Mining exploitation has been associated with a series of environmental and social effects; mainly with a series of extractions of natural resources, violations of the rights of indigenous communities and their labor guarantees, irreversible damage to biodiversity that affects the entire country, etc.
In fact, and according to an investigation carried out in 2015 and published in SinEmbargo, there are at least 36 mining conflicts in Mexico. This figure was provided by the Observatory of Mining Conflicts of Latin America, and which is related to numerous accidents such as the explosion in 2006 of the Pasta de Conchos mine, in Coahuila, the sulfuric acid spill by a Grupo México mine in Sonora , the case of La Sierrita in Durango by the Canadian company Excellon Resources.
Now, in a place where the sea and the desert come together, in San Felipe, in Baja California, the negative impacts of mining exploitation by Carlos Slim’s group are beginning to emerge. Despite being a protected natural area, thanks to the fact that marine mammals come to the Gulf of California to reproduce and numerous endemic species that proliferate on land and there are clouds of dust that emanate from between mountains, mobile offices, material conveyor belts and trucks.
In the words of Jeanneht Armendáriz, doctor of science from the Northwest Biological Research Center and author of this research, it is “one of the most important mega-mining projects in Mexico, whose owner is the richest man in the country.”
Arméndariz carried out his research: since 1994, Compañía San Felipe SA de CV, subsidiary of Minera Frisco – whose president is Carlos Slim – began its operations in Baja California. The objective was to extract gold and silver minerals in the Sierra Pinta region – currently considered one of the main mining developments in the country. And probably their mining project could have continued to be successful, “if not for the fact that the mine is located dangerously close to the National Protected Area (ANP) Upper Gulf of California and Colorado River Delta.”
In fact, Arméndariz adds: “at first this project did not attract attention, despite being located next to a protected natural area, because it was presented in parts. What they did was a trap to lower the profile.” That is to say, when the project began, between 1993 and 1995, the San Felipe Company not only received the corresponding authorizations from the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources –Semarnat–, it also used both underground mining and the pit mining technique. open. In 2001, the company suspended its activities without making public its reasons, although in the 2000 annual report, Frisco pointed out that mining market conditions were unfavorable due to stagnant metal prices. In 2009, another Frisco subsidiary company, Minera Real de Ángeles, rented and occupied the mine facilities, “radically changing operations”: it was an open pit mine.
More in: 4 consequences of open pit mining
This type of open pit mining is prohibited in the US, and other places such as Greece, Turkey, Czech Republic, Germany and Costa Rica. The reasons for its ban? Its toxic effects both for the environment and for the health of societies.
The doctor and researcher adds:
The new development was presented to Semarnat in parts. First, in March 2010, as a project of around 60 hectares that included the incorporation of a pit (exploitation of the mountain through mining); a mineral crushing circuit; leaching yards (deposits to separate gold and silver); reagent (cyanide) storage tanks; tepetatera (stack of sterile material); service areas (diesel and explosives workshops and warehouses); three substations, a stormwater diversion channel and two roads.
Six months later, in September 2010, Semarnat authorized a second part. This new authorization of 360 hectares included the Merril-Crowe plant and foundry (where metals are precipitated and melted into ingots). And in August 2011, a desalination plant was authorized that occupied another 60 hectares.
In the end, Minera Real de Ángeles absorbed Compañía San Felipe and became the company in charge of the mining project. In 2013, the San Felipe mine processed – according to Frisco’s annual report – 37 thousand tons of material per day. Five times more than the previous year.
In other words, Frisco acquired mining concessions in the Sierra Las Pintas area since 1994, through three subsidiaries: Compañía San Felipe, Minera María and Minera Real de Ángeles. This, for Arméndariz, is proof that “the San Felipe mining project never stopped, even during the suspension of work in 2001 and 2009, it is in the acquisition of the concessions.”
In 2010, when the mine restarted its work by purchasing surrounding land, a group of ejidatarios demanded a fairer passage – until that date, Frisco had extracted about 36 million dollars in gold from the site. Each ejidatario was to receive one million dollars, after the place would remain contaminated for decades and without any economic activity. Faced with this, negotiations broke down a year later, and some ejidatarios initiated lawsuits against the company in the Agrarian Court, in the Secretariat of Territorial and Urban Development –Sedatu– and the National Water Commission –Conagua–, under the defense that Frisco occupied its land irregularly, taking over the water and contaminating the aquifers. The lawsuits, however, have not stopped the mining project, the size of Mexico City.
Meanwhile, the effects continue:
During the process, mercury is released, a metal that accompanies gold and silver and is toxic even in small quantities (the World Health Organization considers it one of the 10 chemicals that pose “special public health problems”). The fishermen of the Ribereña Fishing Production Cooperative of the Port of San Felipe made public a study of the water quality of the Gulf of Baja California in which, two different analyzes (one from the Center for Research in Food and Development and the company Asesoría Integral Environmental), they detected a high concentration of mercury in the water.
For several decades, environmental organizations have carried out campaigns to protect the , a species of marine mammal endemic to the Californian Gulf, in danger of extinction. The Federal Environmental Protection Agency (Profepa) says that vaquita deaths are mainly caused by fishing nets, which is why in 2015 a fishing ban was decreed in the gulf. More than a year later, Sunshine Rodríguez, president of the fishermen’s cooperative, complains that the vaquita continues to appear dead, despite the ban, and neither the responsible authorities nor environmental organizations are investigating the relationship with the mine.
Other opponents of the mine also talk about the impact on the bighorn sheep, a protected species in the Las Pintas mountain range, and even on the residents of the area who suffer from malformations, asthma and allergies.
Despite this, the Carlos Slim Foundation invested 2.2 billion pesos in 2010 in the agreement with the World Wide Fund for Nature –WWF– and the Ministry of the Environment for the conservation of wildlife in six regions of Mexico, including the Upper Gulf. from Baja California. And the environmental authorities conclude that: “the mining complex that daily extracts 37 thousand tons of materials has only a local impact and there is no evidence of an impact on the Reserve.”