| FEATURED ARTICLE: MERCY CRIES OUT AGAINST MINING DESTRUCTION |
Interviews with Mercy Justice Advocates
In Peru, campesinos have been traumatized and killed while trying to protest a mine near their water source. In the Philippines, mines threaten a precious and fragile ecological treasure. In the northeastern United States, energy companies are proposing to extract natural gas through a process that uses toxic chemicals that pose risks to human health. Sisters and representatives from Mercy organizations are addressing these and other issues related to the mining industry out of our commitment to persons who are poor and our Critical Concern for Earth. The Institute Justice Team keeps an eye on developments through participation in a Washington, D.C.-based extractives group of religious congregations with membership around the world. Mercy Investment Services engages companies about the impact of their mining operations. Mercy International Association brings the perspective of sisters to regional U.N. meetings on sustainable development. Here are examples of how Mercy is trying to find solutions.
Discounting the Wishes of the People of Peru By Sister Marielena McKenna (CCASA) The majority of the 250 identified social conflict situations in Peru are over the use or sale of natural resources such as gold, copper, gas, wood and oil. These natural resources are granted to mining companies without the consent of the people who live there.
In Pacaipampa, district-wide consultation resulted in a 94 percent vote against a copper mine but the government called the voting illegal. The mine is now located near the water source for our mountainous region and for Piura, Peru’s third largest city.
In August 2004 many campesinos, armed with only the string whips that they always carry, went in peaceful protest to the mining site then called Majaz and owned by England-based Monerico Metals. Of those who made the steep climb up to the mining site, one was shot and killed and another lost his eye to a bullet wound. Ten were tortured.
These people are farmers who have visited other mines and want to avoid the devastation they’ve seen there. The people know that the mines use too much water and what is left is contaminated. They want to be consulted and have their concerns, warnings and requests taken into account. Peru has environmental laws but they are not heeded because there is such a high level of corruption on so many levels.
I hope that those who live in the U.S. will ask the State Department to pressure the mining companies to respect the people’s wishes and to uphold the country’s own environmental laws.
Peru has a new president who has campaigned to fight corruption and listen to the people. Please pray that he will fulfill his promises.
Threatening Ecological Treasures in the Philippines By Sister Socorro Largo (NyPPaW)
Recently I attended a conference on Philippine mining issues that focused particularly on areas where the Sisters of Mercy are: the Zamboanga Peninsula and Misamis Occidental in Mindanao where about 15 Sisters of Mercy serve. For the past 60 years, big mining companies have penetrated the Philippines from the north and then the central parts, leaving them devastated. The Mining Act of 1995 gave freedom and huge privileges to mining investors and hundreds of them have aimed at Mindanao. Worse yet, they are open-pit mines which, without proper maintenance and restoration of the land, can endanger wildlife, groundwater and the ecosystem.
The “No to mining in Palawan” signature campaign is one of our efforts. The anti-mining groups are urgently concerned for Palawan, the last frontier in the Visayas Islands. What is happening there can soon be true for the Zamboanga Peninsula and Mindanao. It has 40 percent of the country’s remaining mangrove areas, 30 percent of our coral reefs, 17 key biodiversity areas, two UNESCO Heritage Sites and eight declared protected areas. It is unmatched in the country for its variety of species of flora and fauna, but it is also fragile with a thin layer of topsoil. In many areas communities have shown that eco-tourism, based on the protection of precious natural resources, can provide them with the livelihood they need for development. They do not need mining.
Granting of mining permits and new applications are increasing in Palawan even in identified core protection zones. Meanwhile old growth forests are cut down, water sources are polluted, ancestral lands are taken over and communities' wishes are ignored. Influential ecologists and environmentalists are working hard on the signature campaign and have promised to help our Zamboanga Peninsula campaign which calls for no mining in our areas. We trust that concerned people in other countries who love Mother Earth will influence the Philippine government by joining us in saying “no to mining.” There is no such thing as sustainable mining as other mining countries, such as those in Africa, have shown.
Sisters Advocate Against HydrofrackingBy Eileen O’Connor (NyPPaW)
Large deposits of natural gas are located deep within the Marcellus Shale, an area that includes New York State and much of the Appalachian Basin. Energy companies have long engaged in vertical hydrofracking—a method used to extend the life of a natural gas well once its productivity starts to run out. In recent years, horizontal hydrofracking—a process in which millions of gallons of water mixed with chemicals to fracture (split) the shale and release natural gases that would be inaccessible using conventional drilling methods—has raised increasing concerns. Toxic, caustic, potentially radioactive liquid wastes are created with no adequate plan for safe treatment and disposal. Energy companies are not required to report the chemicals they use. Their lobbying has led to exemptions from a list of environmental safeguards related to hydrofracking.
Many health incidents occurring from hydrofracking have been documented. It appears that 85 percent of the Marcellus Shale will be available for hydrofracking with attendant environmental and health consequences.
Sisters and associates in New York State have made numerous phone calls, sent many e-mails and mailed more than 300 letters to state legislators expressing concern over hydrofracking. The Western New York Catholic newspaper published a letter I wrote about health and environmental issues.
A moratorium on horizontal hydrofracking ended July 1 in New York State. Sisters and associates continue advocating for extension of the moratorium until all consequences have been identified by the Department of Environmental Conservation.
Bringing Concerns to the United NationsBy Sister Áine O’Connor
Mercy International Association at the United Nations will highlight mining abuses in preparatory meetings leading up to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio +20 Earth Summit in June, 2012. Mercy’s grassroots perspective will be brought to bear on progress made and gaps remaining in the implementation of the global sustainable development plan that came out of the 1992 Earth Summit.
Mercy representatives will give special emphasis to issues brought to our attention by sisters and associates in Honduras, Peru, Argentina and Panama. They include: 1) failure of governments and mining corporations to consult communities on natural resource use; 2) the negative environmental impact of mining on water sources; and 3) the abuse of human rights including the right to water.
Mercy International Association will take this grassroots perspective to policymaking recognizing citizens’ ownership of their country’s natural resources and implementation of laws of consultation. Other concerns include the regulation and reporting of environmental impacts; protection of ecosystems; enacting favorable labor laws that respect international human rights and end the criminalization of social protestors; and the development and support of sustainable development alternatives to mining.
Where appropriate, we will report mining abuses to the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples who is mandated “to promote the human rights of indigenous peoples and address specific situations in which their rights are being violated.”
Engaging Companies in DialogueBy Pat Zerega
From hydraulic fracturing in the Appalachian region and deep-water extractions along the Gulf Coast to conflict mineral extraction in Democratic Republic of the Congo and community consultation in the Amazon region, Mercy Investment Services and other faith-based partners are engaging a variety of companies in the extractive industry. More engagements focus on areas that impact our sisters in the CCASA Community, where the number of mining projects continues to grow.
Mercy Investment Services and colleagues from the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility have been engaged in dialogues with Freeport McMoRan for several years on its mining operations in Peru. Dialogues have covered how the company engages the community to address the effects of mining operations and share its benefits. In an effort to be responsive, Freeport McMoRan is now building a water treatment plant and piping water through a series of reservoirs so clean water can flow in Arequipa, Peru.
Next year, Mercy Investment Services will expand its conversations around community impact and mining, particularly for the Hell Pit Project in Pascua Lama on the border of Chile and Argentina. Several companies, including the Nevada Mining Company, Barrick Argentine Explorations and Argentine Mining and Explorations are part of this new mega-pit mine, the first bi-national mega mining project. Although U.S. investors face challenges such as less access to shareholder tools and a longer engagement process with foreign companies, shareholders plan to write letters to Rio Tinto and Barrick Gold, which have connections to the companies involved in the Hell Pit Project.
In the Philippines, Mercy Investment Services is reaching out to Bezant Resources and Atlas Mining to learn more about their human rights policies. The presence of sisters in areas such as these positively impacts the dialogues with these corporations. By bringing the stories and history of the sisters in the impacted communities to the corporate table, Mercy Investment Services strengthens its argument for more corporate responsibility in extractive practices.
What can we do?Sign up to receive e-mail notices from the Sisters of Mercy justice team when relevant legislation is pending about mining and other environmental issues. These notices will provide information and message you can use to contact legislators and express concerns. You can find the sign-up form on the Institute website (www.sistersofmercy.org/advocate). You can also write letters and forward articles that articulate our mining concerns to teachers, politicians, mining companies and those who can influence and change destructive practices.
References: ww.sistersofmercy.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3548&Itemid=180
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One of the most dangerous occupations in the world, mining is not uncommon for most of us. Considering our country is richly blessed with a very large quantity of minerals which can make a difference between poverty and wealth for the economic state of our dear country. So what is mining?
MiningPronunciation
[edit]Noun
mining (uncountable)
References: Wiktionary.com
Mining is a known occupation here in our country for our country has one of the biggest mineral reserves in the planet. Look at this..
Gold
Gold reserves at the beginning of 1988 was estimated at 101.6 million metric tons (MT), equivalent to about 240 MT of gold metal. Between 1988 and 1994, a total of 27.7 million MT of gold ore, containing about 36 MT of metal was extracted. On the average, this is equivalent to an annual extraction of 3.9 million MT of gold ore.
Extraction of Gold Reserves in Ore Form
1988-1994 (in Million Metric Tons) 
However, actual annual data show that the level of ore extraction dropped by a hefty 42.9 percent in 1990 and 25.7 percent in 1993 (Figure 1). The slight increase in the world metal price of gold in 1990 failed to raise the country’s production. During this year, three major gold mines temporarily ceased operation, evidence of the then problems which besieged the domestic mining industry.
Copper
The reported stock of copper in ore form increased from 4,106 million MT in 1988 to 4,597 million MT in 1994 (Figure 2). However, copper reserves suffered a setback in 1990, when it declined by 7.2 percent from the previous year’s level before resuming its increasing trend.
From 1988 to 1994, the extraction of copper ore registered a decreasing trend, with an annual average decline of 12.1 percent. The same trend was exhibited by the metal content which declined from 277,746 MT in 1988 to 130,910 MT in 1994. Copper mining companies slowed down in their production as lower prices of copper metal in the world market discouraged further expansion of activities.
Other factors which contributed to the low extraction for the years concerned included power shortages, closure of the Marcopper Mining Corporation in the second half of 1991, the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo, and the unusual heavy rainfall. During the seven-year period, a total of 346 million MT of ore was extracted, with a metal content of 1.3 million MT.
Chromite
From 1988 to 1990 -- on the average -- most of the chromite-producing companies experienced a relative boom, as reflected by the increases in their extraction. For the said period, the total chromite ore extraction grew at an annual average of 30.1 percent, despite the earthquake that jolted Luzon island in July 1990.
However, starting 1991, a downtrend was experienced as a result of the volcanic eruption. This catastrophe deluged service roads with mudflows thus, affecting the transport of the output of one of the biggest chromite producers in that location. Power shortage and other geological factors affected the operations of most chromite mining companies in the succeeding years.
As a result of reduced extraction and positive other accumulation, the stock of total chromite ore reserves registered an annual average growth of 1.5 percent for the period 1988-1994. The corresponding metal content posted an average annual growth of 0.4 percent for the same period. In contrast with the physical asset accounts for which estimates were undertaken by type of chromite, the monetary asset account for chromite was estimated only on an aggregate basis.
Nickel
Beginning in 1991, the stock of ore reserves started to decline. In 1993, the nickel metal production tremendously dropped, the effect of the slowdown in the international demand for nickel, coupled with increased production in the earlier years, which dampened the market price of nickel metal.
Iron
Iron ore, one of the Philippines’ largest mineral deposits, is not being extracted at present. This was due to the higher cost of production, making the local prices of iron not competitive to world prices. However, exploration for possible mining sites is still being done. In 1989, there was an addition of 10.1 million MT in total reserves. Several mining areas explored in 1992 were found positive with iron, resulting in a huge increase in ore reserves of 298.6 million MT, with a metal content of 124.0 million MT.
Manganese
During the period 1988 to 1994, manganese reserves in ore form registered an annual average growth of 2.7 percent -- from 1.4 million MT in 1988 to 1.6 million MT in 1994. The extraction of manganese ore exhibited fluctuations for the years in review. In 1992, exploration for more possible mining sites in several areas was conducted. This resulted to an increase of ore reserves by 203,014 MT, with a metal content of 87,843 MT at the end of the year, gross of extraction.
Reference: http://www.nscb.gov.ph/peenra/results/mineral/default.aspWhat is it for our country? Mining helps our economic status to rise; We are one of the leading countries in mining exports around the world therefore we should be one of the most economically diverse and wealthy countries around the world considering our country is rich in natural resources, culture, etc. , but what do you see now? With false use of our natural resources and corrupt governance of our country and the resources around us we failed to meet the expectations we are suppose to have by our former leaders.
Mining should be the answer to our dwindling economic status but it only made it worse. Mining has reached it toll on our environment. It reduced forests, destroyed land that can be use for our crops, relocation sites for the poor, or land that can be for our environment to grow. Surigao is one of those places here in the Philippines where mining is very clear. A big hole in the ground is dug up. Here are following pictures.
It literally killed the mountain and raped it for all its resources. It destroyed the habitats of animals that are maybe endemic or reduced the possibility on discovering animals that are yet to be known to science. It reduced the number of hectares of forests that our country needs to have a diverse ecosystem. It threatens are environmental status. Not only that but recently in a reported article in the web that our glorious national bird, the Philippines Eagle or Monkey-Eating Eagle one of the largest in the world is threatened by Mining by reducing its habitat and lessening its number driving it to be on the edge of extinction. So what do you think about now?
One of the most trending topics is about the "NO MINING IN PALAWAN" campaign I bet you heard it. I have been in Coron, Palawan in the past summer vacation and the place was awesome! People were really hardcore about the thought of no mining there, the ground they said was full of magnesium, which is used to strengthen metal, and the trees adapt to it by becoming solid and durable as rock itself. The wonder of the place got me to be proud of our country and put a thought in my head that mining should not be done in Palawan especially Coron. Here are some pictures of Coron that I want to share. :)
    
Therefore I conclude that Mining is a very good opportunity for an economy to grow and to prosper in order for it to improve and innovate, but for the Philippines it is very costly and it might cost us more than what we will receive in the end. Mining is not the only thing that we can do for our country to improve especially if the foreign investors are the people who are solely taking advantage of us.
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