Tim on gold mining disputes in El Salvador

As usual we get top class fare from Tim's El Salvador Blog today, as Tim presents the balanced view of mining vs environment matters in his country of focus. Here's how his post starts, I urge you to click through and get the full story as the better informed make better investment decisions.

Gold, lawyers and contaminated rivers

Two different headlines today are intricately related. On the CNN Money website, the headline was Gold Edges Up to a New Record, which told readers that for the first time in history, the price of gold on international markets closed at $1280 an ounce. In the Salvadoran newspaper DiarioCoLatino, the headline was San Sebastian: The Open Secret of Mining Pollution. This article describes the legacy of pollution in the San Sebastian river, which local residents and activists say stems from a gold mine there. The mine is owned by the US company the Commerce Group, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

It is the record high prices of gold which have led North American gold mining companies like the Commerce Group and Canadian firm Pacific Rim to go to battle with the government of El Salvador. The Salvadoran government currently prohibits both firms from operating gold mining concessions. With gold at record high prices, the conflict between monetary profits and the fear of environmental degradation from mining is a sharp one. CONTINUES HERE

Peruvian reality check

More claptrap from the USA's new best regional friend, i.e. Twobreakfasts' Peru.

February 24th: Peru Ex-Vice Minister of Commerce gives a bright and shiny interview to El Comercio, explaining how it would be great to be the supplier to Japanese industry.

February 25th: Japan's export trade figures show a 45.7% YoY drop the country runs a record deficit and goes deeper into recession.

It's incredible the lengths this officialist mouthpiece Comercio will go to get a positive spin on things. Yep, they featured the EX VICE minister, a nonentity named Diego Calmet (probably now at a nce cushy post with Toyota or Sumitomo or something). These people will do anything and say anything to maintain this ongoing lie.

Lilly-livered yellow-bellied political opportunists and their lapdog media are currently selling a whole country down the river in exchange for some nominal GDP growth number that is largely dependent on foreign investors coming in and extracting all profits as remittances. Peru's pandering to the failed neoliberal policies of the United States and their corrupt banking system makes me want to vomit. Watching a whole country get raped by greedy and uncaring egoists is not much fun.