As Barrick Gold prepares for its AGM on May 2nd, I’m joining frontline communities in their Week of Action!

Communities around the world will be taking action to show how Barrick Gold systemically ignores their concerns about the violence of its operations on their land, water & lives!

Despite Barrick Gold’s President/CEO Mark Bristow’s claim that “recognizing & respecting human rights have long been a fundamental value” for Barrick Gold, people living near Barrick operations round the world tell a different story!

In Alaska, Indigenous communities strongly oppose Barrick’s Donlin gold mine project because they believe it would harm their traditional lands and livelihoods, and an Alaskan judge expressed concerns over its potential impacts on water quality!

In Tanzania for over a decade, Indigenous communities have reported the use of excessive force by mine security and forced evictions from Barrick Gold mining operations, and there have been three international lawsuits related to these allegations!

Activists contend that the Barrick Gold agreement with the central government of Pakistan to extract gold and copper from the Reko Diq mine is illegal and locals in Balochistan’s Chaghi district did not consent to this project!

Communities in Marinduque, Philippines, affected by Barrick Gold’s mine have claimed environmental impacts on their rivers and there have been numerous legal attempts to hold the firm responsible! 

In Porgera, Papua New Guinea, for decades, communities have protested Barrick Gold mine waste disposal practices and mine security’s alleged excess use of force and sexual assault against local villagers!

Cortez mine expansion faces stiff opposition from Western Shoshone land protectors who see the project on their ancestral lands, known as Newe Sogobia, as cultural and spiritual genocide!

“Barrick has spilled toxic chemicals into the water of the Jáchal River multiple times, while operating in the heart of the San Guillermo Biosphere Reserve. The solution is for the company to leave.” – Domingo Jofré, Asamblea Jáchal No se Toca, San Juan, Argentina

Barrick Gold’s mega-mines are HUGE and all gold mining uses toxic substances! This has led to contamination of water sources! The water from the Odiel river was PROHIBITED for HUMAN CONSUMPTION, and more recently for IRRIGATION. Mining contamination is so bad that it is making it IMPOSSIBLE to build a necessary RESERVOIR…

The mega-mining corporations LIE to the populations in both Peru and Argentina. There was never MERCURY in the Jachal River until BARRICK began to extract gold in its VELADERO mine. The most dangerous thing in the VELADERO spills is the MERCURY that contaminates the Jáchal River! Communities in Jáchal have documented and denounced five toxic spills at Veladero mine that they say has irreversibly damaged the local ecosystem and raised concern with the UN!

We ask that the process initiated by Barrick Gold to achieve the removal of a GLACIER located in the heart of the Andes Mountains in the town of Barreal, department of Calingasta, San Juan, Argentina is CANCELED immediately!

photo: Barrick Gold

Communities first noticed animals dying. Then they said their children got sick. And the fruit started to mold and rot while still hanging on their trees. 

For over a decade, Barrick Gold’s Pueblo Viejo mine in the Dominican Republic has been devastating the lives of those living in the six nearby villages.

And now Barrick has applied for a permit to expand the mine, which would displace seven more communities and bring further devastation to the area.The Pueblo Viejo mine has been accused of contaminating the local rivers with heavy metals and chemicals to the point where locals have reported no longer wading in the streams they once bathed in for fear of getting rashes and skin lesions.

For over a decade, the surrounding communities have been forced to depend on bottled water for all of their drinking, cooking, and washing needs. And there is widespread fear that the local produce is also contaminated.

They have tried to convince the government and Barrick Gold to relocate 450 families that live downstream from the El Llagal tailings dam, which holds Pueblo Viejo’s mining waste. But so far their demands have been ignored.

Last year, Barrick Gold submitted plans to build a second tailings dam near the El Llagal dam so that it can store even more highly-contaminated waste water. The expansion would allow the Pueblo Viejo mine to remain open for at least 20 more years. And this second dam would likely repeat and compound already existing environmental and human rights issues from El Llagal.

But the Dominican government hasn’t approved the permit yet. That is why we must support local efforts to convince government officials to shut down the dangerous expansion project, and relocate the communities already impacted by the El Llagal dam to a safer area. 

Shut Down Barrick Gold’s Dangerous Gold Mine Expansion Projects!

Read communities’ statements as they launch a Global Week of Action to Protest Barrick and please Sign their petition:

PROTEST BARRICK and BOYCOTT GOLD!

Please see this short 1:47 film: Barrick’s Tanzania gold mine one of the deadliest in Africa:

More information:

People near gold mines test positive for cyanide

Dominican Today. 23 October 2014.

The Canadian Mining Company Dominicans Call “Worse Than Columbus”

Jacobin. 8 July 2021.

Surviving Next to One of the World’s Largest Gold Mines

Earthworks. 2 February 2023.

My thanks to Mining Watch Canada

@MiningWatch