by Rod Hughes

An open pit gold mine operation called Las Crucitas is going ahead here and even some environmentalist have given the project a grudging pass. It is only a few miles south of the Nicaraguan border and has already raised a formal protest by the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry.

The mine is owned by Industrias Infinito, a subsidiary of the Canadian Vanessa Ventures which seems to have dotted every environmental “i” and crossed every bureaucratic “t.” It even has changed some of its procedures to comply with environmental concerns. Bit many local residents (and the Nicaraguan government) are wary of what damage may be found to its surroundings when it reaches its projected depth of 215 feet.

Some residents point to the fate of the Bellavista mine where, destabilized by mining, a landslide destroyed the processing plant and raised fears of causing even more damage. The mine was opened before the 2002 moratorium on mining put into place by President Avel Pacheco and removed by current-President Oscar Arias.

Local residents are still wary despite company accommodations, pointing out that deadly chemicals are still used in the gold refining process. But Industrias Infinito plans to used a 6-step closed circuit process, recapturing the cyanide for reuse and reducing other contaminants to their harmless component parts before release.