Costa Rica - Deliberative Process

Oct 18, 2017 by Daniela Solera

What we discuss on the bilateral conference

We had our first bilateral conference with Canada, in which we discussed our problems, first we talked about the oil sands of Athabasca, they are huge deposits of extremely heavy crude, located in northeastern Alberta in Canada; these bitumen deposits require a great deal of effort to extract, recover and pre-process before the oil can be sent to the gas stations or to the places where the oil is used. Most of the extraction process is done in open pit mines, for processing they use massive maquilas. As the name says, it is a mixture of sand, clay and water; but it can not be very heavy so they should process more. All the environmentalists express their concern for several years, saying the impacts that this brings to the earth, also the great carbon footprint that leaves and its toxic products used for this process. Oil companies continue to make efforts to reduce carbon emissions, manage toxic by-products and reclaim mined land, while increasing production.

For our part we tell you our problem; the project Crucitas, the project was to allow a foreign industry called Infinite Gold to build a mine in San Carlos to extract the gold. The mine would help citizens living near it by allowing them to work on it, but it would also affect those living in the lower cities because they need to use mercury to extract the gold from the mine. Inhalation of mercury vapor can be harmful to the nervous system, digestive system, lungs and kidneys. The construction of the mine would not only affect people living near it, but also affect land and water.

This was a summary of what was discussed at our bilateral conference with Canada.

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