This Canadian company has signed an operating contract with the CVG in 2002, to launch what has been conceived as a mining project "socially and environmentally responsible." This challenge involves the recovery of 912 hectares and affected by illegal mining

• Evelyn Guzman Bigott

The area will develop the Las Cristinas mining project demonstrates the environmental damage that the illegal mining activity has left behind in this area of Las Claritas, in southern Bolivar state, in the last 20 years.

A challenge and an environmental commitment to the Canadian company Crystallex assume that once the Ministry of Environment granted permits to start so conceived as a transnational mining project "socially and environmentally responsible."

One hopes that had been long since in April 2004, Crystallex deliver the environmental impact study of the cultural and socio Las Cristinas mining project, before the governing body of the country's environmental policies.

The Las Cristinas project was promoted by the Venezuelan government through the Corporación Venezolana de Guayana (CVG), a contract signed with the company Crystallex in September 2002 with the aim of reviving the operation of the mine is considered the gold largest in the country and South America, with proven reserves of over 17 million ounces of gold.

The location of Las Cristinas to give a geostrategic found 30 kilometers west of Guyana and 250 kilometers north of the border with Brazil, in the parish of San Isidro, Municipality of Sifontes Bolivar state, the region known as the Imataca Forest Reserve, management plan which provides a use for this particular area of forest management and mining.

The duration of the contract is 20 years with extensions of 19 years, until the final closure of the mine scheduled for 2041, the date on which Crystallex is committed to transfer the mine and its facilities to the CVG.

The investment is estimated at 500 million dollars, of which 265 million for the construction phase of the processing plant material gold, generating about 2 thousand direct jobs and 6 indirect thousand and $ 235 million invested during the production stage in which it is expected to extract and process a total of 20 thousand metric tons of mineralized material per day, generating 400 permanent jobs and 1,500 indirect jobs.

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

Sergio Alcalá, director of Crystallex Environment explained that after four years he has given the environmental impact study required by the Ministry of Environment for approval of allocation of natural resources, the company faces "a hierarchical appeal before the initial negative there was involvement of the permit. "

He said the company environmental policy is based on the legal subject to certain Venezuelan and international environmental standards. He also mentioned that the company complied with the requirements of the Venezuelan State regarding the security environment of 5 million bolivars strong, surrendered to the Ministry of Environment, in order to "ensure compliance with the preventive, corrective and mitigating the study provides environmental impact way to reverse all the effects to the environment. "

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Explained that the company has a scheme of work based on the model of sustainable development which involved a series of interrelated factors, where it is conceived as a social interaction with environmental sustainability and community relations, which leads to turn an economic sustainability.

The social will be achieved, he said, through the development of social capital, strengthening the community by promoting and preserving cultural values self. "The community relations will be undertaken to strengthen the consensual agreements, creating leverage, forming the basis of knowledge for community development projects, tourism and recreation, mediating conflicts and hierarchical needs of communities."

For the economic sustainability of the sector include the promotion of new service and niche businesses such as waste management, environmental restoration, environmental health and technical assistance.

For its part, the environment will be achieved through a series of plans and projects involving the preservation of biodiversity through an integrated management of river Cuyuní, sustainable agricultural practices to promote rural aquaculture, integrated pest management, making a significant reduction of the pollutants, promote best practices in waste management activities to control erosion and promote the non-forest management of the forest.

This is specified in the environmental impact study submitted by Crystallex in 2004 the Ministry of Environment.

IN DETAIL

The area proposed for the project reaches an area of 1,322 hectares (ha), of which 912 have already been affected by the illegal mining activity and 410 new has to be removed by the company. This area is the main channel of Yellow Creek, which flows into the river Cuyuní and has been one of the ecosystems most affected by illegal mining.

The project envisages the diversion of this stream, the opening of two large pits from which to extract the gold material is then processed on the main floor. Once extracted the gold, solid waste is deposited in the tailings calls (3) while the waste water is discharged into the lagoon queue, which also includes the construction project.

He stressed that the technology of the plant is based on the leaching process in coal using sodium cyanide, an electrochemical process where a mixture of gold cyanide with the material and then passes a train where some leaching of activated carbon cathodes gold exists. The cyanide leaching method is the standard in the mining industry is extremely safe from an environmental point of view in which, for this project has taken all the forecasts issued by the Ministry of Environment. He also recalled that the cyanide is degraded by the sun (fotodegradable).

A septic tank LAGOONS

Alcala said that as an open pit mine and be part of it located in the bed of the Yellow Creek, the concept of closure and environmental remediation of the intervention area (1,322 ha), includes "a facility that is safe and fit with the objective of creating a natural figure consistent with the objectives of the Imataca Forest Reserve. " In this regard, he said they have planned reforestation areas of intervention and the creation of two large gaps in the pits for farming and tourism. Moreover, he added that the diversion channel of the Yellow Creek was completed to prevent stagnation of water and recover the original channel of that stream. "Water levels in the pits will be controlled by the natural outflow of streams that are part of the fabric of the hydrological basin.

15 years waiting

Narciso Aquino Loaiza, vice president of the Parish Board of Las Claritas and coordinator of the cooperative Aguiño said that for 15 years are awaiting the development of the mining law in the area. He recalled that initially the award was in the hands of Amalfi Grossi, then Placer Dome "and nothing was done." Requested that the company Crystallex, despite being trans has Venezuelan workers and have done major work for the benefit of the community of Las Claritas the plant wastewater treatment and the hospital, an endorsement that should be taken account for the opening of this major project is the desire of this people and covering populations Tumeremo, El Callao, and part of Guasipati Upata.

Invoking God first topoderoso, Aquino asked President Chavez, "you see the reality that we are living in the area of Las Claritas. This will form a great socialist, that everybody has a decent job, through the opening of these major projects in the area. "

Environmental Investment Plan

BSF 3,627,302 in protection programs for water quality (surface and groundwater), air quality, soil quality and the erosion control plan and drainage management.

BSF 894255 in programs for the protection and exploitation of forest resources, protection of wildlife and environmental recovery.

BSF 766737 in programs for road marking, information to the community, social investment, health and safety.

http://www.eldiariodeguayana.com.ve/content/view/56222/55/