Over the past few weeks we have seen a concentrated campaign by the small miners and miners working for the existing multi-national companies, of disatisfaction, reported abuses and accusations of deception of the government. These seem to be based on some pretty fanciful concepts with reports of Helca extracting 16 ounces per ton of ore (and intimating they are hiding much of their production for the government) to talk of small miners being forcefully evicted (denied by some officials) etc.

This has culminated in a organised resistance, blocking roads etc. timed for May 1st, demanding a better deal for the small miners but not necessarily through the expansion of multi-nationals who are seen as the villians who have been granted the claims the illegals previously worked.

The timing of the MinAmb "official" but lower level releases on permits for KRY and GRZ seems to be planned to bolster the displaced illegals case and open their attack on another front. However they don't seem to worry about the inconsistency of the MinAmb reasons which in fact apply more to the small miners than they do to the mulit-nationals. In the heat of waving placards and blocking roads that inconsistency probably hasn't sunk in yet.

Las Cristinas is desirable to the small miners in that there are pockets of relatively high grade ore close to the surface which can be accessed with low tech, inefficient and polluting mining techniques. I am sure that the government realise that small miners will only get a very small proportion of the total gold in the deposit and create environmental devastation while doing so, but politics are taking the front running over common sense.

Brisas on the other hand is of little interest in that half of the value there is in the copper and dealing with over 50 tonnes of rock in order to get an ounce of gold doesn't make any economic sense to any small miner. The only reason to include Brisas in this ban due to environmental reasons is because that's the only ban the MimAmb has the authority to issue, and they have to be seen to be against all multi-nationals not just a selected few.

MIBAM however could have stopped the LC and Brisas projects without having to invent "reasons" so we can be fairly certain that this fiasco has arisen out of MinAmb not MIBAM and was timed to support the small miners planned May day protest even though it ultimately gives them no relief and if carried through to its logical conclusion will see them permanently out of all mining jobs whether working for themselves or for a larger company.

I think that we have simply become scapegoats for a failed policy on mining that has alienated the locals by denying them a living and has not provided them with a resonable alternative. The current activity is an attempt to divert the anger away from the government and the relevant departments and direct it towards the multi-nationals. The people must have a scapegoat and Hugo would rather it not be him!