Chile Forum

U.S. Gold Mining Company Geocom to Strip Mine the Espolon Valley in Region X of Southern Chile's Patagonia.

The link to our full article can be found here at http://www.allsouthernchile.com:
http://www.allsouthernchile.com/content/view/391/100/

We are looking for help with an email campaign to stop this and we are cordinating with local environmental groups and organizations, including Aguas libres and the tourism association of Futaleufu.

I'm just a tourist/newcomer but I can't help wondering if there's a link between Geocom and Barrick Gold. Geocom was formed in 2000 and is based in Washington state where Canadian Barrick's main office is located. Barrick has fallen out of favor with analysts a bit because of lack of activity and Geocom is a hot newcomer. I was in investments in my "old" life and don't trust these large corporations much. Ok, call me suspicious....

Personally, I think it's a terrible idea for Chile to sell natural resources so cheap while impacting the environment and natural beauty. And I bet they're selling much too cheap.

They are incorporated in the State of Nevada from what I found. It really does not matter all that much in Chile, because they are operating under a fully Chilean company so they have all the protection inside Chile of that company. They can more or less do what they want, and only the Chilean company is really in trouble.

We are investigating more about their operations inside Chile, and should have more soon.

I saw this on kitco.com and it rang a bell, is this the same site? If so, it's on hold for now. When the $ tanks, watch them switch to high gear though.

http://www.bnamericas.com/story.jsp?idi ... cia=397144

No, these are different projects. There are all kinds of them all over Patagonia now, by all kinds of companies.

I know they killed the project in Argentina because they could not meet the environmental standards just over the boarder.

US Corporations are like locusts. I can't even start talking without getting really angry. May I suggest that you read this interview with John Perkins who wrote the book Confessions of an Economic Hit-Man:

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/02/07/Columns/A_hit_man_comes_clean.shtml

To my new friends in Chile: Protect your gold, protect your environment. Harvest it on your terms, when it will meet your needs, not the needs of US (or Chilean, for that matter) corporations. Use this resource to benefit the people at large.

CHILE: BARRICK LAND RIP-OFF ON TRIAL
Written by Monica Evans
Wednesday, 11 July 2007
A Court of Appeals trial began last Friday to determine who rightfully owns 8,600 hectares of land that Canadian mining company Barrick Gold bought from illiterate farmer Rodolfo Villar for 10,000 pesos (US$20).

The property forms a strategic part of the terrain acquired by the company for its controversial Pascua Lama gold mine project. If the Court rules against Barrick, the land loss could prove problematic for the project’s development.

The Court will rule on the issue after 30 days on trial.

(from the Valpo Times)

This ties in well with the "don't get between an indian and his land" thread.
They should have given him $50, $20 seems cheap.

This topic is so painful I almost can't even consider it. I hope that one thing people who come to Chile (as guests and retirees, not big thumping gorilla corporations and developements) can help Chileans become aware of the richness of their country, and how crucial it is to preserve it. But there must be something to offset companies who bilk simple people out of land for the purpose of exploiting the natural resources. The post above was something that disgusted me beyond belief.

It's a complicated thing here. I always thought hydro was great! But then I saw what it would do to places like Futaleufu, and the Rio Azul. The alternatives? Smaller hydros? Better energy conservation? Chile is poised to be a country that can do something different. I so hope they do.

MikieO wrote:". . . 8,600 hectares of land that Canadian mining company Barrick Gold bought from illiterate farmer Rodolfo Villar for 10,000 pesos (US$20). . . ."

Doesn't anyone else find difficult to believe that the owner of over twenty thousand acres of land -- more than thirty square miles -- should be illiterate?

I guess that Sr. Villar thought that he was "taking" the company.

But it's good that a court is attempting to sort matters out. It'll be interestng to learn what its attempt reveals -- if it enquires closely enough.

Hey Charles...Any updates on the Espolon Valley gold mining story? If there is a link we can watch on this, it would be great to have it.

Vicki and Greg

No, I have not had any word on it one way or the other. I am sure once the weather improves around Futa, there will be some more.

As for the guy owning that much land and not being able to read, I totally believe it. Some of the largest land owners in Chile got their land for free from the government as settlers years ago, and often can not read.

Some of the regional courts have bee voiding sales contracts, when it is obvious that the seller got completely taken advantage of by the buyer.

Here is the latests PR from Geocom on it's ventures in the Futa/Espolon area:


http://www.geocom-resources.com/investo ... ewsid=1767

Hey Moderator, All!
Catch a gander at this post from Angryscientist.com. I find it hard to believe, but they intend to remove glaciers in their pursuit of profits to stockholders.
"Barrick, a gold mining company based in Canada, recently got approval from Chile to go ahead with its controversial Pascua Lama project. Opponents claim Barrick will destroy two glaciers high in the Andes to get at the gold beneath. Originally the plan was to relocate these glaciers. Barrick denies the orebody it wants to mine is under any icefields or glaciers. It says glaciologists classify the icefields involved as glacierets or ice reservoirs rather than traditional glaciers. However, Barrick quotes COREMA, the regional Chilean environmental agency: “the company shall only access the ore in a manner that does not remove, relocate, destroy or physically intervene the Toro 1, Toro 2, and Esperanza glaciers.” So if there was never any plan that would endanger these glaciers, since according to Barrick they are outside the limit of the pit containing the orebody it intends to mine, what is COREMA referring to?"

Go figure. Just classify a large mass of ice as a glacierette, or glacierets, and viola! That and find some middle government officials who don't understand their craft....

Miningwatch.ca has an 05 article regarding the Pascua Lama project, as well did geology.rockbandit.net. Both were concerned, yet hoping (perhaps beyond hope) that Chile would get it right, and end the project. Clearly, the lawsuit of the gentleman who's lands were sold for $20, is stalling the project, but remains only a hurdle, if Barrick decides to pay the man decently.
Check out this post from naturalmatters.net:
"Halt the destruction of glaciers providing pure water
No to Pascua Lama Open-cast mine in the Andean Cordillera on the Chilean-Argentine frontier.
We ask the Chilean Government not to authorize the Pascua Lama project to protect the whole of 3 glaciers, the purity of the water of the San Felix Valley and El Transito, the quality of the agricultural land of the region of Atacama, the quality of life of the Diaguita people and of the whole population of the region.
Judge for yourself if you want to take action.
In the Valle de San Felix, the purest water in Chile runs from 2 rivers, fed by 2 glaciers. Water is a most precious resource, and wars will be fought for it. Indigenous farmers use the water, there is no unemployment, and they provide the second largest source of income for the area. Under the glaciers has been found a huge deposit of gold, silver and other minerals. To get at these, it would be necessary to break, to destroy the glaciers - something never conceived of in the history of the world - and to make 2 huge holes, each as big as a whole mountain, one for extraction and one for the mine's rubbish tip.
The project is called PASCUA LAMA. The company is called Barrick Gold. The operation is planned by a multi-national company, one of whose members is George Bush Senior. The Chilean Government has approved the project to start this year, 2006. The only reason it hasn't started yet is because the farmers have got a temporary stay of execution. If they destroy the glaciers, they will not just destroy the source of specially pure water, but they will permanently contaminate the 2 rivers so they will never again be fit for human or animal consumption because of the use of cyanide and sulphuric acid in the extraction process. Every last gramme of gold will go abroad to the multinational company and not one will be left with the people whose land it is. They will only be left with the poisoned water and the resulting illnesses.
The farmers have been fighting a long time for their land, but have been forbidden to make a TV appeal by a ban from the Ministry of the Interior. Their only hope now of putting brakes on this project is to get help from international justice. The world must know what is happening in Chile. The only place to start changing the world is from here. We ask you to circulate this message amongst your friends."

Obviously, they have a test case here. If all goes well, then they'll start hunting for St. Rafael, Bruggen, Jorge Montt, perhaps even O'Higgins itself, and open that national park up to strip mining....why, as easy as saying that they're glacierets....

I wonder if anyone realizes the tremendous benefit that these metals have inside their environments? That the glaciers weights are pressing down on these and other minerals, providing the base of healthy waters flowing down both of these two river valleys, all the way to the ocean. We underestimate and don't understand the true value to all of leaving the metals and minerals in their natural state, to continue providing their micronutrients to the valley and it's inhabitants.
We are composed of so many divergent and differing materials, and yet, no thought as to how to replenish these in the modern world, whose rampaging capitalism is seeking to ruin everywhere.
We have completely farmed out the US from the residual minerals in the soil, and adulterate it with petroleum and human waste in the form of NPK to make up for the soils depletions, in the process killing and ridding the soil of it's micro organisms, who's job it was to replenish the soils with the minerals and nutrients the farmer needed to grow anything.

Ok....I'll chill out, breathe....just breathe....G....getting out.

"NPK", G?