Honduras fines company for pollution

The San Martin mine: vast heaps of crushed rock are sprayed with cyanide solution to extract the gold. [Annie Bungeroth]

Honduras has fined gold firm Entremares - a focus of CAFOD's Unearth Justice campaign - for polluting water supplies with arsenic and cyanide above permissible levels

The Honduran Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (SERNA) imposed a fine of one million lempira, or about £26,000, on Entremares for carrying out "polluting and damaging activities".

SERNA said the company had contravened both its contract with the government and Honduran environmental laws.

Communities affected by the mine welcomed the ruling. A spokeman for the Siria Valley Environment Committee, said: "This confirms the truth of this complaint and others that we have filed for over seven years... that the company is accountable for the environmental damage, particularly that to water resources in our communities."

Thousands of CAFOD campaigners sent emails and postcards in 2006 to Entremares' parent company, then Glamis Gold, calling for independent water monitoring and publication of company's own environmental and health impact assessments.

Above the limit

The giant San Martin mine run by Entremares uses the 'cyanide heap leaching' method of mining, a cheap way of extracting gold that is banned in some countries.

Water samples taken from the Guajiniquil gully near the San Martin mine showed arsenic concentration levels exceeding limits set by the Honduran government and other international standards, SERNA said.

The ministry added that most samples taken since July 2005 showed that cyanide concentration levels in the leach pads - where gold ore is processed - exceeded levels permitted by the Honduran government.

The pollution "has resulted in adverse environmental impacts, affecting the quality of the water used by the communities surrounding the San Martin mining project and the course of the Las Casitas gully," SERNA said.

It added that "in discharging waters with polluting substances ... Entremares ... also impacted adversely the Guajiniquil gully".

SERNA said Entremares hadn't done enough to prevent soil contamination or to clean up mined areas by re-planting.

As well as causing pollution, local communities have complained that heavy water use by the San Martin mine has caused wells to dry up.

The San Martin mine can use up to 220 gallons of water a minute, while local people have to buy water by the bucket for themselves and their animals.

Coming clean

As part of the Unearth Justice campaign, CAFOD and Honduran partner organisation, Caritas Tegucigalpa, are lobbying Entremares - and its new Canadian-US parent company Goldcorp - to provide accurate and accessible information about the San Martin mining operation.

The Unearth Justice campaign calls for the people living in the Siria Valley area near the mine to have a meaningful say on changes that affect their communities, including the planned closure of the mine.

It calls for Goldcorp to resolve outstanding land disputes, after the company failed to provide legal title deeds to many families who were relocated to make way for the mine.

CAFOD is now also urging Goldcorp to say how it plans to clean up the arsenic and cyanide pollution around the San Martin mine, and explain how it will prevent further contamination of water supplies.

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