It’s an unintended and paradoxical consequence of banning lead in solder. 
The silver-bearing replacement SAC alloys require more silver mining in
that tight market, and that requires mining 10 times more lead, just to
get the silver. “A typical ore might contain 0.085 percent silver, 0.5
percent lead, 0.5 percent copper, and 0.3 percent antimony.” 
http://www.goldandsilvermines.com/abtsilver.htm

Below is one account of the impact on people to be expected from the ban
on lead in solder as a result of its paradoxical stimulus to lead mining. 
Electronic lead, by comparison, is easily and safely recyclable by
established procedures in existing copper smelters by companies like
Noranda and RSR Technologies.  That's following the lead acid battery
model: recycle--don't mine.


LATIN AMERICA:
Protests Mount Against Mining Giant
Stephen Leahy*

TORONTO, Feb 24 (Tierramérica) - Dangerous levels of lead and arsenic have
been found in the blood of Honduran villagers living downstream from a
controversial gold and silver mine owned by Canada's Goldcorp Inc., the
world's third largest gold mining firm. 

According to the ecologists who organised the study, lead and arsenic
levels in the blood were higher than the maximum recommended by
international standards (70 ug/dl) in a sample of 10 people who live near
the San Martín mine, in San Ignacio, a municipality located in the central
Siria Valley. 

The study, presented last year and downplayed by the mining industry, is
just one more item in the growing file opened in Honduras against the
company operating the mine, which has been the target of local and
international protests since it opened in 1999. 

Although it is operated by Entre Mares, a Honduran company that is a
subsidiary of the Canadian Glamis Gold Ltd., it is now under Goldcorp
Inc., based in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, which bought out
Glamis in November. 

That takeover makes Goldcorp the third largest gold producer in the world,
with mining concessions throughout the Americas and Australia. 

One of the firm's most ambitious projects will be launched in Mexico, in
Zacatecas state, for which Goldcorp obtained mining permits in mid-January
in an expedited way. At a cost of 882 million dollars and proven and
probable reserves totalling an estimated 9.98 billion ounces of gold,
Peñasquito would be the country's largest gold mine. 

Goldcorp, which proudly proclaims on its website that it is "The world's
lowest cost gold producer", maintains several conventional open-pit mines,
like San Martín in Honduras, which use a water-based sodium cyanide
solution poured over huge piles of ore to separate the gold. 

The used cyanide solution is a deadly toxin and has to be carefully
stored. This process is in common use, but environmental experts says it
consumes huge amounts of fresh water and generates highly toxic
by-products, including heavy metals like mercury and arsenic, and can
contaminate water sources that are used for human consumption. 

The people living in the Siria Valley have long complained about the
effects on their health and the water shortages resulting from the San
Martín mine, from which Glamis has extracted 529,088 ounces (about 15,000
kg) of gold out of the ground since 2001, worth approximately 412 million
dollars. 

The most recent studies that detected arsenic in the blood (which can
cause serious problems in the gastrointestinal, cardiovascular and nervous
systems), were done at the behest of environmental groups, among them the
Siria Valley Environmentalist Committee, by Italian activist Flaviano
Bianchini, who has conducted studies of this type in several Central
American countries. 

But Bianchini's tests have come under fire from government officials and
from mining executives who say they lack scientific rigor. 

The Honduran Ministry of Environment plans to send samples to experts in
Colombia to confirm Bianchini's results indicating blood contamination. 

"We are studying the case and are awaiting the results from Colombia to
take a final decision," Environment Minister Mayra Mejía told
Tierramérica. 

Aldo Santos, from the Attorney General's Office, stated "There is strong
evidence pointing to high contamination in the area." 

Goldcorp also owns a similar gold and silver mine in Guatemala, the
Marlin, also from Glamis, and located in the municipality of Sipakapa and
San Miguel Ixtahuacán. Local protests have left two people dead and many
injured. 

But Goldcorp denies the accusations. "Goldcorp already operates Marlin and
San Martín at North American standards," Jeff Wilhoit, the company's
vice-president of investor relations, told Tierramérica. 

In the case of the Marlin mine, the study indicating contamination of the
Tzalá River "has been refuted and disproved," and the "communities closest
to the mine voted in favour of the mine," Wilhoit said. 

With respect to San Martín, the executive maintained that the mine has not
caused water shortages or contamination: "The water pumped from our wells
in no way impacts the water being used from springs or wells outside the
project area." And as for charges that waste from the mine had caused
health problems in nearby communities, he stated, "Not true. There is a
national study that refutes this allegation." 

The company also refutes complaints from representatives of communities
neighbouring San Martín and Marlin who say they were not consulted about
the mines beforehand. 

"Goldcorp is very active in working with communities where our mines are
located... We contribute immensely to the education, health and safety of
those communities, which has been misrepresented by some non-governmental
organisations which have their own agendas," Melanie Pilon, director of
investor relations, told Tierramérica. 

Wilhoit added that in the case of the Marlin mine, "Goldcorp endeavoured
to include all interested parties in the consultation process. Particular
attention was paid to overcoming the language barrier. All communications
were carried out in Spanish and Mam (a local indigenous language)." 

Nearly 60 percent of the mining and exploration companies in the world are
Canadian. They generate more than 40 billion dollars annually,
representing about four percent of Canada's gross domestic product (GDP). 

"Canadians are appalled when they find out what some Canadian companies
are up to in the South," but few Canadians know what is going on at mine
projects in South America or elsewhere due to limited media coverage, says
Karyn Keenan, programme officer with the Halifax Initiative, a coalition
of Canadian environmental and human rights NGOs. 

But little by little, media attention has grown, especially recently, when
people from Latin America affected by mines appeared in 2006 at a series
of public forums about the corporate social responsibility of Canada's
mining, oil and gas sectors. 

For the first time, Canadian government officials had direct contact with
the people who have been impacted by Canadian companies, Keenan said. 

Activists have long claimed that the inability or unwillingness of local
governments to enforce international human rights and environmental
standards should not give Canadian companies license to ignore these
standards. 

An official report on regulating the sector's out-of-country operations
will go before the Canadian government shortly. The report is
"unprecedented in Canadian history," says Keenan, because it represents a
consensus between NGOs, mining industry and government officials. 

"Industry doesn't want strong, binding Canadian laws on their operations
overseas, but there are some who know they need to do more than publish
codes of ethics on their websites," she added. 

Although the content of the report remains secret, it is expected to
recommend that an independent dispute mechanism and ombudsman office be
established to investigate complaints and conduct audits of Canadian
mining, oil and gas operations abroad. 

Whether the current conservative Canadian government will act on the
report's recommendations remains to be seen. 

(*With reporting by Thelma Mejía from Honduras. Originally published by
Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network.
Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the
backing of the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations
Environment Programme.) 

(END/2007) 

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