Gold mining has been a serious threat to local communities—the Galamsey of West Africa, the Igorot of the Philippines, and the Macuxi and Yanomami of the Amazon are considered endangered ever since their habitats were invaded by gold bounty hunters. Mining companies use cyanide and mercury to extract gold from crushed ore and inevitably these contaminate the water stream.
In Indonesia, the government sued a major US mining company, which having extracted all available gold at one of the mines, packed its bags and left. The government’s case was premised on its claim that in the course of mining the gold, the US company had intentionally dumped poisonous waste, such as arsenic and mercury, into the Buyat Bay. This waste poisoned the fish in the bay, depriving the local people of their main source of protein and economic livelihood
No comments:
Post a Comment