Canadian Kinross Gold Corporation operates corruption plots and a true genocide in Brazil

Canadian Kinross Gold Corporation operates corruption plots and a true genocide in Brazil

By Sergio Ulhoa Dani, from Göttingen, Germany, October 31, 2009

Kinross mining rights in Paracatu, a 90,000 inhabitants town in Brazil
were bought during the years 2003-2006 from Rio Tinto, one of the
biggest in the mining sector, for US$280 million – “a bargain” in the
words of Brazilian geologist Eupidio Reis. He was surprised by such a
low amount paid for the Brazilian biggest gold reserve, some 16
million ounces, standing for more than 60% of total Kinross’ proven
gold reserves. Eupidio Reis did not understand why the Paracatu mine,
valued at over US$10 billion at that time, could have been sold so
cheap.


Truth is, what seemed to be a bargain for the Toronto-based company
soon proved to be a nightmare for the 90,000 inhabitants of Paracatu.
The gold ore in the Paracatu mine is arsenopyrite which equals to say
it liberates arsenic and sulphuric acid into the biosphere when mined
and ground to have gold extracted. Arsenic is a cancer causing
substance and sulphuric acid permeates and contaminates streams and
groundwater. Instead of closing the Paracatu mine and restoring the
landscape, Kinross announced the expansion of this mining operation in
the first semester of the year 2007. Since then, it has been
successful in obtaining public permits to prolong this project for an
additional 30 year period.


Kinross’ policy to smooth this overtly illegal project down the public
permitting pipeline has been to provide “facilitation payments”.
Kinross makes it public in its ‘Code of Ethics’ that ‘facilition
payments’ are due to government authorities in order to facilitate
businesses in foreign countries.

Bottlenecked twice by State and Federal legal suits which prevented
Kinross to build up the world’s largest toxic tailings impoundment in
the outskirts of Paracatu, the mining company responded by hiring the
shortly resigned Secretary of State of Minas Gerais, Mr. Wilson Brumer
in May, 2009. The relationships between Kinross and Brumer date back
to the time when Kinross bought the Paracatu mine from Rio Tinto and
Brumer was serving as a State Secretary in Minas Gerais. Brumer´s
appointment as a Kinross Director has been interpreted as Kinross
desperate try to place its most important Brazilian operation in the
hands of someone with “easy transit and flow” within Government
offices.

Indeed, Kinross managed to get its illegal permit legalized in August
this year, in the middle of a true corruption plot which is currently
under investigation by the Public Ministry of the State of Minas
Gerais.

Kinross simply managed to hide 1 million tonnes of toxic arsenic from
its technical reports that instructed the permitting process. This
scandal prompted Paracatu-based Acangaú Foundation to legally suit
against Kinross expansion project, and the Society for Threatened
Peoples (GfbV) – an international Human Rights organization seated in
Göttingen, Germany – to write to the World Health Organization
requesting the United Nations to interact and avoid a
socio-environmental catastrophe in Paracatu.

Chronic arsenic poisoning promotes vascular, infectious, lung, kidney,
liver, brain and endocrine diseases including many forms of cancer in
chronically exposed populations. With Kinross’ expansion project,
Paracatu mine is likely to become the world’s largest source of
anthropogenic arsenic.

The foreseen one million tonnes of arsenic to be released from the
mining activities of Kinross in the next 30 years are enough to kill
ten times as many people as the current 7 billion planet population.
Kinross’ own data – undisclosed in the report presented at the session
that issued the August permit – show that the population of Paracatu
is already exposed to a daily level of arsenic which extrapolates by
factor 10 the WHO provisional maximum tolerable daily intake of
inorganic arsenic. Arsenic is released from exposed gold mine rocks
located in the city outskirts and spreads over the city through
airborne dusts and gases.

Paracatu open cut mine inauguration dates back to 1987 and the effects
are now emerging as public health costs are skyrocketing in town. In
2008 Kinross, against all forewarnings from the scientific community
on the sizeable risks of arsenic and other poisonous substances,
initiated the expansion of its gold mine in Paracatu.

The last step for Kinross mining expansion in Paracatu was the issuing
of the permit for installation of the new tailings impoundment on top
of Paracatu’s most valuable public drinking water reservoir.

In order to explore the world’s lowest grade ore (0.4 g/ton) this
truly criminal mining company disputes with local population and
farmers huge volumes of precious fresh water, giving back in turn one
million tones of toxic arsenic.

Kinross accounting liabilities in Paracatu largely outweigh the value
of its gold reserves. Who and how many are going to pay this bill with
their own lives? The grieving forecast implies thousands – perhaps
millions – will die from cancer and other related diseases caused by
air, soil and water contamination by Kinross’ arsenic in the next
years, decades or centuries.

About Kinross

Canadian Kinross Gold Corporation is seated in Toronto, Canada, listed
in the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges (NYSE:KGC; TSX:K). This
company through “facilitation payments” to government representatives
does not conceal what it means “to facilitate (to smooth down) its
business”. An independent report has implied Tye Burt – a former
Deutsche Bank employee and present Kinross’ CEO – into financial
fraudulent business. A UN report and a book has implicated Kinross
into the looting of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s natural
resources.

About Acangaú Foundation

The Acangau Foundation is a Brazilian not-for-profit organization,
founded in 1991 by Brazilian scientists and entrepreneurs. The
foundation supports local development of science, technology and
culture for sustainability. In 2007, the Acangaú Foundation was hired
by the Minas Gerais State Public Ministry to perform an independent
evaluation of Kinross’ mine expansion project in Paracatu, which was
scheduled to start up in 2008 through Kinross’ subsidiary, Rio
Paracatu Mineração (RPM). In September 2007, the Acangaú report was
published in a local newspaper. In addition, it was filed with the
governmental agencies in charge of issuing Kinross’ permits and with
the Public Ministry. However, no action was taken by the authorities
and permits continued to be issue on behalf of Kinross’ expansion.
Before the final permit was issued, another report known as “The
Paracatu Manifesto” was published by Acangaú, but none of these
reports were capable of changing the course of the expansion project.
The Acangaú Foundation then legally suited against the project in
September 2009.

About GfbV

The Society for Threatened peoples, GfbV – Gesellschaft für bedrohte
Völker is an international organization put together to provide Human
Rights protection to ethnic- and religious minorities. It is an NGO
with advisory status at the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
and at the European Parliament as well. GfbV headquarters are in
Göttingen, Germany.

Sources:

[1] alertaparacatu.blogspot.com, accessed October 31, 2009.
[2] sosarsenic.blogspot.com, accessed October 31, 2009.
[3] Dani, SU. Gold, Coal and Oil. Medical Hypotheses doi:10.1016/j.mehy.2009.09.047


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Sergio Ulhoa Dani, Dr.med., D.Sc. habil.
Göttingen, Germany
Tel. 00(XX)49 15-226-453-423
srgdani@gmail.com