Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Newsflash! Miners can be human beings too!

The strong news from Dynasty Metals (DMM.to) this week that concerned progress made by its Zaruma production facility was featured in this IKN post yesterday. The result was that the stock has dropped (go figure) but underneath yesterday's post site friend, regular commenter and raving lefty locojhon (but in the nicest possible way, dude:-) ) added the following comment and it's worth a look and a comment. Here's locojhon, commenting on one detail of the DMM presser:
This part intrigued me. It is very vague, but seems to indicate reduced environmental water-borne pollution going offsite when it states "The grey water treatment facility constructed by the Company supplies all the water used at the plant. Water that is required is diverted before entering the local river untreated, purified and used in the operation of the plant." Have they actually reduced or better yet eliminated pollution or are they playing smoke and mirror games that not only damage the environment, but later require massive governmental funds to clean up later.

Are there proprietary ways of mining without polluting they employ that others can't? Brainiacs or rockheads???

TIA,,,locoto
The idea of using 'grey water' at a mining production facility is an environmentally sound one. The technical details run into 150 page reports, but we can sum it up in the following way:

1) Water from the local sewage system or water previously used by other artisanal miners is piped to the plant. It's dirty and needs treatment before it can be used.

2) The mining company cleans up the water and then uses it for its own purposes

3) The water is then filtered again by the company before leaving the facility and put back into the local water system.

So to answer your question, loco, it's not some kind of smoke'n'mirrors thing going on. The valley where Dynasty Zaruma operates is chock full of artisanal mining operations (been that way for generations) that use the local water supply and don't give a fig about how much pollution they add to it before it runs into the local rivers. So what DMM.to is doing is diverting this water before it gets to the river, cleaning it up, using it, then cleaning it again before letting it go. It's an environmentally sound policy and is certainly helping to clean up an environment that's been contaminated by old workings for as long as anybody can remember.

By the way, this is the exact same water supply method that Fortuna Silver (FVI.to) will use at its new mine at San José Oaxaca, Mexico. These people aren't making the localities dirtier and they aren't leaving things the way they were; they're actually making things a lot cleaner.

Not all mining companies are the same and IKN will continue with its policy of championing good, responsible mining companies while at the same time highlighting those that bring shame to the sector.