On June 5th and 6th, 40 Ngöbe representatives from many different communities met at the site of Dominion Minerals' proposed Cerro Chorcha mine to peacefully protest the company's illegal operations in our territory.
The community of Jaramillo lies within the boundary of Dominion's mining concession on the southern side of the Cordillera Central. This is one-room schoolhouse serves the area's approximately 25 families.
As we hiked through the mining concession, we passed through an area of fallen trees and dying vegetation. It appears that an herbicide has been used to clear plant matter, possibly to prepare the site for new test drills or construction.
In this photo, a leader of the Ngöbe General Congress explains that this tree's roots have weakened and lost their grip on the soil, causing it to topple over. As all the trees on the side of the mountain die and fall over, the soil will become unstable and prone to landslides.
After climbing the central mountain range, we reached Dominion Minerals' mining camp, which lies just over the continental divide on the north side of the comarca, at the headwaters of the Guariviara River.
The mountaintops that Dominion proposes to turn into an open-pit copper mine are sacred to us as the mythological burial ground of powerful Ngöbe spirits. Because of this, it is highly offensive to us that foreigners want to destroy these important cultural sites. An appropriate analogy would be if a foreign company were to build a mine on top of the Vietnam Memorial.
As we hiked to the camp, we crossed the Guariviara River and could see traces of copper and gold in the cliffs and rocks along the trail. The Guariviara is one of the major rivers on the northern side of the comarca, providing water for thousands of Ngöbe families.
We reached the camp and expressed our desire that Domion Minerals leave the comarca, and that the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MICI) revoke the mining concession. The Ngöbe General Congress, the comarca's highest authority, rejected the company's request for permission to operate in the comarca, but MICI ignored our community's decision and granted the concession anyway in 2006. Dominion claims to have the support of the Ngöbe people, but in reality, it has only the signatures of a few people who are not authorized to speak on our behalf, and who have received payments from the company.
We toured some of the new drill sites and found a variety of equipment awaiting the next stage of exploration.
A water pump
Base frame for drilling equipment
Two drilling platforms
In addition to violating our established decision-making process, MICI accepted Dominion's initial concession application without the submission of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Dominion proceeded to carry out 11 test drills, which Panama's environmental agency, ANAM, has declared illegal.
In December 2008, Dominion submitted an EIA to ANAM for 26 additional test drills. This EIA was rejected in March of 2009. We await Dominion's new EIA and ANAM's response.
