Residents in La Piñita, La Cerca, El Naranjo, and Las Lagunas town of the municipality of Cotuí, located in the central province of Sánchez Ramírez in the Dominican Republic, protested that EnviroGold (Las Lagunas) is polluting several water sources in the area instead of remedying environmental problems as expected.
In statements to CDN TV station, the protestors said the running water is no longer fit for human consumption. They say the company is providing them with bottle water. The residents want to be relocated. They say the water pipes are instead releasing toxic water from the mining operation to the Maguaca river that then goes downstream to the nearby farms causing serious health problems to humans and animals.
As reported in Mining.com, the EnviroGold says that the discharges are legal and authorized by the Ministry of Environment as they are done at a slow pace to minimize the impact. EnviroGold (Las Lagunas) is in charge, since 2012, of treating the high-sulfur tailings that were previously deposited in the Las Lagunas Dam by Rosario Dominicana.
As reported in Mining.com, the protesters say the subsidiary of Australia’s Panterra Gold only cares about extracting gold from the waste and that, currently, it is planning to install a new pipe that will discharge part of the tailings into the river. They say the facility where the tailings are stored is completely full and that once the rainy season starts, there is a risk of collapse.
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Mining
Born 2 Invest
2 May 2018
