I received this message about Bush Sr's gold mining exploits in Chile:

[Ron Green]

Does anyone know about this project, or about the "no a pascua lama" effort to stop it?

Dear friends who care about our earth.

Judge for yourself if you want to take action.
In the Valle de San Felix, the purest water in Chile runs from 2 rivers,
fed by 2 glaciers. Water is a most precious resource, and wars will be
fought for it.
Indigenous farmers use the water, there is no unemployment, and they
provide the second largest source of income for the area.
Under the glaciers has been found a huge deposit of gold, silver and other
minerals. To get at these, it would be necessary to break, to destroy the
glaciers - something never conceived of in the history of the world - and
to make 2 huge holes, each as big as a whole mountain, one for extraction
and one for the mine's rubbish tip.
The project is called PASCUA LAMA. The company is called Barrick Gold.
The operation is planned by a multi-national company, one of whose members
is George Bush Senior.
The Chilean Government has approved the project to start this year, 2006.
The only reason it hasn't started yet is because the farmers have got a
temporary stay of execution. If they destroy the glaciers, they will not
just destroy the source of specially pure water, but they will permanently
contaminate the 2 rivers so they will never again be fit for human or
animal consumption because of the use of cyanide and sulphuric acid in
the extraction process.
Every last gramme of gold will go abroad to the multinational company and
not one will be left with the people whose land it is.They will only be
left with the poisoned water and the resulting illnesses.
The farmers have been fighting a long time for their land, but have been
forbidden to make a TV appeal by a ban from the Ministry of the Interior.
Their only hope now of putting brakes on this project is to get help from
international justice.
The world must know what is happening in Chile. The only place to start
changing the world is from here.
We ask you to circulate this message amongst your friends in the following
way. Please copy this text, paste it into a new email adding your signature
and send it to everyone in your address book. Please will the 100th person
to receive and sign the petition send it to [email protected] to be
forwarded to the Chilean government.

No to Pascua Lama Open-cast mine in the Andean Cordillera on the
Chilean-Argentine frontier.
We ask the Chilean Government not to authorize the Pascua Lama project
to protect the whole of 3 glaciers, the purity of the water of the San
Felix
Valley and El Transito, the quality of the agricultural land of the region
of Atacama, the quality of life of the Diaguita people and of the whole
population of the region.

[mom cat]

1. This is truly reprehensible! Please rate this up and keep it kicked!

Thanks

[LisaM]

2. GHWB pulled some dirty tricks with Barrick

like selling off leases for pennies on the dollar right before he left office, and then joining the board of the company (Barrick) that bought the leases. Greg Palast wrote on this.

[acmejack]

3. Barrick Gold Strikes Opposition in South America

snip>
“Barrick! Listen! Chile will not surrender!, No to Pascua Lama!,” roared a crowd of protestors as they paraded through the streets of Santiago, Chile. The crowd was addressing Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold, in response to the company's proposed bi-national “Pascua Lama” open-pit mine on the border of Chile and Argentina.



http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12447

[Ron Green]

5. I checked Barrick's web site, and of course they had a positive spin on it

even acknowledging the chain letter email campaign and dealing with each of the points. They appear to be bad actors, though.

[Daphne08]

4. This is really sad, and all for a little money. Sad. n/t

[Gregorian]

6. Each one of us is asking for a little bit of that gold.

Whether it's in our cell phone switching components, or the satellite that transmits those calls. Or any number of a multitude of things. Surgical, electrical, chemical. So not unlike much of what we are fighting in this world, a big driving factor is us. We each want a miniscule bit. But put nine zeroes after that little bit, and it adds up.

The Ministry of the Interior must be evil to thwart the will of those people. I would bet anything that Barrick has given them a hell of a lot of cash. That's how it works. Who cares about the people. They don't have anything to offer. But Barrick, I'll bet they paid off debts and bought houses for those Ministry folks. Just a guess. But no one can deny this has been a very sad affair from the very beginning episode of outright murder. They killed those people in order to even start those mines in the first place.

It feels so hopeless. But that's something I'm trying to change. I see so many hopeful people on DU. My goal is to become empowered enough to find hope. Money is a very difficult thing to overcome.

[roody]

7. This sucks.