Five officers of Augusta Resources were officers o

mine Santu Miali, Furtei

Continues to worsen the situation of the disused gold mine of Santu Miali to Furtei (VS). Only through dedication of the employees laid off by the mining company has run avoided in extremis an environmental disaster . Until when? And the President of the Region Ugo Cappellacci where? Above all he has done about it?

The environmental organizations Friends of the Earth and Legal Intervention Group since September last year (shown in the September 4, 2009 ) asked the Minister for the Environment , the President of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia , the regional council of industry and the defense of ' environment , the Mayor of Furtei , the Special Commissioner dell'ARPAS , the Forestry and environmental monitoring and the Carabinieri of the NOE what steps have been taken for the safety of the mining site , for reclamation and environmental restoration and the payment of expenses by the private concessionaire subject . For your information and for the activities of jurisdiction, the request was also sent to the Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cagliari and the Regional Prosecutor of the Court of Auditors .

By the Autonomous Region of Sardinia has not yet received any response.

What has happened in recent years? We remember him. The Sardinia Gold Mining SpA in liquidation , the holder of the mining company gold mining concession Santu Miali in the municipality of Furtei (VS) controlled by multinational Buffalo Gold Ltd. (Canada), abandoned mining site without putting in place the necessary setup steps in safety and environmental remediation . Obvious and predictable. The conditions of the international gold market make it necessary in a logic essentially industrial. And now the Region of Sardinia , still holds a minority stake (10%) in the share capital of Sardinia Gold Mining SpA , puts his hands to the portfolio of all of us Sardinians to avoid an environmental disaster and social. 47 employees are on ' edge of the road .

With Resolution no. 34/20 of 20 July 2009 the Government Regional has allocated € 250,000.00 for the environmental management of the emergency situation of the mining of Santu Miali (Article 23 of Law n. 11/2006). With subsequent resolution no. 37/7 of 30 July 2009 the Government Regional gave a mandate to the Regional Industry for the preparation of the characterization plan for the assessment of the state of pollution of the site (Legislative Decree no. 152/2006 and subsequent amendments and additions ). The processing of the extracted material has seen the ' use of long-term cyanide , mercury and other heavy metals . At the moment we ignore what action has put in place the Region of Sardinia to force the subject licensee to carry out at its own expense the necessary setup steps in safety , for reclamation and environmental restoration .

The gold mine was put into production by the then Sardinian Mining Agency - EMSA. , chaired by Giampiero Pinna (then Regional Councillor PDS, then still president green of the geo-mining park of Sardinia to the recent receivership), the only body Regional wound up due to excessive loss of history autonomist Sardinia ( Regional Law n. 33/1998 ).

Mine plants Santu Miali, Furtei

When starting up of mining activities (the early 90s of the last century) and, subsequently, the environmental organizations Friends of the Earth and Legal Intervention Group asked, with legal action, the conduct of the proceedings of the environmental impact assessment - EIA , unfortunately to no avail. So, in fact, the Region of Sardinia did not apply the Directive no. 85/337/EEC on EIA of mining activities: it will only with the regional law n. 15/2008 (art. 8), after two infringement proceedings initiated by the European Commission for failure to implement the legislation, as many of its claims of environmental organizations Friends of the Earth and Legal Intervention Group in relation to mining concessions issued Muros (SS ), then stop by the negative judgment by the Regional Council at the end of the process of VIA

If a euro public needs to be paid, shall be made ??exclusively for the environmental restoration of an area largely devastated, amounts then to get in via the coercive mining company. Including involvement of workers coming to the final dismissal. Not a penny must still go to support private profit . For some time President of the Board of Directors of the SGM was the current President of the Region Ugo Cappellacci . So he knows the situation well: waiting to intervene, the environmental disaster?

Friends of the Earth and Legal Intervention Group

mine Santu Miali, Furtei

from New Sardinia , March 19, 2010

Environmental disaster averted at the last minute in the gold mine. cyanide, arsenic, mercury and sulfur were about to overflow from a large basin due to failure of a pump. Pier Giorgio Pinna

Furtei. This time the ecological time bomb was going to explode really. They defused just in time, the engineers of Sardinia Gold Mining and specialists from the City of Furtei the gold mine. A little later of dusk, to 16 hours by the alarm red-vigilantes launched by the workers on the night between Wednesday and Thursday, the lift pump that raises the poisons in a reservoir upstream, fails, has finally been replaced with a ' other efficient. A few more minutes and it would have been a disaster: a huge pulp yellowish charge of cyanide, arsenic, mercury, iron, sulfur would begin to pour into nearby rivers. With the result of polluting the channels that carry the water in the middle Campidano and the hinterland of Cagliari. Creating hazards to health and the environment. Dangers at this stage difficult to assess, but certainly worried, as already noted by experts dell'Arpas in a recent dossier.
Late at night If the threat was averted at the last moment, the communities of Marmilla must thank the 42 former workers Sgm which continually shifts in supervisory disused, partially rusted and in a state of semi-abandonment after the commencement of bankruptcy proceedings to the SGM. For weeks - as happened a few years ago - mining experts, technicians, workers of the company are engaged in surveillance. But this time the garrison is double. A set of 24 24 hours, just for the critical points of the facility Santu Miali, at the end of the 90s considered a leading gold mining complex. The other, organized always night and day, in the offices on the fourth floor dell'assessorato Industry Cagliari, where he continued employment symbolic union. After the disruptive operational and financial troubles that have swept across Sardinia Gold Mining, the only active shareholding in fact is part of the Region. It owns 10% of shares. It will then take care of the problems for which yesterday was also felt in the Civil Protection: hope so at least the municipalities interested in reclaiming and restoring nature of this vast 511 acres and now damn

mining, Furtei

compromised. No coincidence that the mayors of Furtei and Serrenti, Luciano and Luke Cau Becciu, as well as the President of the Province of Medio Campidano, Fulvio Tocco, also recalled yesterday: "We look forward very shortly a formal call by the junta led by Ugo Cappellacci ". The governor of Sardinia, for that matter, knows the gravity of the situation. At least for two reasons. In his profession as an accountant was president of SGM in the 2001-2003 period. Then, more recently, public administrator, he had to find 150 thousand euro for groped to block the advance of the poisons. Those lethal concentrations of heavy metals that even now, as evidenced by the state of emergency of the last few hours, constantly threatening to escape from the tanks and basins. A phenomenon that is not surprising: For years this area has been ravaged by digging, drilling, grinding of materials for processing. And now, the cessation of mining, the wounds in a nature so hard hit are evident. "Without effective work of rehabilitation, the danger will be looming," you are so tired of repeating all day local administrators. A rally, after the now ex Sos cassintegrati Sgm that continue to provide supervision as volunteers, without even cost-reimbursement or other forms of compensation have been the mayor of Furtei and the group headed by the director of Gold Mining Sandro Broi, and the manager of the company RSU Emanuele Madeddu. "The acid had corroded the cone and the other machines - they explained Mayor and technicians - We had to replace them entirely. And fortunately we had just finished repairing another pump gone haywire time ago. " Water and poisons began to come relaunched towards the reservoir as high as in the deep basin downstream had touched less than an inch from the overflow level: easy to imagine what would have happened without the intervention in extremis.

by L'Unione Sarda , March 19, 2010

Furtei. A pump has gone haywire twice: decisive workers made ??redundant. Antonio Pintori
At 19 yesterday breathed a sigh of relief after replacing the pump that brings water in the reservoir cyanide tailings. The danger seemed averted but at 22.30 the system is jammed again creating a new alarm in the former mine Furtei. The risk that the waters cyanide pollute groundwater Campidano is not yet averted.

mine Santu Miali, Furtei

The mayor Luciano Cau called a company that specializes in self-venting of Sassari hazardous materials. While awaiting the arrival of the vehicle were once again the former workers of the mining establishment to avoid the disaster, raising once again with an excavator the banks of the small lake where the waters are poured cyanide leaking from a crack on a dam wall. "I can not never seen us as bad as yesterday afternoon," confessed the mayor, even back in the middle of the night in the hills of Santu Miali, "another ten, at least fifteen minutes and the water would begin to descend into the valley" . The ecological bomb this time was really about to burst. He had said during a press conference Wednesday morning workers who continue to occupy a room on the fourth floor of the Regional industry in the building of Viale Trento in Cagliari: "We must act now and we have the expertise to do it." A few hours later, on Wednesday night, the pump that takes the water from the basin to cyanide "f25" to the tailings dam has stopped. It was not the first time. But this time the damage has been more severe. Acids have corroded the pine cone and locked the engine. And only with the involvement of workers has arrived just in time to avert twice in the same day, the pollution of aquifers. Workers today will be the sixteenth day of employment: still no layoffs continue to save the Campidano.

Imported video



YouTube Video The Eldorado Furtei