My thanks to “Reader A”, who has been following this story for a month since the news first hit that a large quantity fish had apparently been poisoned in the Pedra Branca de Amapari region of Amapa, Brazil. From the beginning in late November the scene had the hallmarks of cyanide poisoning and, as it happens, the only local user of cyanide in quantity happens to be the nearby Tucano mine, owned by Great Panther Mining (GPR.to) (GPL). After a month of investigation, Brazil’s environmental authority SEMA has found that the culprit is indeed GPL at Tucano, responsible for the killing of around two metric tonnes of local fish after a spill from its tailings facility that it told nobody about and then trying to cover it up. Thank you GPL for waters poisoned, the local fishing community lives devastated, dozens of residential communities afraid to use waters their ancestors have used for generations and, as this photo from this report on the contamination shows…
…it’s not just the identified two tonnes of fish that were killed. The latest in a long line of misdeeds from Canada’s “caring and sharing” mining companies in Latin America, in this case GPL has been stuck with a R$50m (U$9m approx) fine for its negligence and even then, you can bet their lawyers will do everything in their power not to pay up. If IKN had its way, the company’s management and directors would get a lot more than just a monetary fine, yet another example of how the hypocritical Canadian mining sector stops worrying about anything except the size of its bank accounts the moment its leaves their own back yard. A plague o’ both your houses.
[…] away from the mess he tried to cover up. What did you expect, that one of Canada’s glitterati and self-appointed Mining Hall of Fame […]
Add in a 72% decline in the past year before this fiasco. GPL is one of the worst miners out there financially/operationally and now its adding major polluter to its golden sombrero.
As a reader of this blog I’m not against mining, but any mine that uses cyanide shouldn’t get an environmental permit. Sooner or later or later it always ends up outside of the mine.
Not really true, Tweetie. There are many processes in which cyanide is destroyed in-circuit, as well as cyanide destruction methods for tailings. The questions revolve around costs and willingness, rather than chemistry.
[…] to the story broken by IKN of the U$9m fine handed down by Brazil’s environmental authority to Great Panther Mining (GPL) (GPR.to) last […]