where heavy metals have been exposed, and cyanide is used in a closed circuit to limit the possibility of spills. But he couldn't dismiss the possibility of an accident.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/saturday-extra/Precious+water++precious+metals+on+Chile/Argentina/7703075/story.html
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