“Paredones Amarillos” is a proposed gold mine that would be located in the Sierra la Laguna Biosphere, a pristine area recognized by the Mexican government and the United Nations for its rich biodiversity. If mining proceeds in this biosphere reserve, this natural paradise could become home to a toxic waste site.
To extract gold from the Sierra la Laguna mountains, the Canadian company, Vista Gold, proposes to carve out huge quantities of rock – each ton contains a mere gram of gold – and grind it into a sludge. Next, it will treat the sludge with cyanide, an extremely dangerous chemical. The process dissolves the gold into a liquid so it can be collected; it also produces massive amounts of toxic waste from the left-over cyanide-treated ore.
The company plans to contain this waste ore (called “tailings”) in a dam intended to store the toxic slurry forever. Unfortunately, these dams can break for various reasons, as happened at the Porco mine in Bolivia in 1996."
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