ENVIRONMENT, INDIGENOUS RESERVES THREATENED
BY COPPER MINE PROJECT IN PANAMA
by Carlos Camarena Medina
CHIRIQUI, PANAMA, June 30, 1992 -- Panamanian conservation
and indigenous-rights groups are steeling themselves for a
renewed fight to prevent the proposed mining of a mammoth copper
deposit that lies in the province of Chiriqui, on Panama's
northern Pacific coast. The copper-rich mountain, Cerro
Colorado, is not far from two Guaymi indigenous reserves.
Plans to open the mine in the early 80s were dropped in the
face of conservationists' opposition and a fall in the price of
copper, but now that the price is back up, several U.S. companies
and Panamanian government officials are interested in mining
Cerro Colorado's mother lode. The deposit is the largest
unexploited copper mine in the world. Experts guess there are
some 1.4 billion tons of copper buried in Cerro Colorado, as well
as other precious metals, including gold and silver. But
extracting the minerals, many Panamanians believe, would not be
worth the heavy environmental and social toll.
Gonzalo Cordoba, a metallurgist and director of the
Panamanian Institute of Hydrology and Electricity, believes that
operating the open-pit mine would produce acid rain, which could
pollute Chiriqui province, the country's most important
agricultural region, as well as Costa Rica, Panama's northern
neighbor. Chemicals used to extract metals, he adds, could
poison rivers that empty into the Bay of Charco Azul.
But the director of the mineral resources division of the
Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Alfredo Burgos, insists that
the metals could be extracted without damaging the environment.
Further, he points out that the mine would generate jobs for the
indigenous people and campesinos in the region, "an area that is
extremely impoverished."
Cordoba counters that during the construction period,
perhaps 4,000 temporary jobs would be provided, while the mining
operation might employ only 2,500 permanent workers. "This is no
solution for the country," he says. He also worries about the
cyclical nature of the price of copper. A study done in the late
70s, he says, showed that for the start-up of Cerro Colorado to
be cost-beneficial, copper would have to reach $1.60 a pound.
Today, the price of copper has stabilized at about $1.15 a pound.
Panama's former minister of natural resources, Stanley
Heckadon, agrees that the current price of copper makes opening
Cerro Colorado economically unfeasible. Those interested in
opening the mine, he believes, are actually coveting Cerro
Colorado's treasure of gold ore.
The government of Panama owns 51 percent of the Cerro
Colorado Mine Development Corporation, but is looking to sell its
shares. Burgos reported that six U.S. companies, which he
declined to name, have shown an interest, although none has made
a firm offer. The remaining 49 percent of Cerro Colorado is
owned by the British firm Rio Tinto Zing, whose largest copper
mine, in Papua New Guinea, has been shut down due to the low
price of copper.
To Bernardo Jaen, a Guaymi leader, Cerro Colorado is shaping
up to be another foreign enclave in Panama, "like the Panama
Canal and its military bases, the international financial center
and the transnational banana companies, which all have earned far
more for the countries where the profits are sent than for our
own country."
Jaen also doubts that those hired to work in the mine will
be Guaymi, but rather "people that don't share the Guaymi's
vision of the world." He points to other countries where mines
are located near indigenous communities. "The experiences of the
aborigines in Australia, of the indigenous in Papua New Guinea,
and of the blacks who work the copper mines in Zambia, all show
that sooner or later there are serious cultural clashes that can
cause indigenous people to lose respect for their own languages,
customs and values."
The Panamanian Cabinet has the final call on whether or not
to open Cerro Colorado. In spite of support from officials like
Burgos, President Guillermo Endara denies that his government
supports opening the mine. Many environmentalists hope that the
quick and firm line-up of opposition may keep Cerro Colorado
permanently closed, however the market performs.
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