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Gold Mining Cyanide Attempts in Bulgaria: Water Protection - Endangering Activities Conference

This conference in Budapest discusses the various attempts at gold mining using cyanide in Bulgaria and the risks it poses to water protection. It addresses violations of environmental legislation, low quality of environmental impact assessments, and the impact on local communities. The Cyanide Free Bulgaria coalition has been actively working to address these issues.

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Gold Mining Cyanide Attempts in Bulgaria: Water Protection - Endangering Activities Conference

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  1. Gold mining cyanide attempts in Bulgaria “Water protection – endangering activities” Conference – Budapest, 01-02.02.2011 www.bankwatch.org

  2. Projects background • Canadian Dundee Precious Metals (DPM) with his Bulgarian company “Chelopech mining” at Chelopech gold and copper mine • Bulgarian company “Gorubso” at Kurdjali • Bulgarian company KCM, Plovdiv • Other attempts for cyanide leaching like village Popinci, Krumovgrad • 37 proven, economically viable deposits of gold and several old tailings dam from copper mines www.bankwatch.org

  3. Main problematic issues (apart from the cyanide use as such) • violations of the Bulgarian Environmental Act and other relevant legislation • underestimation of the potential risks and low quality of the EIA’s • pro forma public consultations • contradiction and non-compliance of the EU directives www.bankwatch.org

  4. Contribution of the “responsible” state authorities to these problems • choosing the scope of the public consultations incl. the administrative division issue • issuing an EIA permit for an already built illegal cyanide leaching installation • total rejection of any attempt of the civil society to influence the cyanide projects • deliberate elimination of the civil society from discussions and legislative initiatives www.bankwatch.org

  5. Cyanide Free Bulgaria coalition non-formal body from around 10 environmental NGO’s, mining NGO’s and local communities since 2005 (the first investment proposal for cyanide leaching) www.bankwatch.org

  6. What we have done… • Statements and participation at the EIA and IPPC procedures • Protests against the lack of reaction to our statements and the low quality of the EIA’s • Communication with the relevant governmental bodies – European and national www.bankwatch.org

  7. What we have done… • Subscriptions and petitions • Court cases • Legislative proposal for cyanide ban • Media work • Work with the relevant financing institutions like EBRD www.bankwatch.org

  8. Achievements • local resistance to the cyanide technology • public intolerance to the cyanide technology • alerts to the financing institutions, EP and EC • growing media coverage of our position www.bankwatch.org

  9. Achievements • DPM positive EIA cancelled by the Supreme Administrative Court – the company has gave up the cyanide technology at Chelopech and Krumovgrad • initial attempts at Popinci and Chepelare stopped by a strong local resistance • provokedincrease of the numbers and the amounts of the penalties www.bankwatch.org

  10. Lessons learned • A very low quality EIA report has been granted with positive decision • Number of violations of the Bulgarian and EU legislation hasn’t been “noticed” by the Company and State experts • The public interest has been neglected by the “responsible” national authorities • The cyanide leaching technology is NOT a BAT !!! www.bankwatch.org

  11. Thank you for the attention! Daniel Popov dpopov@bankwatch.org Centre for Environmental Information and Education National coordinator of CEE Bankwatch network www.bankwatch.org

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