Proposed Baja Gold Mine Splits Miners and Farmers Tanya Dimitrova - Earth Island Journal
go to original July 9, 2013

An estimated 1.7 million ounces of gold, worth more than $2 billion, are embedded in Mexico's Sierra la Laguna mountain. (Vlad Litvinov/Flickr)

Raul Manriquez drops a pebble in a hole in the ground. We count the seconds until we hear the impact: eight. “This exploration hole is about 700 feet deep,” he estimates. There are 588 more holes around us in the Sierra la Laguna mountain in Mexico. We are standing on top of what could soon be a gold mine: an estimated 1.7 million ounces of gold worth more than $2 billion are embedded in the rocks under our feet. If state officials in Baja California Sur approve the project, the hills we are standing on will be turned inside out and become one vast open pit mine.

... Manriquez, a native of San Antonio, was employed in the exploration stage of the project and has been working with mining companies in the region for the last 8 years. He is also convinced the mine will be beneficial for the region: “As long as the mine meets the standards set by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, it’s a good type of development.”

But other nearby residents are skeptical. Enrique Rochin, a native of the nearby farming community of Los Planes and director of the local organization In Defense of the Environment and Sustainable Rural Development, says that most of the area’s 6,000 people make a living from agriculture. “We can live without gold,” Rochin says, “but not without water.”

Read the rest at Earth Island Journal

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