Death of a Glacier: Valle de San Felix, Chile.

Planet Pillagers plead innocence:

An email doing the rounds of millions of internet users is upsetting the planet pillaging, and earth trashing 'Barrick' mining corporation.

The corporation which both operates worldwide, and is hated worldwide, has just published a long 'rebuttal' against the email on their website claiming innocence. They complain: "The chain letter makes some very misleading characterizations and inaccurate statements."

There then follows a long list of rebuttals, some of which seem fair if you agree with the rape and pillage of whole planets. However critics at Corpwatch say Barrick are just digging themselves an 'open cast' pile of lies.

Barrick claims to operate with 'social responsibility', but was once advised by the most irresponsible person alive on the planet today; the man who created US President George Bush; George Bush Senior. He failed to use a condom, and look what happened!

Meanwhile the protest 'chain letter' email has been received by millions of people world wide, and accuses Barrick of planning to trash massive glaciers in Chile in order to pillage valuable deposits of gold, silver and emeralds discovered under the ice.

The email explains: "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 Chilean Government approved the project in February this year and Barrick plans to start their massive act of vandalism as soon as they can.

CYANIDE

According to the email: "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 especially 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 gram 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."

Marcel Claude, of Oceana, an environmental NGO, has pointed out: "Gold mining dumps 79 tonnes of waste for every 28 grams of gold, and produces 96% of the world's arsenic emissions."

Barrick has offered to compensate Chile with $60 million and expects to extract over $17 billion worth of gold and silver.

Meanwhile the protesting farmers have even been forbidden to make a TV appeal by a ban from the corrupt Ministry of the Interior.

Watch this space - and keep on sending the emails.

chile