From the Costa Rica Tico Times comes a long article on the human impact of the closure of the Glencairn Bellavista mine as a result of the downhill sliding of the heap leach pad.
As told in the Tico Time we learn of the joys of a mine bringing money and employment to the locals, only to have the mine shut down a year or two later. We learn of folk who foretold the fiasco the mine has become. We learn that the Costa Rican government has four to ten million dollars of the mine’s equipment locked up as a sort of security to fix the situation. It takes no great insight to predict that it will cost a lot more than that to restore the site to some sort of acceptable condition–it is clearly geomorphically unstable, and topographic change is inevitable.
The story as told superbly by reporter, Dave Sherwood, presents a challenge to all professors of Sustainable Mining: in short, explain this one in theoretical terms. The story presents a challenge to those who seek to hold Canadian mining companies operating in foreign countries to the same standards as mines in Canada; in short, to which Toronto court would you now drag the newly named company, Central Sun Mining (formerly Glencairn.) And it presents a challenge to investors: are you prepared to put more money behind Peter Tagliamonte as he seeks to open a new mine in Nicaragua.
We have written extensively about the technical aspects of the mine and its heap leach pad; or at least as much as we could glean from news reports, photos, and our experience. See this blog via it search routine, and the material at this link.
The story is fascinating because it captures in one frame all the issues of mining: Nice people developing new mines; good engineering consultants missing the one undetected geological weakness; towns benefiting from more income & social services; shareholders growing rich before their fortunes evaporate; regulatory agencies operating beyond their range of ability; and Cassandras crying in the wilderness, ignored, dismissed, and ultimately proven right.
One could hold a complete conference on the story and lessons learnt at Bellavista. We could have sessions on the geology, geotechnology, heap leach pad design, environmental impacts, regulatory issues, investment wisdom, social corporate license, reclamation, and the role of bloggers & reporters. I omit a session on Sustainable Development; I do that because I spurn the concept as mere big words with no meaning–or at least a meaning so obscure and elastic as to be worthless verbiage. I stand waiting to be corrected by its adherents–but to convince me you will have to explain the totality of Bellavista in clear acceptable terms–acceptable to me, the people of the town, the taxpayers of Costa Rica, and the shareholders of a renamed company.
Personally I think this is just a fascinating example of human nature in all its glorious diversity of ability, hope, striving, greed, and incompetence. No need for theory: just read the average fiction short story with brandy at your side, and it is all explained. Better still go to the opera.
Jack thanks for the update from Bellavista. I must have overlooked seeing your name on the Board of Directors, Management, of Central Sun Mining or any of its subsidiaries directories. So it appears that your judiciary responsibility is less than your fiduciary agreement with your readers. All the parties involved are in civilized binding agreements.
The article written was as bias as the majority of your recent articles about Central Sun Mining. If I may and use my wife Anna as an example. Her reporting background includes witness to an execution, – Earl Behringer, for the Mansfield New Mirror, along with the “Texas Cadet killers,” and Amber Hagerman, God bless the little girl who became our national Amber alert for missing children. She lived close to my paper route when I was a child. A bit of brag but the Mrs. has shaken the hand of George W Bush himself.
To be truthful, I love her dearly, but some of her publish news were in fact biased. All local reporters write in this style, as you know the facts are dull.
I keep in touch with a lot of people about the Bellavista mine. I hear all kinds of projections. If this is not going to be a gold mine then I trust Peter Tagliamonte reclamations of the property and “doing the right thing” in Costa Rica. Maybe nice golf course, resort and those jobs may be in the future. This is not only is possible its worlds apart from the environmental disaster that you have predicted.
Robert
I and a colleague have been in Ontario Superior Court (Glencairn versus CCCCH, Bruce Katz« and René Silva) since january 2004. Glencairn attempted to intimidate us with a SLAPP suit. When we filed a defence statement in Ontario Superior Court, they began to panic because they hadn’t counted on us standing our ground. Their ssuit followed information we had put on our web site detailing criticism of thei heap-leaching pad at the Bellavista mine. In its original file claimed against us, Glencairn denied that it uses a cyanide-based solution to leach the gold. The evidence would appear to indicate otherwise. Glencairn also claimed losses of 17 million dollars because of our ‘defamatory’ article, but in its 2004 financial report, Glencairn shows 8 mllion dollars in losses linked to operating costs, no mention made of our web site.
In Smithers, BC, at present Blue Pearl Mining, part of Thompson Creek Metals, is attempting to receive approval in the BC Environmental Application process for its Davidson Project (molybdenum. The officers and directors of Thompson Creek/Blue Pearl feature figures familiar from Glencairn: Ian MacDonald, Peter Tredger, Kerry Knoll, etc. If you read the public comments submitted by nearby residents (http://a100.gov.bc.ca/appsdata/epic/html/deploy/epic_project_doc_list_262_r_pub.html) you will see the proposal is NOT locally popular. TCM is actually trying to put the mine just outside a neighbourhood, in the watershed used for water by 50 households. The noise issues, dust issues, and trucking issues are further complicated by the town’s identity as a ski resort and international steelhead/salmon fishing destination. As such, the proposed water treatment plant is drawing a lot of fire. With the recent failure of Ruby Creek and Galore in BC, it’s hoped the BC govt. will examine the workability of this one carefully before approving it. BC had probably better factor in the cost of treating water in perpetuity. Hopefully the locals won’t ultimately be proven to be the Cassandras crying in the wilderness.
[...] never have communicated with. For example, much of what I wrote about the failure of the Bellavista heap leach pad was sent to me by people living besides the site. Similarly with the story of Southwestern [...]
[...] about mining in Costa Rica, which is essentially just next door. We talked of the failure of the Bellavista Heap Leach Pads and we talked about the news that Costa Rica has once again banned mining. The long-delayed Crucitas [...]
[...] an open-pit goldmine in Costa Rica was shut down in 2007 on fears that something similar was about to happen, the chemical causing concern was cyanide. Not [...]