What the gold miners are saying

As I have noted earlier, there are growing protests by civil society organizations in El Salvador against the prospect of expanded gold mining in the country. It is worth noting, however, that the gold mining companies continue to talk optimistically. One such company is Condor Resources:
Condor Resources plc is a young Australian-based mineral resources company that is developing a number of deposits in El Salvador and Nicaragua. The company is listed on AIM, with ticker symbol CNR and market capitalisation of just over £9 million or US$17 million. The Chief Executive is Nigel Ferguson, an exploration geologist with twenty years’ experience in the field including the assessment of the Geita Gold project for what was then Ashanti Goldfields. The company policy is to employ local personnel where possible, and the local workforce is typically employed from within a five kilometre radius of each operation. ...

Both El Salvador and Nicaragua operate attractive Mining Codes and allow for the ready repatriation of profits. El Salvador trades in US dollars, while investors in Nicaragua can lock in their exchange rate with the government and repatriate at the original rate some years later if they wish, thus hedging against any appreciation. The tax regimes are favourable, with El Salvador commanding a royalty of 2% and Nicaragua, 3%. Site access and infrastructure are also well developed....

This is an early stage exploration and development project, but the history of the area and the grades intersected to date suggest that it carries significant potential.

Comments

Hodad said…
as i have reiterated before on this blog, and with letters to these companies
and with links to "No Mas Oro Sucio" on my web sites, and now with starting some help from OXFAM, WWF, Greenpeace, and others
for their health, all these people need to leave El Salvador NOW
THERE WILL BE WAR, if not
and all the fishermen will be made aware if they are not already of the use of arsenic and cyanide by these fools and what the consequences would be for the future of the waters and the fishing in this small country, the word is disastrous

and thank God, thank whomever,
it seems the folks that own any land that could be compromised are not selling


gold miners leave El Salvador now
Anonymous said…
They may not be selling NOW, but who knows if they add a couple of more colones?

In the end, I know that the Canadian mafia views exploitation of El Salvador land (without apparently getting much in return...) due to our country's history and reputation of being governed by brainless monkeys. So it wouldn't surprise me if sooner or later the mining actually expanded. Either by taking away land or people forced to sell.
El-Visitador said…
Entrepreneurs are by nature optimists.

These guys are obviously expecting that mature heads will prevail and Salvadoreans will opt for jobs and development.

The evil guys, on the other hand, are hoping for a one-year contract renewal from Oxfam/Greenpeace if they succeed at thwarting the entrepreneurs. Such is the incentive nature of the multinational ONG's.
Hodad said…
visitador
your statements do not make sense
what are you saying?
what does OXFAM/Greenpeace have to do with 'contracts'?

if you are insinsuating that a few jobs will be created do to this mining, versus what the harm will come about due to any mining, especuilly gold mining.
then you need to get a grip if you are unaware what gold mining does to the water supply, then do some googling
you must be CIA
as i said, the gold miners need to leave, for their health

mining using cyanide,aresenic, etc,. WILL NOT BE TOLERATED
especially in regards to the health of the water suppply in ES and MY future in regards to the fishing business
El-Visitador said…
"what are you saying?
what does OXFAM/Greenpeace have to do with 'contracts'?"

The multinational ONG's give "contracts" (grants) to their agitators in El Salvador.

The more ruckus the local hired guns raise, the more money they get from people in the transnational scaremonging business such as OXFAM/Greenpeace.
Hodad said…
you are obviously not someone of heart or substance,
these folks work for the heart,

you need to read more, pal,
'visitador'

and OXFAM and Greenpeace are not even in ES, yet
where do you get your info?
TIME,REPUBLIC, Rush Limbaugh,Pat Robertson, etc.

I will make sure they get your comments
and reply in kind to such ludicrous comments on your part

you must be a bush lover i assume
or an evangelical,(which usually equates to 'uneducated hypocrite') [i know I have a few in my family, like my deceased Dad's brother], anyway

and I will bet you are a right wing old fart also,
if you are young, then you are brainwashed, and probably ex military,
but in your 'profile' there is nothing about you personally, so i assume you are trying to hide
so many like you that care not for some future of this planet,
if you have kids or grandkids, what do you want to leave them
waters polluted by gold mining?
or just the present to satisfy your
'food and sex urgings', as seems so prevalent now, espcially in USA, ha

i hide nothing
I am just an old HIPPIE
know what that means? pal....
doubtful that you know so here is what it means, [but then I am am avid reader and fan of such as Tom Robbins,Kurt Vonnegut, etc.]

HELP
IN
PRODUCING
PEACEFUL
INDIVIDUAL
EXISTENCE

that means all people have a soul and something to contribute on this planet, in the eyes of God we are all equal,

and then I will reiterate again....
without these poor folks breaking their backs,coffe pickers, agricultural labourers, etc.
these rich fucks would have NADA
you see that, or not?

get real pal or "en espanol,as my wonderful deceased friend Rick Klein, ex manager of the group The Monkees would say (pix on my web site, tropicooltours)

'acapatelo'
Anonymous said…
The quality of this debate is declining rapidly. Hodad26, your speculations about El-visitador’s character have little to do with the debate. Though I suspect your motive for opposing the mines are not selfish, the reference to a fisherman’s war creates the appearance that you are looking out for the interests of fisherman rather than society as a whole. Fisherman themselves are exploiting (sometimes overexploiting) a natural resource. What effect, exactly, will the mines have on fisherman? What effect will they have on non-fisherman? What right do fishermen have to impinge on gold-miners’ right to earn a living? Since the fishermen are pushing El Salvador toward greater environmental vigilance, what sacrifices are the fishermen willing to make in terms of cleaning up their own industry.

El-visitador, your analysis here is uncharacteristically shallow. OXFAM and Greenpeace are often misguided, but their heart is in the right place. Either the environmental externalities of gold mining outweigh the benefits or they don’t. Rationally make the case that they don’t. Once you have done this, then we can all get outraged that NGOs are once again creating hysteria without the science to back up their arguments. But, at this point, it seems entirely plausible that these mines create costly environmental problems without producing comparable benefits.
Anonymous said…
Never mind your future, hodad. let us pay attention to the region's future. There are plans of building 300 dams throughout the region, if the effects of buidling one is devastating, can you imagine how building 300 dams in 170 rivers could entirely change the geography of the region?

http://www.radiolaprimerisima.com/noticias/2559
http://www.caritaselsalvador.org/Paginas/Pagina_4_06_62.htm

Now add these mining projects, and we'll have water shortages, and our water soup would have three new ingridientes in dangerous levels arsenic, mercury and cyanide... I would invite Visitador to drink a glassful of cyanide if he believes that you can grant permission to a transnational that is so eager to mine, but that obviously won't be as responsible with the country because we are not USA nor Canada. We are a poor country with an incompetent mafia government so we are open game for those thieves to come here as they please without having any responsibility with the population.

You know, this country already has a problem TRYING to sustain the population, now all this projects want to make it even more difficult to do so. What will happen with all the displaced population? Are they going to migrate to El Norte just to be deported back? To the cities and find no jobs? Our mafia pro-narcobusinesss government has an implacable record of screwing our resources, our environment, our population, allowing predatory urbanization and now they want to add these two marks?

http://www.miningwatch.ca/index.php?/El_Salvador_en/Moran_El_Dorado_en

Why can't our country engage for once in educating the population, industrializing agriculture, organizing the campesinos, the fisherman, into exploiting their resources more consciously and effectively whilst teaching them ways to mantain them?
Hodad said…
ok, let's go
first to answer some questions

The Fishermen
1. they have been paying 20% on fuel costs since day one, this was going to INFOVIAL,
[this was recently abolished and has been on the supreme courts agenda as unconstituional for some time]
fishermen do not use the roads, just a little bit, from the existing buyers maybe that drive to Acajutla and return to San Sal, 1 or 2 I know of

there are 6000 artesanal fishermen just in El Salvador, true they are mainly fishing for shark, it is easy and a lazy fishermean's way, and they get $50 lb from those wierdo Chinese for the fins,
[been to China 10 times, lived there for 3 months]
at least thank God, in ES the meat is used and sold in the markets, but <= to $2.00 lb. and the people have a taste for it,
ate it at Punta Roca 1000 times, with garlic and butter then baked, not bad, not grouper, but it is tasty, and hell; as a surfer for 42 years, they want to eat me, I will eat them, lol]

what i want to do and am working on is creating sustainable fisheries for 'demersal species', as the pelagic specis,ARE OVER EXPLOITED, thanks to those such as CALVO and the Chinese raping the coasts now, and discarding of 'by-catch'
and the police still have 4 patrol boats broken down at Acajutla, 9we will get them fixed]

I will pardon your lack knowledge of what is going in the seafood industry. WORLWIDE.
however I/we keep up with the news each and every day

my aim is to increase yields, yes more money for them, [and put the wives and girlfriends also to work processing] with less work, more efficient fishing, while being SUSTAINABLE.
that is the key word, SUSTAINABLE for the Future,
they make more money, spend more, [I plan on incentives, but I am a gringo...] and they also have less desire to immigrate illegally North..right?

I also hope to get MSC Certification for these guys,

men/boys. some I have known for over 20 years, it is about techniques, and modification of fishing methods, which I will teach, I have been on the water since age 5, My Dad taught me,

even an old friend I saw at Zunzal recently, Jorge, a oyster diver[the guys with the biggest huevos in ES] will tell you the enroachment of sand/sediment has been more profound inshore, this is due to development and road construction,uphill remember, the coast is steep, residue arrives at the sea, quickly, and there are less oysters close in
[but still a lot of fish]

working with the Universities, we will be able to develop hatcheries to REPLACE the fish that are taken, so NEVER suggest that El Salvadoran ARTESNAL fishermn are exploiting the seas, never,
yes the big longliners like CALVO, yes pelagic fish,
but this year El Nino is on the wax, so there will be some serious migration problems,

close to shore
these mines will affect the water quality and this water will also be some of what can be used for hatchery source water. and this small country need all the clean water it can get.

the gold mine has already said it would only generate 'maybe' 400 jobs
maybe...bulldozers, draglines, etc now replaces these workers,
tracer deposits are close to the surface and as with MIDES, you know containment does not work well in
"La Tierra de las Hamacas"
there has a;lready been leaks from a test , see Diario Co-Latino for some serious ugly pix.
as far as the dams, I would like to see where this comes from,this data
if true, and if this is part of this so-called Millenium project, then what is the purpose of these dams, if for electricity generation,then there are many fools involved,
as SOLAR and A.T. applications have NEVER been used in ES and the very large potential of Geothermal for electricity use need to be expounded,
but again mulitnationals only care for the large very inefficient projects, ie. DUKE etc.
[another day we will discuss hemp,castor oil, palm etc for vehicle,plastic,bio-gas, and energy use,etc. etc etc.]
i suggest you see my friend in Chile's site Safari Seeds,
he also works on sustainable fishing projects, but unlike EL SALVADOR, the intelliegent level of the people and the government are different, [and they just arrested Pinochet, one of the CIA's boys, hurray!!!!!]
anyway

and to answer another question
IT IS ALL ABOUT THE HEART, pals
for me anyway

and oh, Miguel yes i question Visitador's character, he shows me nothing of his education or experience[in his profile,non-existent] which I believe is important in these debates
but as a surfer for 42 years, self employed since I was 24, in the guiness book twice, etc.
yea, I am a 'in your face ' kind of guy,
and I will gladly teach any potential gold miner how to fish
cleaner work, but there will be no gold mines in ES
please see my sites
senorpescado.com and fairtradefish.com
and for a litlle bit of fun
bubbajohnsonshrimp.com

or enter 'pescado' in Google or yahoo see what ya get...

I LOVE El Salvador,
but as I have said before, and yes I have been all over the world, the people in ES are the best part
they are what makes the country great
[and yes somewhere in ES I am 90% sure I have a kid,maybe Zacatecoluca, HIS Future concerns me greatly, I will find him soon,I hope, just to say Hi and help with 'la leche', ]

Peace
Anonymous said…
We need brains. Too much "heart" doesn't allow us to think straight, that is why we are as screwed as we are.

Btw, it is good news to hear about your plans and what you've been doing. I believe that that is the kind of things that this nation needs to get going. Small business to big business should just do that. Unfortunately when it is related to big business, transnationals, the mostly don't give a damn about a country only about their resources. And some small folks don't really know how to take care/guarantee durability of the things they exploit. But this is mostly due to lack of education. If you'd educate someone that engages on fishing with explosives, and how no no it is, and how if it continues he/she would suddenly count with no more fish so their and their families sustenance would screw up. Of course, ignorance partenred with predatory capitalism is never good... Anyway, it is good you are organizing your fisherman, I'm sure that they are making a betterlife were they employed by Poma (I've grown to mistrust the native devils). I just hope you organize the whole community and educate em all!

That is what this country needs, some brains!

Btw, when I said exploiting, I was taking more consideration into this definition:

# The act of utilizing something for any purpose. In this case, exploit is a synonym for use.

Sustainable exploitation or whatever you want to call it.

http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l66006.htm

About the dams. Yes, they are for energy distrubution. But I doubt that the Millenium Account is involved, cause a big percentage of it is already destined to road building... so cargo trucks will have a faster and more pleasant ride (being honest, and not eating the ARENAZI propaganda that they do it with the purpose of communicating the poor population of the north). Upon closer look, though, 300 dams according to CESTA could be an exageration upon their part. But this doesn't remove how devastating building dams are upon the rivers they are built, let alone in a stupidly managed country like this one...

http://pepei.pennnet.com/display_article/271939/70/ARTCL/none/none/Centroam%C3%A9rica_y_el_dilema_de_la_energ%C3%ADa_t%C3%A9rmica/
Hodad said…
yes, you are correcto mundo about dams
not needed and ES is too small
better ways to get energy
biomass is the best for tropical countries, hemp,palm,castor seed, etc.


hope you saw my sites,

and yes, ES is very badly managed,
this is true, too many fat cats only talk and take advantage

so this gringo will once again come down and do 'something' and the big transnationals will try some shit,
but shark shit to them!

maybe this time the frente wil learn not to put old farts as a candidate
Sr. Ortiz seems sharp enough, and Dr. Silva was very sharp as alcalde
but arena, get real same as bush bullshit
but these peoples days are numbered
as folks are waking up, maybe
we will see in 2 weeks what happens here in this
1. arrogant 2.greedy 3.ignorant 4.obese 5.xenophobic country
but the elections could be robbed again as they were in 2004
people are rejoicing in Chile due to Pinochio's arrest, about time one of the CIA asshole buddies goes down,
vamos a ver
Viva La Raza!