Abstract
The work on mine legacies mentioned earlier in this book classifies impacts as environmental, social, economic, cultural and aesthetic. For reasons of space and scope this book looks only at the first 3 types of legacies in San Sebastian. The section immediately below will focus on AMD because it is the most damaging (and therefore most studied) environmental legacy in San Sebastian. The subsequent sections in the chapter focus on the socio-economic legacies of the mine, which, in the past, have not received the same amount of attention as environmental legacies.
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Notes
- 1.
The existence of AMD in the mine was acknowledged by a company representative in an interview in the USA but he failed to admit any part in the process and instead attributed it to past mining operations. See the interview through this link: http://www.mptv.org/localshows/adelante/latest_episode/?v=8gRyq1wW8so&e=1311.
- 2.
From an administrative and legal perspective, what is clear from this episode is that government authorities at the time either failed to conduct an examination of the site or simply ignored the presence of AMD. In some of the RRA interviews the local inhabitants said that they started noticing a reddish tinge in the river water in the late 70s. According to some interviews the volume of water flowing in the river was much higher in the 50s so AMD discharge, if it was present, would not have been noticed without performing a dedicated test.
- 3.
Unfortunately during the course of the current study it was not possible to find any publication or report showing the contribution of heavy metals derived from pesticides used in the district.
- 4.
A number of documentaries, short films and news items have been produced in Spanish dealing with socio-economic legacies. A selection of the most notable include:
“Oro sin Brillo” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8SiHX0pXOY), “Mineria San Sebastian” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kwnJFhSV3o),“Reportaje de mina San Sebastián en TV Izcanal” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLx8rYS5q8M), “Mina de San Sebastián en La Unión después de 100 años continua contaminando” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHN_srm6mpg), “El oro de Santa Rosa” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l-aOXU9Dvo) and “Las minas de oro de Santa Rosa de Lima” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki7KQYKFRls).
- 5.
According to the CARITAS PRA carried out at La Presa hamlet in 2014, there are 100 water tanks in the hamlet, some of them shared by more than one household. According to the same document out of 143 households, 100 have latrines and the rest have flush toilets. The current study was not able to identify if these and other sanitation facilities were “improved” or “unimproved” as defined by the WHO/UNICEF’s Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply and Sanitation. This would have had an effect on water usage calculations, as improved facilities tend to use more water to function. Even though El Salvador has experienced improvements in the area of access to sanitation facilities in the last 25 years, the gap between urban and rural areas is still wide. According to the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program (2014), in 2012, 80% of the urban and 53% of the rural population had access to improved sanitation facilities. In the same year, 11% of the urban and 32% of the rural population had access to unimproved facilities.
- 6.
In the calculations carried out for the current study, “no cost” means that water from sources such as rivers, creeks and wells was not ascribed a monetary value despite the fact that the process of extraction and transport from these sources to the individual households represent no small amount of physical, time and energy expenditure. A similar approach was adopted with the cost of rain water stored in tanks because the costs of tank maintenance were difficult to quantify and integrate into the calculations. However, the consumption of this type of water does affect the annual household expenditure on water. This is specially the case during the rainy season when rain water stored in tanks, decreases the amount of water that needs to be purchased for activities A and B. Therefore the household annual water consumption calculations took into account the seasonal variation that exists between the rainy and dry seasons. For a whole discussion on the value of “no cost” water see: Cairncross and Valdmanis (2006). It is also important to note that the provision of water to households in a gendered activity. A study carried out in 18 municipalities in El Salvador (Halsband 1994) shows that women and children spent a great deal of their time supplying most of the water consumed in rural households.
- 7.
This figure is an average. Within San Salvador high volume consumption households use up a disproportionate amount of water in relation to other households. According to Ibarra et al. (2005: 32) “residential connections with a monthly consumption of 20 m3 (ie 20% of connections and 7% of water consumed) have a daily per capita consumption of 81 L per day, while connections with a monthly consumption of more than 40 m3 (21% of connections and 49% of water consumed) have a per capita consumption of 531 L per day. This last level of consumption is well above the average in OECD countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark and France (200 L per person) and Belgium, Germany and Portugal (120 L).”
- 8.
This calculation is based on a monthly charge of US$6.75 for 27 m3 (or US$0.25/m3). This is the m3 rate charged by the state water supplier (ANDA) to an average household in San Salvador. However, private water companies can charge a similar household anywhere in the range of US$10.80 to US$37.80 a month. This means that households whose water service has been privatised pay between 155 and 544% more than if the water was provided by ANDA (Ibarra et al. 2005: 32).
- 9.
Other statistics confirm that people in rural areas and the poor are less likely to have access to clean water. According to DIGESTYC (2014) only 25% of rural households have access to potable water through a pipe (which is more likely to be less expensive per volume) and Moreno found that 68% of those categorized as living in extreme or relative poverty do not have access to piped water (2005: 13). It is not surprising that the UNDP ranks El Salvador in third place amongst Latin American countries with the highest level of inequality of access to drinking water (2010: 39).
- 10.
Personal communication via e-mail, September 8, 2014.
- 11.
The data in these studies examine the large increase in sulfate, decreasing pH and increasing all dissolved metals located down river from where the mine is and close to the mine’s water discharge point.
- 12.
The head doctor at the local government clinic confirmed this when he said that they treat patients symptomatically and that without the required studies it is nearly impossible to establish the cause of the symptoms presented.
- 13.
There is substantial evidence in the natural resource literature to suggest that the economic contributions made by extractive industries to a host country are negated by what is commonly referred to as “the resource curse”. In relation to the impact of natural resource endowments on economic outcomes see: Rosser (2006). However, in relation to their impact on social outcomes, Edwards (2016: 1) argues that the “evidence […] remains thin” but points to Van der Ploeg (2011) for a review of the literature.
- 14.
To this list, the IFC includes compensation payments as contributions to the local economy but one cannot see how this item can be regarded as such since this type of payment is made to compensate for the loss of something that the community already possessed, usually in the form of natural assets, land and housing, before extraction occurred. Therefore, compensation should not be classified as a benefit from resource extraction.
- 15.
Calculated at 3000 oz per annum at a cash cost of US$100 per ounce.
- 16.
Partly this is the result of the way Salvadorean freedom of information legislation is set up. An individual is entitled to find out about taxes paid at the Departmental level but the government will not provide information about taxes paid by individual companies. The information provided here is therefore based on taxes paid by the mining industry in the Departments of La Union and San Miguel, knowing that CGC was the only mining company operating in those departments.
- 17.
From 2000 the royalty rate was reduced to 2% and according to the current mining law, half of that must be directed to the municipality in which the mine is located.
- 18.
The reports says: The funds invested in the Joint Venture were used primarily for the exploration, exploitation, and development of the SSGM, for the construction of the Joint Venture laboratory facilities on real estate owned by the Company near the SSGM site, for the operation of the laboratory, for the purchase of a 200-ton per day used SCMP precious metals’ cyanide leaching mill and plant, for the initial retrofitting, repair, modernization and expansion of its SCMP facilities, for consumable inventory, for working capital, for exploration and holding costs of the San Felipe-El Potosi Mine, the Modesto Mine, the Hormiguero Mine, and the Montemayor Mine, for SSGM infrastructure, including rewiring, repairing and installation of about two miles of the Company's electric power lines to provide electrical service, for the purchase of equipment, laboratory chemicals, and supplies, for parts and supply inventory, for the maintenance of the Company-owned dam and reservoir, for extensive road extension and preservation […] for the purchase of the real estate on the Modesto Mine, for leasing the Montemayor real estate, for the purchase and erection of a cone crushing system, for diamond drilling at the SSGM, for the purchase of a rod mill and a carbon regeneration system, for holding costs, and all other related needs (SEC 2004).
- 19.
It must also be noted that this figure includes the FDI mentioned above and should not be double counted.
- 20.
It was beyond the scope of this study to examine the legacies of migration to or from this mining district. Unlike other mining districts in Latin America, San Sebastian seems not be experiencing a sudden influx of migrants from other parts of the country to work the mine and this may have to do with their part ownership of Minsanse but the author could not verify this hypothesis. Like many other towns in El Salvador, many of San Sebastian’s residents have opted to leave the district in search of better opportunities elsewhere. Most of the artisanal miners live either in San Sebastian or they travel from adjacent districts to work at the mine.
- 21.
The total number of shareholders is not clear and varies according to source. In the interviews some ex-workers declared that the Minsanse started with 90 workers, each owning 4 shares and the (then) owner of the mine keeping 90 shares. Other interviewees stated that there were 138 shareholders based on the fact that at one point in time the company employed that number of people in the mine. In 2004 CGC said that there were “around 200 unrelated shareholders” (SEC 2004). In all likelihood, if all workers in Minsanse were allocated shares that they could keep, the number of shareholders increased over time, even if the same number of workers were no longer employed at the company. What is clear, however, is that the workers are not majority shareholders.
- 22.
Despite enquiries at the CNR, it was not possible to clarify the current land tenure situation in San Sebastian. When the author sought an answer from the Salvadoran Institute of Agrarian Transformation (ISTA) officials there said that they could not help San Sebastian residents because the area of the property does not exceed the legal limit allowed for ISTA to initiate a process of expropriation of CGC property.
- 23.
For instance, see: Vallejo (n.d.).
- 24.
One reason for this may be that the global gold value chain is producer dominant. According to Gereffi and Korzeniewicz (1994) there are two types of global value chains: buyer dominant and producer dominant. In the former buyers have enough power to set some market parameters while in the latter the power lies with the producer. Even though artisanal miners are not powerful in themselves, each miner forms part of a larger group of formal gold producers that include small, medium and large scale mining companies who are able to exert a great deal of influence on the final price of gold.
- 25.
The international price of gold at the time of interviews was approximately US$55 per gram.
- 26.
According to Domínguez et al. the güiriseros extract some 40 kg of gold annually from the mine (2015: 170). But whereas these authors use a monthly salary of USD$ 300 to arrive at that figure, the current study used an average salary of USD$ 150 and also calculated the data according to the minimum amounts (1 g) and maximum (120 g) of gold extracted per year reported by those taking part in the interviews. This figure was multiplied by the total number of güiriseros in the area. The minimum total amount per year is 4.8 kg while the maximum is 48 kg. The average of the two figures is 24 kg.
- 27.
To calculate this figure it was assumed that no more than 30 grams of mercury is needed to process one gram of gold. This assumption is based on the fact that the mercury smuggling price is USD$ 5 per ounce (28.3 g) which means that this input represents 15% of the USD$ 32, which is the price that the guiriseros received for a gram of gold during the low price period. If the guiriseros were to pay more for the mercury, the business of gold extraction would not be economically viable. Therefore, they may be using less mercury than calculated but the exact amount can only be measured by conducting a specialized study that determines the type of process they use and the concentration of gold in the ore they work on. The reason for this is that there is no constant ratio between the amount of mercury used and the amount of gold extracted. Veiga and Baker, for example, cite studies of sites where miners can use just one gram of mercury to draw one gram of gold (2004: 18). In other places more is needed. In comparison, official statistics indicate that El Salvador imported 60 kg of mercury in 2014 and 1246 kg in 2008 to be used in the manufacture of chlorine-caustic soda compact and traditional fluorescent lights, dental amalgam, neon lights, button-type batteries, cleansers, fireworks, folk medicines, grandfather clocks, pesticides, medical devices, thermostats, car switches and some skin-lightening creams and soaps (USGS 2012). However, only a fraction of the official imports ends up in San Sebastián.
- 28.
In the same region and year, dental applications, measuring and control devices and chlor-alkali production consumed between 20–25 tonnes, 10–15 tonnes and 5–15 tonnes respectively. In El Salvador, official statistics indicate that, in 2008, the country imported 1246 kg of mercury to be used in the manufacture of chlorine-caustic soda compact and traditional fluorescent lights, dental amalgam, neon lights, button-type batteries, cleansers, fireworks, pesticides, medical devices, thermostats, car switches and some skin-lightening creams and soaps (USGS 2012). However, only a fraction of the official imports ends up in San Sebastián.
- 29.
Cartagena (n.d.) maintains that heavy metals contamination may be contributing to the high prevalence of CKD in eastern El Salvador where mining has taken place for decades.
- 30.
The ministry’s database (SIMMOW) uses the international diagnosis code J00-J06-9 to classify these illnesses. In the same period the next most common reason for visiting the doctor at the clinic was urinary tract infections, with 1976 cases reported.
- 31.
The Gulf of Fonseca is where the San Sebastian River drains its waters.
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Pacheco Cueva, V. (2017). Legacies of the San Sebastian Mine. In: An Assessment of Mine Legacies and How to Prevent Them. SpringerBriefs in Environmental Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53976-8_4
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