The Philippines
Placer Dome Inc. (Placer Dome was acquired by Barrick Gold Corp. in 2006)
EDC: US$1.36 million loan[1]
ADB: US$40 million loan[2]
CPP: $351 million (Barrick)[3]
The Marcopper mines are environmental disasters. Placer Dome’s partnership with repressive dictator Ferdinand Marcos enabled the company to mine within a protected area and to use Calancan Bay, the source of livelihood for 12 fishing villages, as a toxic dumping ground for 16 years.[4] Both the Mogpog and Boac Rivers have been literally overrun with toxic waste.[5] Two children died when they were buried in the Mogpog mine waste spill.[6] Studies conducted by the United Nations, government agencies and academics show that communities, who continue to rely on these rivers and on Calancan Bay, are exposed to unsafe levels of environmental toxins.[7] Placer Dome denies responsibility for these environmental disasters[8] and sold its stake in the project in 1997. The Province of Marinduque is currently suing Placer Dome and Barrick in the US, seeking damages for the environmental harm caused by the Marcopper mines.[9]
[1] Halifax Initiative Coalition. Reckless Lending: How Canada’s Export Development Corporation Puts People and the Environment at Risk. March 2000.
[2] http://www.lawphil.net/judjuris/juri2002/apr2002/gr_138104_2002.html
[3] CPP Investment Board Canadian Equity Holdings as of March 31, 2006.
http://www.cppib.ca/files/PDF/Canadian_Equity_Holdings.pdf
[4] Coumans, Catherine. 2000. Canadian Companies in the Philippines: Placer Dome. In Undermining the Forests: The need to control transnational mining companies: a Canadian case study. Forest Peoples Programme, Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links, World Rainforest Movement: United Kingdom (hereinafter Coumans 2000).
http://www.forestpeoples.org/publications/undermining_forests_eng.shtml;
Coumans, Catherine (Rineke). 1995. "Ideology, Social Movement Organization, Patronage and Resistance in the Struggle of Marinduquenos Against Marcopper." In Pilipinas. No. 24, Spring.
[5] Patterson, Kelly. Placer Dome faces $115 M lawsuit. Philippines sues mining giant for cleanup for 1996 spill. The Ottawa Citizen. October 4, 2005.
[6] Oxfam Mining Ombudsman. Case Study: Marinduque, the Philippines.
http://www.oxfam.org.au/campaigns/mining/ombudsman/2004/cases/marinduque/marinduque.html
[7] See Ibid. and Coumans 2000.
[8] Coumans 2000; Cooney, J. P. 1997. "Placer Dome: 'We are responsible.'" In The Catholic Register . April 28; Position Paper on the Privilege Speech of Congressman E.O. Reyes. March 18, 1999. Prepared for the Joint Committees on Ecology and Good Government. House of Representatives, May 25, 1999. Placer Dome Technical Services (Philippines) Ltd.
[9] Case No. CV-S-05-1299-KJD-RJJ, United States District Court, District of Nevada.