Kinross digging its own grave in South America (*)

Paracatu, December 18, 2008

Kinross digging its own grave in South America (*) 

No one doubts Kinross Gold Corporation digs holes to mine gold worldwide. Little is known, though, about Brazilian Kinross' executive team to dig its company's own grave in Paracatu, a historical town in northwestern Minas Gerais. Disturbed by what she reputed "lack of respect" toward the giant mining company, RPM-Kinross' chief communication officer has e-mailed Kinross' decision to abort talks with Paracatu community representatives - a meeting meant to jointly set up RPM socio-environmental repair obligations. The decision has apparently been backed up by Kinross CEO and a Chilean ex-diplomat recently hired by Kinross to deal with external matters in South America. "This Kinross team is up to mischief", said Sergio Dani, a MD, PhD, CEO and chief scientist of Acangaú Foundation and the Medawar Institute for Environmental Medicine. "Paracatu is fed up with Kinross' bigotry. This company is tearing the community and the environment apart - for nothing but a fistful of jobs and the worse socio-environment tragedy ever seen in an urban gold mine in Brazil. There is substantial support information RPM-Kinross is polluting the environment, vanishing our springs and brooks; taking part in corruption plots and even allowing for people to be killed. Who, then, has lacked respect toward who?"- asked Dani. "Arrogance is a treatable illness, but it is cureless" - commented Paulo Mauricio Serrano Neves, State Prosecutor and CEO of Serrano Neves Institute, on Kinross' announced decision to halt talks with the community. "We are now at ease to keep on with measures against Kinross, since it has proved unable to hear and cooperate with the community to heal the destruction it causes", concluded Serrano Neves. The Kinross decision followed an anecdotal article posted in the internet, in which RPM-Kinross' behavior was compared to that of the wolf of a Perrault fairy tale. "It comes as a surprise that Kinross assigns to the Paracatu mining site , representative officers who are unprepared to deal on such sensitive matters. Let´s hope the shareholders have a more critical approach by demanding company representatives to have a more comprehensive view. For letting the present ones dig Kinross' grave in Paracatu would prevent us from reaching a common goal", concluded Dani. 

(*) Cylene Gama reporting to www.alertaparacatu.blogspot.com