Minera San Xavier

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Minera San Xavier
Type Subsidiary of Metallica Resources Inc.
Founded 1886 (Cerro de San Pedro, San Luis Potosí, México)
Headquarters Cerro de San Pedro, San Luis Potosí, México
Industry Mining
Products Golg, Silver.
Website [1]

Minera San Xavier is the subsidiary of Canadian company Metallica Resources Inc. created for the exploitation of gold and silver from Cerro de San Pedro, a municipality of San Luis Potosí just 12 kilometers away from the capital city of the state.

The company has defied legal resolutions against its operation [1] [2] by arranging economically with the Mexican ecological authority, SEMARNAT, pushing them to disregard ecological research done by many independent institutions and to instead accept uncontested the studies the mining company has done themselves.

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[edit] Environmental disaster

Just 12 kilometers away from the capital of the state, all independent studies [3] remark that the ecological damage will be grave and irreversible, the contamination will affect the state's capital and larger city, San Luis Potosí, specially given that the explotaition site lies over the city's underground water currents.[4]

The mining used in the site is known as open pit mining leaching by cyanide, which is banned in first world countries because of its disastrous ecological consequences.[5] And which in similar projects, like the Real de Angeles Mining Complex has proven to poison the blood of the inhabitants of the zone as far aways as twenty kilometers in all directions. [6]

It will also damage the flora and fauna, and it has damaged the historical patrimony at the town.

Ana Maria Alvarado, a member of the community of Cerro de San Pedro and representative of the Broad Opposition Front testified how plans to establish an open pit gold mine in her community would, in fact, destroy historic 17th century landmarks, displace the population, cause irreparable damage to the environment and leach harmful cyanide into the water supply of 1.5 million inhabitants in the surrounding area. She described the considerable risks to the environment and the community of a process that will use 32 million litres of water, 16 tons of cyanide and 25 tons of explosives on a daily basis. Moreover, she testified that Metallica is doing all this in contravention of Mexican law.[7]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Semarnat y Sedena deben explicar su participación con Minera San Xavier. La Jornada (2005-02-27).
  2. ^ Mexico: Court Decision Stops San Luis de Potosí Gold Project. Mines & Communities Website (2004-02-27).
  3. ^ Opinión técnico-científica sobre los componentes ambientales del Proyecto Cerro de San Pedro de Minera San Xavier. Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí (2007-05-05). Retrieved on 2008-03-22.
  4. ^ Opinión técnico-científica sobre los componentes ambientales del Proyecto Cerro de San Pedro de Minera San Xavier. Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí (2007-05-05). Retrieved on 2008-03-22.
  5. ^ Montemayor, Carlos. Amenaza ambiental con Minera San Xavier. (Mexico City: La Jornada, October 18, 2004)
  6. ^ Olivia Portillo (2007). La Mutilacion de San Pedro según San Xavier. PARTE 3. Universidad Autonoma de Mexico, Difusion Cultural UNAM, Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematograficos (CUEC). Retrieved on 2008-03-22.
  7. ^ Mary Corkery Executive Director, Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives; Bruce Cox, Executive Director GREENPEACE; Joan Kuyek, National Coordinator MiningWatch Canada; Roy Culpeper, President and CEO The North-South Institute; Fraser Reilly-King, Coordinator Halifax Initiative Coalition; Doug Olthuis, Executive Director Steelworkers Humanity Fund; Mike Shields, Director International Department CAW- Canada (April 28, 2006). Letter to Ministers Mackay and Emerson on Metallica Resources. Halifax Initiative. Retrieved on 2008-03-22.

[edit] External links

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