Bush Interior Department Grants Barrick Gold's Parting Wish
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr-and-brendan-demelle/unearthed-the-news-withou_b_148634.html
Photo: Destruction underway on Mount Tenabo/
Photo by Lisa Wolf
Dec. 5, 2008
By Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Brendan DeMelle
Barrick Gold Corporation could begin cyanide heap leach mining operations on sacred Shoshone native lands as early as next week, thanks to last minute approval by the outgoing Bush Interior Department of the Cortez Hills Expansion Project. The project would be sited entirely within Shoshone territory recognized in the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley, land that is still used by the Shoshone Nation for food, medicine and spiritual ceremonies.
Western Shoshone, Timbisha Shoshone and Great Basin Resource Watch have filed a complaint in federal court in an attempt to stop the mine.
If the project proceeds, Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold mining company, will blast a massive 900-acre, 2,000 foot deep open pit mine on Mount Tenabo, a sacred place for the Shoshone. Barrick will first "dewater" the mountain, sucking all the groundwater out, and then extract gold using the destructive cyanide heap-leaching method. In total, the mine would permanently destroy 6,800 acres on and around Mount Tenabo, over 90 percent of which is public land, according to the Shoshone coalition.
In approving the mine project, the Bureau of Land Management ignored its own scientific findings, including a report that described Mt. Tenabo as "literally a life-giver" that is "the tallest mountain in the area - the most likely to capture snow and generate water to grow pin'on and nourish life."
Opponents estimate the mine's wastes will include 1,577 million tons of waste rock, 53 million tons of tailings material and 112 million tons of spent heap leach material.
Bush family cleaning up on transfer of public lands to private hands
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Sep 16, 2008, 00:26
(WMR) -- WMR has learned from a senior Democratic congressional source that the Bush family, most notably former President George H. W. Bush, is reaping windfall profits from the transfer of title of public federal and state lands to private hands. The elder Bush, according to our sources, has a vested financial interest in land title companies that specialize in the transfer of public lands to private interests.
The revelations represent the first evidence that the elder Bush has benefited from the transfer of public lands to private hands in a giant scheme to defraud federal and state governments, as well as the American taxpayers and Native Americans.
The land-grabbing scheme primarily involves the transfer of federal lands, including Native American lands and national forest system lands, in the Rocky Mountain West, state lands in Texas, and both federal and state lands in California, Mississippi, and Florida to private entities. The scheme is also at the center of the scandal surrounding jailed GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff who conspired to privatize federal lands and assets around the country to benefit his corporate clients. Read article:
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3748.shtml
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