Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Certifi cate” that confi rms a claim and allows the company to develop
plans for exploitation of the deposit. The president of Dundee, Jonathan
Goodman, interpreted the move as evidence that the new prime minister
has the will to alter the investment climate in Bulgaria (Katanska 2009).
The Compatibility Assessment and the Certifi cate, however, are only
the starting point of a new EIA process that must take place under EU
criteria. Most recently, Dundee has proposed a project that does not use
cyanide-based technology.
Popintsi
About 50 kilometers from Chelopech lies Popintsi, a small town in
central Bulgaria populated mainly by families who have lived in the town
for generations. Many of the town's residents have worked in mining in
the region and sometimes abroad (Panayotova 2008; Fournadzhiev
2008; Marchev 2006). The gold-mining project for Popintsi was pro-
posed by the Canadian fi rm Euromax Resources, registered in Bulgaria
as Martern, which had bought the exploration rights to Petelovo Hill
from the state. The hill sits directly above the town, and the resources
in the hill had long been mapped by Bulgarian and Soviet geologists. As
had Dundee in the other cases, Martern bought the previous studies for
very low fees and in 2003 proceeded to gain permits for exploration and
extraction of gold and copper. The low quantity of gold per ton of ore
in Popintsi makes cyanide leaching the only profi table technology for
obtaining gold. From the beginning, Martern planned an open-pit mine
with cyanide processing.
The residents of Popintsi were united in opposing the project. Not
willing to have the hill destroyed and the town's water supply threatened
by cyanide and other waste for whatever returns the project might
bring—and at the planned rate of exploitation there would only have
been employment for fi ve years—they prevented the company from
developing the project. As Martern prepared to drill boreholes for further
exploration and mapping of the resources, residents of the town blocked
the road to the hill. They knew that once the company drilled, it could
claim a fi nding and the right to exploit the resources. The company tried
to move the drills up at least four times, usually in the middle of
the night. Four times the residents took to the hill to block the drills.
Immediately the message went around and residents went up the hill.
The fi nal time the company tried to get the drills up, residents camped
on the hill day and night for several days. Despite tension and threats,
the blockade held.
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