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October 21, 2011 – San Juan Argentina. A newly released study by renown geologist and glaciologist Juan Pablo Milana, reveals that the Veladero mine in the high Andes mountains in San Juan, Argentinabelonging to Barrick Gold suffered a colossal landslide of its waste pile containing remains of contaminated rock debris from Barrick’s gold extraction process. The enormous waste pile which is larger than 50 football fields, collapsed sliding forward nearly half a kilometer before it came to a stop on an access road. The image below taken from Google Earth, shows the waste pile slithering down the mountainside after the collapse
Milana compares images from 2005, 2007 and 2008 of the waste pile, which clearly show that sometime during the 2007-2008 period, there was a large collapse of the waste pile which rapidly advanced downhill. Anything that was its path at the time, would have been entirely destroyed and buried under thousands of tons of rock debris.
The glaciologist, one of the most well respected scientists on glacial forms, and who is very familiar with both of Barrick’s projects, Veladero and Pascua Lama, criticizes Barrick for its lack of consideration of environmental risks. Milana had warned public authorities of the risks of collapse of Veladero’s waste pile, before it occurred. According to Milana, for waste piles to be secure, they shouldn’t be constructed in areas with permafrost cover, as may have apparently happened in this case. In conversations with Milana he stated:
“for waste pile sites to be safe, they should consider their potential impacts (due to weight, chemical processes, and temperature) on ice in permafrost areas. To do this, you need to conduct a specific study, if you didn’t do one, then catastrophes like this can happen”.
The recently enacted Argentine National Glacier Protection Act stipulates that mining is prohibited in glacier and periglacial areas. Barrick would never have been able to place a mining waste pile site on an area where permafrost zones are present. This is why Barrick has attacked the national glacier act in federal courts. Both the Veladero and the Pascua Lama mines are illegal according to the law. A federal judge in San Juan Province accepted an injunction request filed by Barrick and suspended the federal glacier protection law in the province. The Supreme Court must now decide if the law is to prevail.
CEDHA recently published a report by Flaviano Biancchini showing unusually high (and illegal) contamination readings in rivers near Barrick’s Veladero. While the data shows contamination not long after the alleged collapse of the waste site, it is unclear that the two incidents are related. Barrick refutes the evidence, suggesting its origin is uncertain. Ironically, the data comes from Barrick, through an information request made by CEDHA to the provincial government of San Juan!
As far as we know, Barrick has not informed the public of any collapse of a waste pile, or of any risks that might have occurred as a consequence to the environment or to human health.
Links:
Report by CEDHA of Waste Pile Collapse at Veladero
For more information:
Jorge Daniel Taillant
tel +54 9 351 507 8376