ENVIRONMENT: All That Glitters Is Not Gold

LAGUNA, New Mexico, Jun 11 (IPS) - According to Greek legend, King Midas of Phrygia thought he had hit the jackpot when he was granted powers to turn everything he touched into gold. Trouble was, everything meant just that: food, clothes - even his family!

Realizing the folly of his ways, the man with the Midas touch begged the gods to reverse his wish.

Today, the global gold industry should heed this sorry tale of greed for gold, say international social and environmental activists.

At the 10th annual conference of the Indigenous Environmental Network, held here this week, activists declared that mining for gold had brought tragedy to indigenous people and the environment worldwide.

"Large-scale gold mining violently uproots and destroys the spiritual, cultural, political, social and economic lives of peoples as well as entire ecosystems,'' said a coalition of more than 100 representatives from various non-governmental organisations.

"Commercial gold mining projects are mainly on indigenous lands and most governments continue to represent the interests of mining corporations against people."

The coalition came together earlier at a "People's Gold Summit," held in the foothills of the Sierra mountains in California - where farmers brought the 1849 gold rush to a halt when farmers by successfully suing mining companies to stop them from destroying farm land.

To mark the 150th anniversary of the stampede for gold, the California-based mining watch-dog Project Underground released a report called "Gold, Greed and Genocide " on the impact of mining on the environment and its effect on Native American communities.

"Californian Indian nations were decimated; first by disease that the '49ers brought with them and then by the new Californian state government, which a bounty on the heads of native people, " said the report.

During the 1849 gold rush, some 7,600 tons of toxic mercury, used to separate gold from ore, ended up in rivers and lakes, resulting in neurological disorders and deaths among the nearby communities. "The mercury still contaminates rivers and the San Francisco Bay, " said Danny Kennedy, director of Project Underground.

Today, indigenous groups around the world - like the Yanomani and Macuxi in the Amazon, or the Igorot people of the Philippines - are similarly endangered because of gold mining activities, said members of the coalition.

"We've had many problems in the Amazon with small-scale gold miners in Brazil, known as 'garimpeiros', " said Leia Oliveira of the Indigenous Council of the state of Roraima, Brazil. "They brought disease and violence and many indigenous people have died. "

Of 500,000 garimpeiros tested in Brazil, more than 30 percent had mercury levels in their bodies above the World Health Organisation's tolerable limits, added Kennedy.

In Venezuela, a joint venture involving the federal government and the Canadian-based company Placer Dome plans to mine for gold in the Imataca forest reserve - home to 10,000 indigenous people, said Yaritza Aray of the Indigenous Federation of Bolivar State.

The 200,000 hectares mine, located on the south eastern border with Brazil and Guyana, would run through land inhabited by five indigenous groups: the Pemon, Akawaio, Arawako, Warao and Karilna.

"When Placer Dome starts, what will happen to these communities?, " Aray asked. "The social impact will be severe - as they are with other indigenous groups affected by mining. Prostitution, alcoholism and disease will destroy these cultures. "

In the United States, the second largest producer of gold in the world, more than 70 percent of gold is taken from native lands, according to Project Underground.

The Western Shoshone indigenous group, located in state of Nevada, are the unhappy host to more than three dozen open-pit gold mines on their land. Community leaders said they continually had been denied land and treaty rights, because the US government allowed mining companies to drill on reservation land.

"To dig under the earth to get to that gold, to pump out that water to get to that gold is a crime against humanity, a crime against life upon which people depend on, " said Carrie Dann, a Western Shoshone elder.

"Gold mining today is destroying the life for the future generations, " she added.

Several coalition members from various islands in Indonesia had similar horror stories of pollution, caused by US-based Newmont Mining Corporation.

"I am a fisherman and to support my family we depend on the resources from the sea, " said Anwar Stirman from the northern sector of Sulawesi. "But because of contamination from Newmont, we find millions of dead fish - and the company never responds to our complaints. " A new threat of contamination has arisen as cyanide was quickly becoming the chemical of choice for mining companies to separate gold from crushed ore, said the coalition.

"No mine has ever avoided leaking cyanide-laced water and waste into the ecosystem, " said Kennedy.

Earlier this decade, a spill of billions gallons of cyanide- laced waste from the Omai mine in Guyana caused the death of thousands of fish and other animals. Only last year in Kyrgyzstan, a major cyanide spill resulted in 80 deaths and the evacuations of thousands of people living downstream of a Canadian-owned gold mine, Kennedy said.

More than 85 percent of gold that is sold around the world today is turned into jewelry.

"Gold mining is not an essential industry like the harvesting of food, " said Project Underground. "Yet, the cumulative impacts of gold mining is at least as bad as that of industrial forestry and agri-business. "

The single biggest market for gold was in India, which imported more of the metal than any other country in the world, according to Project Underground.

In 1998-1999, gold imports were valued at seven billion dollars to import, second only to oil at 7.5 billion dollars.

Gold remained a major status symbol in India and was an essential part of the traditional dowry offered before any wedding by the family of the bride, said the organisation.

"The jewelry serves no useful purpose, " said Kennedy. "it simply lines the pockets of executives and shareholders of companies like Freeport McMoRan, Homestake and Newmont. " (END/IPS/dk/mk/99) .

ENVIRONMENT-HEALTH: Native Americans Denounce Toxic Legacy

LAGUNA, New Mexico, Jun 14 (IPS) - Native Americans in the United States and Canada have inherited a grim legacy of increased rates of cancer and a ruined environment because of uranium mining on tribal homelands.

Indigenous communities met on the Laguna Indian Reservation here last week for the 10th annual conference of the Indigenous Environment Network against the backdrop of increased mining activities for uranium used for nuclear reactors - and weapons.

While one of the poorest areas in the county, the region surrounding the reservation in the western part of the state of New Mexico is one of the richest in uranium ore deposits.

One of the largest open-pit uranium mines in the world, known as Jackpile operated near a small Laguna town between 1953 and 1982. Originally owned by a small company known as Anaconda, Jackpile is now owned by Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO).

"They said the mine would make us rich but I'm still poor and almost everyone around me is dying of cancer and strange diseases, " said Dorothy Purley, a woman dying of lymphoma cancer, who worked for Anaconda Jackpile for 10 years.

In the small town of Paguate, where Purley lives, an estimated 50 people who were miners died from cancer-related illnesses. An additional 20 people who lived downwind from the mine also died, she said.

Kathleen Tsosie, secretary of the Eastern Navajo Dine Against Uranium Mining, an advocacy group based in the north eastern part of the state, told a similar story.

"There are a lot of Navajo widows who live alone, " she said.

An estimated 350-400 members of the Navajo nations who were underground miners have died from diseases related to exposure to the radioactive uranium, according to Chris Shuey, an environmental health researcher with the Southwest Research and Information Center.

But not all Native Americans at the conference condemned the uranium mining.

"I would like to keep the uranium issue on the positive side, " said Harry Early, governor of the Laguna Pueblo. "The Jackpile mine provided employment for 800 people during its 30 years of existence and we don't know if the cancer has really been caused by uranium. "

John Redhouse of the Southwest Indigenous Uranium Forum disagreed.

"The social costs and health impacts outweigh any jobs and money the goes to Laguna, " he said. "Whatever apparent benefits accrue do not necessarily go to the communities but to the multinational energy companies. "

Jackpile currently is undergoing a 48 million dollar reclamation programme - paid for by ARCO and conducted by the Laguna tribe - aimed at restoring the landscape to resemble the way it appeared before the exploitation began.

Many at the conference said the current reclamation effort was only partially completed and a lot of the uranium from the mine waste already had leached into the soil and water.

"Two tributaries near the mine and the Rio San Jose have already tested positive for radiation contamination, " according to Manual Pino with the Laguna-Acoma Coalition for a Safe Environment. "It's one of the United States' best kept secrets. "

Purley, who lived less than 1,000 meters from Jackpile said she was not happy with progress of the reclamation project. "Every time the rain falls there is still this strange smell by the mine. "

Many other abandoned mines also continued to leach contaminants slowly into surrounding areas, Pino added. "In the state of Arizona alone more than 1,300 uranium mines have not been reclaimed, " he said.

Cindy Gilday of the Dene tribe from the harsh Northwest Territories of Canada said that uranium mining on their land in the 1940s devastated her hometown of Deline, located near Great Bear Lake - one of the largest on the continent.

During World War II, the Canadian government hired young Dene men to carry uranium in sacks from the mines onto barges. The men had no knowledge of the toxic qualities of their loads.

"Now Deline is a village of widows with most of the men having died in the 1970s and 1980s from cancer, " said Gilday. "It was the first time people at Great Bear Lake started to die of lung, bone, stomach, brain and skin cancer. "

The early deaths of men in the community had been especially devastating to Dene culture. "This is so important because the elder men are the traditional spiritual and moral advisors in the community, " she said.

"What strikes me is that the stories from New Mexico, Arizona and Canada are so similar...we are all dying of the same diseases. "

In the United States, Congress attempted to amend past wrongs by passing the 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act which would pay underground mine workers who suffered negative health impacts. But many participants at the conference said the Act did not go far enough in compensating other types of mine workers or family members.

"Anybody who has suffered through exposure to radioactive uranium should be compensated, " said Pino.

Lawmakers from south-western states have proposed bills to amend the act and include people who worked above ground in the mines and also those who worked in the uranium processing mills.

But new uranium projects using new technology continued to threaten native communities in the south-western United States, said Tsosie. In her town of Crownpoint, New Mexico, Hydro Resources Inc. planned to leach uranium from the groundwater in three places in the Northwestern part of the state.

The underground leach mining process is different from traditional open-pit mines since it occurs in the groundwater itself when chemicals are injected into the aquifer to dissolve the ore and is then pumped out.

"How can this not possible threaten our water supply, " said Tsosie. "And many of our sacred sites are near these wells. "

Tsosie and others have brought their case to Washington, where in hearings before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, they have tried to revoke the company's permit to mine in the area and a ruling was expected next month.

Indigenous groups in other regions of the world, also are fighting proposed mines on their lands. Australian, aboriginal leaders are leading a national campaign against one of the world's largest uranium deposits - known as Jabiluka.

Located on land that is traditionally owned by the Mirrar indigenous people in the Northern Territory region of the country, the mine is surrounded by the country's largest national parklands.

Famous for its biological diversity, Kakadu Park is has been designated a World Heritage Site by the United Nations. "The environment is part of us, so any damage to the land is damage to us, " said Jacqui Katona, an Australian aboriginal woman, on of the leaders of the fight against the mine. (END/IPS/dk/mk/99).

ENVIRONMENT-RIGHTS: Sacred Native American Sites Threatened

LAGUNA, New Mexico, Jun 15 (IPS) - Many areas of the United States considered holy by Native Americans - from sacred valleys to traditional burial grounds - are under threat by proposed mining projects and nuclear dumps.

Federal laws, aimed at protecting sites of religious or historic significance, often are being overlooked if the place exists on mineral-rich land, say participants at the Indigenous Environmental Network Conference held here last week.

"The mining laws of the United States are stronger than the laws that protect Native American religious rights, " says Roland Manakaja, director of the Havasupai Natural Resource Department.

Native American groups have been meeting annually at these conferences for the past 10 years to discuss environmental and land rights issues.

On the Havasupai reservation in Arizona located near the famous Grand Canyon, tribal leaders say plans to mine for uranium near threatens their sacred site of a sunset colored land formation known as Red Butte. "The mining threatens not only our sacred land but also tourism as well, " says Manakaja.

After nearly a decade of legal battles between the of Forest Service, the US Supreme Court and tribal leader, the federal government eventually approved the uranium mine.

Luckily for the Havasupai, even with government approval, the company, Energy Fuels Nuclear Incorporated, says it currently has no plans to begin operations since the demand for uranium is declining.

But proposals to mine for radioactive uranium on Mount Taylor, where the conference was held, would desecrate the peak considered holy by several Native American groups in the south-western United States, says John Redhouse of the Navajo Dine indigenous group.

"Mount Taylor is considered sacred to four tribes: the Acoma, Laguna, Navajo, Zuni, " he says. "It is one of the four holy mountains of the Navajo. "

At the conference - attended by 1,000 indigenous people from around the world - a series of about 20 signs displayed the names of different US sites that Native American groups consider "endangered. "

In another part of New Mexico, Indian tribes such as the Hopi, Havasupai and Navajo - are fighting plans to expand a pumice mine in the Coconino National Forest, located in the northern Arizona. The pumice is used to make fashionable "stone-washed " blue jeans and lightweight concrete.

While groups consider the mountains - known as the San Francisco Peaks - sacred, the land falls under the jurisdiction of the US Forest Service which has approved expansion of the local small mining company Tufflite Inc.

"It really comes down to which is more important to the Forest Service: the health of the land or the manufacture of soft faded blue jeans, " declares Vincent Randall, chairman of the Yavapai- Apache Nation.

"It is our hope that our grandchildren will not have more faded blue jeans than green forests... " he says in a letter to the state's forest service.

In 1994, the Network's conference was held in the northern state of Wisconsin on Mole Lake, a body of water considered holy by the Chippewa tribe. The site is downstream from a proposed zinc-copper mine to be operated by the Canadian mining company Rio Algom.

"The mine is upstream from the nearby wild rice beds of the Mole Lake and the sacred Wolf River that flows through the Menominee nation, another Native American tribe, " says Zoltan Grossman with the Midwest Treaty Network, which works to support the land rights of Native Americans.

In the gold-rich state of Nevada, mining on territories claimed by the Western Shoshone tribe has made permanent changes to the landscape, leaving open pits where mountains once stood and artificial mountains where there were none before.

Corbin Harney, a member of the Western Shoshone which call themselves 'Newe', says historical and cultural sites, including burial areas, have been excavated or destroyed without the group's permission if mineral riches lay beneath the soil.

"One of our responsibilities is to protect our ancestors, protect their graves, " says Harney.

"We can't just go out there and dig them out and move them someplace else - this makes a lot of our elders back home angry because things like this are happening all over no matter where you go, " he says.

There have been some success stories in the fight to protect sacred sites. On the Mojave Indian Reservation located at the crux between the three states of California, Nevada and Arizona, plans to place a low-level radioactive storage facility in the sacred area, known as Ward Valley, have been halted.

A coalition of tribal leaders and environmentalists have been occupying Ward Valley since February to prevent the waste from nuclear reactors from being stored on the site.

"This has been a sacred area for us for centuries, " says Wally Antone, the Ward Valley Coordinator of the Mojave Indian Tribe. "Our ancestors were cremated here. "

The valley is also critical habitat for the endangered desert tortoise, which is also considered sacred by the Mojave people and appears in many of the tribes myths and legends, according to Bradley Angel, director of California-based Greenaction, an environmental organisation.

"From an environmental point of view, the waste should not be stored here, " says Angel.

"The dump would be right above the aquifer that filters into the Colorado River which is a drinking and agricultural water source for more than 20 million people, " he says.

The new governor of California, Gray Davis, is reportedly against the proposed dump, yet Angel warns that even though the construction of the facility has been halted, total victory has not been achieved.

"Although it's tempting to celebrate, we haven't defeated the issue yet and we need the governor to turn his words into action and make it into law, " says Angel. (END/IPS/dk/99)