Translation of sailor8 El Espectador articleImportant paragraph is theblast one where sailor8 points out that it is claimed confidential talks with the government were commenced on September 7.
Here is the translation of the El Spectador article from Sept 2 that sailor8 posted. Old news except for the last paragraph indicating confidential talks with the government are going on sincecSeotember 7. :On September 12, 2014, in Washington, the United States, a meeting at World Bank headquarters in which several environmental organizations spoke with representatives of this body on an issue that troubled took place: the moor Santurbn, located between Santander and Norte de Santander, in eastern Colombia. Among them were the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA), the Center for International Environmental Development (CIEL) and Mining Watch Canada. Also the Committee for the Defense of Water and Paramo Santurbn. They had gathered to ask the agency why it had funded GreyStar (now Eco Oro), the company sought to exploit gold and silver in this fragile ecosystem. Their claims and had explained in writing two years ago and today finally answered.
Who told them this week was the Office of the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO acronym), a kind of mechanism that evaluates to a member of the World Bank focuses its work in the private sector of developing countries like Colombia. Your name? International Finance Corporation (IFC). It is a dependency that, as we read on their website, enables companies to create jobs in emerging economies, hoping to improve the quality of life. Among his deck of beneficiaries there are "junior" mining companies that make significant discoveries. As Quellaveco Mining in Peru or the company Eco Oro I expected Santurbn extract 12.6 million ounces of gold. That corporation was precisely what motivated the claim of environmental organizations who were in Washington in 2014. "The project would be against the objectives that the IFC has with their investments," he wrote to the CAO in 2012. "The social and environmental impact will be very serious for a community of about two million people." To their concerns, the CAO decided to examine in more detail the process of exploring Santurbn. He began to do so in May 2014 and then analyze documents, interview officials in Bucaramanga and Bogota and talk with civil society, issued a 55-page document with their findings. They show that omitted key aspects IFC should consider any project from the list of beneficiaries of the World Bank. Among these, a judicious environmental assessment. Although the list of conclusions is extensive, there are several admonitions: "The IFC did not include or analyzed information on research conducted from 2006 to 2008 by the Regional Autonomous Corporation for the Defense of the Plateau of Bucaramanga (CMDB)". "Documentation Oversight IFC did not include an appropriate manner about the failure of the company with environmental requirements related to the treatment of acidic water, soil erosion and landslides observed by the CMDB in 2010, or its decision to fine the company for such offenses. " "The impacts of mine development in general were not analyzed at that time given the specific scope of the project and were considered only when a serious problem anticipated in terms of policy." "The IFC did not reflect the way in which members of the affected community understand the risks associated with the project."
The relationship between Eco Oro and IFC began seven years ago, when the agency began making investments under the promise to lift a large opencast mine in Santurbn was then, as the document, "one of the largest deposits says no exploit globally. " That year, the board of the IFC approved US $ 20 million and made a first investment was around US $ 9.6 million. In January 2010 he used warrants to purchase additional shares at a value of US $ 4.8 million. And last year was 390,000 more shares that cost US $ 272,256. However, according to the CAO, the IFC should be a little more careful when investing that money. Another of the reasons for their suspicions is that shareholding was done in a company that hoped to develop a mine in which compliance potential of "performance standards of the IFC was still uncertain because of the environmental sensitivity of the site". But if it is true that the purpose of the evaluation will not be immediately and may not even have a direct impact on intentions to exploit gold in the santandereano ecosystem, this is, however, in the words of Carlos Lozano Acosta, lawyer AIDA, a major political blow to the project which came first in the region in 1994. Since then he has been in the exploration phase. "This report is very important because it questions the World Bank investment, which requires some environmental requirements that obviously were not met by the IFC," says Lozano. "It is very serious that despite failures in risk assessment, IFC has continued to invest in the Angostura mining project," adds Kris Genovese, SOMO, Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations, through a statement.
IFC, meanwhile, recognizes that there are mining investments and know that the development of this mine in Colombia would have an environmental and social impact that must be handled with more care, particularly for its proximity to moor Santurbn, as he told El Espectador through an email. However, he notes, it is still in pre-feasibility stage and has not made mine design. "From 2009 to February 2015, IFC made a series of investments to support the exploration and feasibility Angostura Eco Oro project, which we believe has the potential to promote sustainable development of the municipality of California, an impoverished mining district based on the artisanal mining, and in many cases illegal, to survive (...) a modern mine regulated bring the benefits of formal employment and income for the community and would be subject to international standards in relation to social and environmental practices. "
Eco Oro, in response to the report, said that for the moment not decide. The reason? At this time, after establishing a legal action in March 2016 against Colombia, that company is under conciliation with the State having the character of confidentiality. Next September 7th and culminate these dialogues apparently of them depend on whether the company continues to insist, after more than 20 years, making Santurbn exploitation.Sent from AOL Mobile Mail