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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

Guyana: Disaster Cyanide Spill from Canadian Mine

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

August 25, 1995

OVERVIEW & SOURCE

The World Rainforest Movement reports on the atrocious spill of

cyanide and other pollutants into Guyana's primary river through

the collapse of a large mine's tailing dam. This disaster comes

and Guyana continues to open its lands to intensive mining and

logging development. The environmental costs of short term multi-

national harvesting of resources has become apparent. This item

was posted in econet's rainfor.general conference.

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/* Written 6:43 PM Aug 24, 1995 by gn:wrm in igc:rainfor.genera

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/* ---------- "GUYANA: DISASTER CYANIDE SPILL FROM" ---------- */

From: Forest Peoples Programme <wrm>

Subject: GUYANA: DISASTER CYANIDE SPILL FROM CANADIAN MINE

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WORLD RAINFOREST MOVEMENT

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GOLD FEVER LEADS TO DISASTER

GUYANA: A major cyanide spill from a Canadian gold mine has

caused an 'environmental disaster'.

A massive spill of cyanide into Guyana's main river, the

Essequibo, by the Canadian mining consortium Omai Gold Mines has

been declared 'one of the worst mine disasters in history'. Over

a million cubic metres of highly poisonous residues have poured

through breaches in the mine's waste pond killing off the river

and posing serious health risks to the communities downstream.

President Cheddi Jagan has announced an 'environmental disaster

zone' and called for international assistance to clean up the

mess and avert human tragedies.

High levels of cyanide, used to extract gold from crushed rock,

have already been detected far downstream and dead and dying

fish, birds and animals reported. Local environmentalists are

concerned that heavy metals like arsenic and copper, that are

concentrated in the slurry, will enter the food chain and take

years to dissipate. Soon after the breach in the tailings dam was

detected, late on Saturday night, the company tried diverting the

waste waters into its own mine works. However, slurry has

continued to pour into the rivers, while fears have been raised

that the waste now in the mine pits will leach into the ground

waters. The mine will now be closed for at least half a year.

Gold has been a lure for foreign adventurers ever since Sir

Walter Raleigh wrote of the 'large, rich and bewtiful Empire of

Guiana' in 1595. The Omai mine promised to turn such fantasies

into reality with dreams of Guyana becoming the 'new South

Africa'. Shortly after its opening in 1993, President Jagan

announced the Omai venture would transform 'our mudland into the

gold land of the future'. The mine, jointly owned by Canadian

companies Cambior Inc. and Golden Star Resources and backed by

the World Bank, became South America's largest, annually

producing 250,000 ounces.

The mine has been controversial since opening, for its lack of

environmental controls and the over-generous terms under which

it was granted, meaning that Guyana has seen little of the

profits. The experimental technology of storing waste slurry in

clay tanks under tropical rainforest conditions was untried.

Seepage from the ponds had already led the mine to issue warnings

to the local Amerindians against drinking local creek waters.

Last year, an investigation carried out for the Amerindian

Peoples Association (APA) by Britain's Minewatch had highlighted

the risks of a tailings dam burst. The disaster 'was not only

predictable but predicted' notes Minewatcher Roger Moody, who

carried out the study.

Guyana's haste to open up its interior to loggers and miners has

been widely criticised by environmentalists. The Government has

been pushed into it by its huge foreign debt and pressure from

the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to encourage

foreign investment. As a result, business has expanded faster

than the Government can control leading to demands from Guyanese

citizens for a freeze on the handout of concessions. The loudest

cries have come from the Amerindians who inhabit the sparsely

settled interior. 'The Guyanese economy may need the money, but

sacrifice of peoples' lives and damage to the environment should

not be the cost' notes Jean La Rose of the APA. The Government

has now promised a thorough overhaul of its environmental laws.

'It's a pity they didn't listen to us sooner' laments La Rose.

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Background:

* Financier Robert Friedland, whose stake in Golden Star

Resources Limited (GSRL) underwrote the Omai venture,

previously headed Galactic Resources, responsible for the

worst tailings dam disaster of the decade in the USA.

* GSRL is also developing a major diamond find on the lands

of the Akawaio Indians of the Upper Mazaruni in Guyana.

* GSRL has proposed a second gold mine at Aranka on Carib

Indian lands, also in Guyana.

* In Suriname, GSRL's prospecting has led to the forced

expulsion of thousands of Maroon people from their lands.

* GSRL is also developing other gold and diamond prospects in

Suriname, French Guyana, Brazil and Venezuela.

* David Fagin of GSRL said in October 1994 that his company

'had looked specifically at the Guyana Shield because of

increased pressure by environmentalists and the government

in the USA.'

* Share prices for Cambior Inc. and GSRL crashed on the

international markets when the Omai disaster was announced.

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For further information contact: Marcus Colchester, Forest

Peoples Programme, 8 Chapel Row, Chadlington, OX7 3NA, England

Tel:01608676691 Fax: +441608676743 Email: wrm@gn.apc.org

(This feature is circulated for NGO use and may not be published

without first contacting the WRM-Forest Peoples Programme.)

24 August 1995

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