In addition to forcing farmers from the land, Newmont poisoned local water supplies at least once, by its own admission. In 2010, the company agreed to pay US $5 million compensation to the government for a 2009 cyanide spill that killed fish and polluted drinking water. Newmont conceded proper procedures were not followed, and that its staff also failed to properly notify Ghanaian government authorities.
While welcoming the possible benefits well-built and -supervised mines might bring to Haiti, Anglade and other Haitian experts are worried that a pit mine, which would likely use significant amounts of cyanide to recuperate gold from ore and dirt, could be dangerous to Haiti’s already fragile environment.
In the neighboring Dominican Republic, a government-controlled gold mine caused so much contamination that the region’s rivers still run red as rain releases metals from the ore left lying about.
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