Mercury operation: environmentalists worry about transfer of "dangerous cargo" – 24/04/2019

The revelation that he made Clarin The transfer of 100 tonnes of mercury from the Veladero Mine in San Juan, Santo Antonio Port, Santiago, Chile, has caused concern among the environmental sectors due to the lack of energy. information of concerned citizens and extreme caution required a transport operation of such a dangerous load, increasing the risk of accumulation of an additional 340 tons of hazardous waste that continue in the mine.

Environmental lawyer Enrique Viale, a member of the Jachal Water Assembly, has said in court that the Veladero mine – owned by Barrick Gold and his Chinese partner Shandong Gold – has generated and stored 440 tonnes of mercury near rivers, from where they provide drinking water to several Argentine provinces. Part of this hazardous waste pbades through northwestern Argentina towards the Jama Pbad in Jujuy. Cargo containing mercury, stored in sanjuanina mine since 2014, traveling in steel bottles, placed in containers, which are transported in trucks. He will cross six provinces of northwestern Argentina and nine countries until his final destination in a salt mine in Germany, where he will be buried.

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The cause of accumulated mercury is dealt with by the criminal court of Claudio Bonadío. At the end of last year, prosecutor Alejandra Mángano accused the Secretary of the Environment of the Nation, Sergio Bergman, of the alleged violation of obligations incumbent on a public official for violating the law on glaciers and the law on hazardous waste. Now, the company has started its transfer, with Environment and customs clearance, the two national organizations involved in the operation.

"Accumulating mercury is a time bomb. The Veladero mine is located in the basin of the Desaguadero River and can contaminate all its tributaries, "said ecologist Viale, and he recalled that the consequences for the locality of Choropampa, Peru, when 2 June 2000 had overturned a truck carrying mercury and dumped 150 kilograms of this dangerous material. "In the case of Veladero, we are talking about tons, not kilos, so the environmental risk is huge," said the complainant.

In the case of Peru, mercury was spilled 27 kilometers from the San Juan district, via the San Sebastián de Choropampa Centro Poblado Menor. The mining company Yanacocha has launched a metal recovery campaign. She has put up signs indicating between 100 and 300 soles of nuevo per kilogram of metal recovered. without communicating with the population that it was a toxic material.

"A week later, in the face of the harmful effects of mercury, hundreds of people began to enter the various health centers in Cajamarca with similar symptoms: hives, skin, body aches, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea. Inhalation of this substance has begun to harm the health of people.The Ombudsman's report No. 62 indicates that 755 people were treated for poisoning, requiring the hospitalization of many people, for the handling or mercury collection without safety conditions, "Viale recalled.

According to members of the Jachal Assembly, mercury is one of the most dangerous substances that exist and, for this reason, most countries – including Argentina – have signed the Treaty of Minamata (Japan-2013) to eliminate its use as much as possible. Mercury leaves the leaching process of producing gold and silver, in the process of mineralization of the rock itself. In Veladero, mercury started to be generated from the onset of mining in 2005. In San Juan, between 35 and 40 tons of mercury are generated per year and until 2012, the mining company sold it to the United States. United.

As a result of amendments resulting from international treaties, Barrick Mining Corporation has asked the San Juan Department of Mines for permission to modify the conditions of mercury, to consider it as a mining by-product becoming a hazardous waste and to remove it from the country. "Now it is treated as a hazardous waste and is available for use for life," said the executive director of the mine, Marcelo Àlvarez.

The transport of mercury from Veladero is the responsibility of the Swiss company Batrec, which specializes in the treatment of hazardous waste. During the transfer operation, Daniel Collasius, hazardous substances specialist, asked what was the safety procedure applied in land transport, which was not communicated. And he agreed with other ecologists that they should inform and train the inhabitants of cities where this dangerous liquid will pbad.

Mendoza Correspondent