Comments (11)

By Carlos Zorrilla, January 1, 2008

MITSUBISHI AND THE WORLD BANK COME TO INTAG
(updated jan/08)

Exploration for metallic minerals intensified in the Junín area with the arrival of Bishimetals in the early 1990s. Junín is a community located in Intag, a 1,500 km2 expanse of cloud forests and farms in northwestern Ecuador (Cotacachi County, Imbabura Province). Bishimetals, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation, received financing from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to explore for minerals in Junín. The effort led to the discovery of large deposits of copper and other minerals in the Junín-Cuellaje project area, located in the exceptionally biodiverse Toisán Range.

Interest in the mining potential of Intag was further fanned by the Project for Mining Development and Environmental Control (Spanish acronym: PRODEMINCA), financed with a loan from the World Bank (now part of Ecuador’s foreign debt) and implemented in the second half of the 1990s. The principle objective of the PRODEMINCA project was to promote industrial mining in Ecuador. It sought to achieve this goal by: a) modifying Ecuador’s mining legislation to make it much more pro-industry; b) to produce maps of Ecuador’s mineral deposits (thus saving mining companies the time and money in locating minerals). The World Bank has provided the same “service” to dozens of so-called developing countries. DECOIN presented a formal complaint against the Prodeminca project which resulted in a full-scale investigation by the Inspection Panel. However, by this time the project was near its end, and thus too late to modify. One of the most troublesome aspects of the project was that it prospected in seven national parks. This was just one of the many irregularities that came to light as a result of DECOIN’s successful challenge.

Ecuador’s mining law now offers the following incentives to mining companies: No royalty whatsoever, environmental compliance in the hands of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, the right to repatriate 100% of profits, minimal provisions designed to protect the rights of labor and communities or to mitigate and correct damage to the natural environment. The law further gives companies the right to use any and all resources within the concession needed for mining; this includes water, which is required (and polluted) in massive quantities during mineral processing. Compensation for privately owned resources (only subsoil minerals belong to the concession holder) is determined by the Ministry of Energy and Mines; farmers dissatisfied with the decision of this entity do not have the right to appeal to a court of law.

WHAT BISHIMETALS DID DURING ITS STAY IN JUNIN

Bishimetals paid little attention to the laws of Ecuador while exploring in Junín. Among the most serious violations, the company:

• neglected to prepare an EIS prior to exploration (the EIS quoted below was prepared for the production phase);
• neglected to inform communities about the project;
• neglected to consult communities affected about whether they wanted the project;
• built its latrines right on the banks of the Junín River and dumped its garbage into the river, which happens to be the major source of water for communities downriver;
• damaged private property during drilling;
• contaminated the Junín River during drilling, thus causing skin diseases in the local population.

Defensa y Conservación Ecológica de Intag (DECOIN), a local environmental organization founded in response to the mining threat, lodged repeated complaints about these and similar situations to the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM). Employees of the MEM could never find evidence of wrongdoing.

HOW MUCH COPPER IS THERE IN INTAG?
Eventually, Bishimetals discovered mineral deposits in three of Intag’s seven townships (Parish governments). According to JICA, mineralized areas in the Toisán Range contain 318 million tons of copper ore, with a 0.7% concentration. In other words, the Toisán Range will yield a total of 2.26 million tons of pure copper. Molybdenum is also present in a concentration of 0.03%, and there are traces of gold and silver in the ore.

How much copper is 2.26 million tons? Not enough to satisfy the annual demand of China, whose citizens consume three million tons per year. Not even enough for the United States, where people consume 2.3 million tons per year.

ASCENDANT is saying the inferred deposit is approximately 3 times the above amount. They based this on their own “in-house” evaluation.

An interesting bit of data: on average, 75% of all minerals produced in Latin America is exported to the industrialized North. What stays in the South is the devastation resulting from the mining of those minerals. Bishimetals’ scientists predicted the devastation that Junín would suffer if the copper there were ever mined.

ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF COPPER MINING IN JUNIN
According to Bishimetals’ scientists, the open-pit copper mine in Junín will produce severe environmental and social impacts.
As noted, the Junín concession is located in the Toisán Range. This area was recently (2005) recognized as an Important Bird Area of South America by Birdlife International. The copper lies under farming communities and primary forests adjoining the Cotacachi-Cayapas Ecological Reserve, one of the world’s most biodiverse protected areas. The Toisán is exceptionally rich in water resources, upon which farmers downstream rely, and its primary forests are within two of the world’s 34 biological hotspots (the Tropical Andes and the Chocó-Darien-Western Ecuadorian). Biological hotspots are areas noted for exceptional levels of biological diversity and exceptional numbers of endemic species, and their biodiversity is severely threatened. The Andean Biological Hotspot, the area where the mine would be located, is known as biologically as the hottest of all 34 hotspots. In 1997, the world renown biologist E.O. Wilson wrote a letter to DECOIN pointing out the biological importance of Intag’s forests and of conserving them.
According to JICA’s preliminary Environmental Impact Study (EIS), forests, farms and water resources throughout the Toisan Range would be severely impacted by the planned copper mine. Among the environmental impacts predicted by Bishimetals’ scientists:
massive deforestation leading to drying of the local climate and desertification (his is almost literally what the EIS says) contamination of water sources by lead, arsenic, cadmium and chromium (metals associated with the copper ore) in levels up to 100 times greater than those naturally existing;

• the flight of large mammals due to noise pollution from dynamiting the ore;
• Impacts to the habitat of dozens of bird and mammal species in danger of extinction (including Jaguars, Spectacled Bears, Brown-headed Spider Monkey, Mountain Tapirs and several species of birds)
• Impacts to the Cotacachi-Cayapas Ecological Reserve (similar to a Wilderness Area)

JICA’s scientists also predicted a series of social impacts:
the “relocation” of at least 100 families from four communities whose farms and homes are in the way of the proposed mine and related infrastructure;
the creation of a mining town of 5000 inhabitants (the largest population centers in Intag, where the largest villages are seven parish seats, each with fewer than 500 inhabitants);
increased crime and traffic accidents;

Scientists predicted these impacts after discovering only a small portion of the copper said to exist in the Junín concessions. It is likely that if more copper is mined, more widespread and severe impacts will result.

COMMUNITY RESPONSE
The mere presence of Bishimetals in Intag produced significant impacts. People began to learn about the impact of mining on forests and communities. Then, alarmed by what they learned, people began to organize. Thus was DECOIN founded. Through DECOIN, often in coordination with other national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the fields of human rights and the environment, residents in the communities immediately threatened and throughout Intag began to mobilize.

Local opposition to the mining project finally resulted in the burning of Bishimetal’s mining camp on May 15, 1997. Hundreds of local residents from seven communities participated in the protest. The government singled out three community leaders for prosecution. Eventually the charges were dropped. Finally, after recommending that further studies be done in the hope of identifying more copper and thus making the mine more attractive to investors, Bishimetals pulled out of the project.
Victory was sweet, while it lasted.

RESISTANCE TO MINING GROWS
Between 1997 and 2002, in spite of the absence of an immediate threat, the opposition to mining in Intag increased dramatically. This was due, primarily, to the growing awareness about how human well-being requires a healthy natural environment and about the destructive nature of mining, in social, economic and environmental terms. DECOIN was key in creating this awareness, and also in creating and/or supporting alternatives to mining, such as the Río Intag Agroartesanal Coffee Growers Association (AACRI), women’s craft groups and community tourism projects. During this same period, the Cotacachi County Government passed an ordinance declaring Cotacachi an “ecological county” where mining and other activities incompatible with the conservation of natural resources are forbidden. DECOIN was the instigator for this unique local law, which sets down the basic plan for a sustainable economic and social base in Cotacachi.

As a result of environmental consciousness raising, Intag was ready for the next round in the anti-mining struggle: the Ministry of Energy and Mine’s (MEM) auction of the Junín concessions. In spite of protests by the presidents of the six parish governments of Intag, most community boards and more than 20 organizations working in the county, the MEM not only went ahead with the auction on August 15, 2002, but awarded the concession to Roque Bustamante, the only bidder, a trafficker in mining concessions, who paid $18,005 for the right to mine 7,000 hectares for 30 years.

The mayor of Cotacachi, with the backing of parish governments, grassroots organizations and the majority of residents, took the MEM to court in 2003. According to the plaintiff, the auction violated article 88 of Ecuador’s constitution which requires that local communities be consulted before the onset of activities that are likely to affect the natural and social environment. The judge who heard the case agreed. Bustamante appealed to the nation’s Constitutional Tribunal. Two of the three judges on the panel assigned to the case once again decided in favor of county government and the communities of Intag, but because it was not a unanimous decision, the case went to the court’s full nine-judge bench. There, after less than 24 hours, five judges decided against the county and in favor of the defendant, which by this time is a Canadian mining firm, Ascendant Exploration, the company to which Bustamante his sold rights to the concessions in Junín while judicial proceedings to decide the legality of the auction were underway.

IN MAY OF 2005, the Municipaliy of Cotacachi presented another lawsuit in the Administrative Court to have the concessions overturned, using similar arguments.

On September 2006, the president of Junin presented yet another constitutional injunction against the Junin mining project asking the courts to stop the government from approving Ascendant’s Environmental Impact Study. The final resolution is still pending.

One of the legal remedies pending is to take the case to the Organization of American State’s Interamerican Commission for Human Rights.

AND NOW WE HAVE ASCENDANT
As noted, Roque Bustamante sold his rights to the Junín mining concessions to Ascendant Exploration, a company based in Quito whose main objective, according to their web page, is to “hold” mining concessions for foreigners. The parent company is Ascendant Holdings, based in the Caribbean islands of Turks y Caicos. Later on, yet another Ascendant was created: Ascendant Copper Corporation, with the objective, according to the company, of mining Junín’s copper. Ascendant, it’s worth noting, is too small to open a mine as large as the one in Junín. DECOIN suspects their real goal is to try to destroy the opposition to the project and then sell the concession to one of the “majors.”

Ascendant’s arrival has coincided with conflicts in the communities directly affected and throughout Intag. Here are just a few examples of clashes between anti-mining residents and company supporters.

Ascendant employees tried to establish a camp in Junín’s community forest reserve contrary to the wishes of residents; they were forced to leave by a women’s group from Junín.
Numerous death threats to anti-mining activists.

In November 2004, three anti-mining residents, including a woman who heads a crafts group, were assaulted by bodyguards employed by pro-mining ex congressman during a public meeting organized by Ascendant. The attacks occurred when the bodyguards tried to forcefully take a camera away from one of the victims containing a photo of General Villacis.

DECOIN and some of its members have received death threats and have been victims of a nasty smear campaign which includes a web page intended to discredit the environmental organization’s members.

CODEGAM, the false organization created by Ascendant, bussed dozens of people to the Cotacachi Municipality in April 2005 to violently demonstrate against the Mayor for supporting the opposition to mining.

In October of 2005, CODEGAM again disrupted a public assembly called by the Garcia Moreno Parish government, forcing the president of the Parish to cancel the event.

On several occasions, CODEGAM followers blocked roads when community leaders and organizations opposed to mining tried to meet.

LAWSUITS: Ascendant initiated over a dozen lawsuits to date, in its strategy to intimidate and wear out the opposition, including one against the Periódico INTAG for a million dollars, which the company dropped a few months later.

Lawsuit presented against Carlos Zorrilla 2 days after Ascendant’s camp was torched by local residents, by a man had sold his land to the company, accusing Mr. Zorrilla of threatening him and others that if they sold the land to the company they would all be killed (this too was dropped) Several lawsuits presented by the company or its employees against anti-mining activists as a result of actions taken by community members to protect their lands and their rights. In all, to date (10-06), there are six active criminal lawsuits involving 20 persons from the communities.

Completely false accusations filed by Leslie Brooke Chaplin against Carlos Zorrilla in July 2006 for supposedly instigating a crowd to steal Ms Chaplin’s camera and assaulting her. It is believed Ms Chaplin was working for the company at the time of the accusation. She left for the US shortly after filing the malicious lawsuit. The false accusations led to arrest and search warrants issued against Carlos, and resulted in a police raid to Carlos’ house early in the morning of 17 of October, where the police planted a gun and drugs in his house. Carlos was not home at the time of the raid and was able to go into hiding. The incident took place in front of the Ministry of Energy and Mines where about 400 Intag residents were demonstrating to pressure the Ministry to force Ascendant to leave the Intag area.

November-December 2006: Clashes with Paramilitaries (See Updates below)

July 2006 saw the presence in the Junin areas armed personnel identifying themselves as members of the Ecuadorian Army Corps of Engineers. Some of these persons were involved in death threats against a local community activist. When this was denounced to the heads of the Corps of Engineers they said they did not send anyone to the Intag area and are investigating. Decoin has denounced this new human rights violation to human rights organizations and the nation’s ombudsman. This is only the latest of many instances of intimidation community and Decoin activists have suffered in the past few months.

Ascendant’s strategy to convince locals that mining has included all kinds of false offers to communities and organizations. According to an earlier $16.5 million “community development proposal” mining will bring only good things to Intag. The project includes 30 kilometers of road building and maintenance; new bridges over two rivers; a fully equipped and staffed health clinic; an ambulance; 1,000 new homes; computers for 37 grade schools; a new high school, and training in organic agriculture. Needless to say, the project was tied in to the community’s acceptance of the mining project.

TO DO SOME OF THEIR DIRTY WORK, Ascendant created the false “community development” organization, CODEGAM, which has been accused of all kinds of divisive and illegal actions by local residents. CODEGAM publicly admitted in 2005 that all their funding came from Ascendant Copper Corporation (July 2005 El Comercio Article). As of August 2006, Codegam was inoperable because of in-fighting, and in early 2007, it broke off relations with the company, citing unwillingness to comply with previous agreements with the company. As of September 2007, CODEGAM was replaced by ODI, another company-made “development organization”.

POLITICAL ACTIVITIES. In one of their first assemblies, CODEGAM publicly called on its followers to not respect the Mayor of Cotacachi; called for the creation of a new Municipality; asked Ascendant to stop all negotiations with the Municipality of Cotacachi; asked that Mr. Zorrilla (at the time DECOIN’s president) and three other foreigners be expelled from Ecuador. Afterwards, using Ascendant funds, they paid for soccer uniforms with a message supporting the creation of a new Municipality. Furthermore, there is evidence that Ascendant gave money to a political party in the Intag area who supported mining.

INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN: Local opposition is not the only used against the mining project. In May 2005, DECOIN, along with Friends of Earth Canada and Mining Watch Canada presented a claim against the mining company for violation of the OECD’s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. In January of 2006, we decided to withdraw the complaint because we felt there was a total lack of willingness and transparency in the process carried out by Canadian authorities.

The Toronto Stock Exchange: In spite of a determined campaign by DECOIN, Friends of Earth Canada and Mining Watch Canada to alert the regulators in Canada in charge of overseeing listing in the Canadian Stock Exchanges of all the irregularities related to Ascendant Copper Corp, they allowed it to go public in November 2005. This includes dozens of official documents from community presidents, the Mayor of the County of Cotacachi, a prestigious US law firm, pointing out innumerable instances of misinformation in the prospectus meant to mislead potential investors. To illustrate, the prospectus wildly under reported the magnitude of the opposition by most local communities and the government of Cotacachi to the mining project and to the presence of the mining company.

Chalguayacu Bajo, December 10th 2005
The fact is, that the opposition is so fierce that it led to the burning down of Ascendant’s mining camp on the 10th of December 2005. Close to 300 local residents from approximately 15 communities gathered in Chalguayacu Bajo that morning and assumed all responsibility for the collective action. No arrests were made, but Ascendant officially asked the district prosecutor to investigate, and named 24 local residents as possible guilty parties. In addition it named DECOIN’s Carlos Zorrilla as the brains behind the torching of the camp. It’s important to point out that no one was hurt during the deed, and absolutely nothing was stolen from the premises. To date (August 2006), the legal process is still in the investigative phase, and the case may soon go to court, with four of the most effective community activists still named in the lawsuit.

TO DATE and thanks to local opposition, Ascendant Copper Corporation has been unable to access the key mining areas to carry out the Environmental Impact Study necessary for them to do the exploration. Every time they’ve tried, community members from Junín and other nearby communities have stopped them. In early January 2006, the company claimed they were ready to undertake the long-awaited Environmental Impact Studies by first going to the communities to get their input. However, the communities most affected by the mining project have stated they do not want Ascendant on their lands (see updates below).

April 2006: The communities have blocked Ascendant from going into the communities most at risk by the project, even as Ascendant is trying to socialize its environmental impact study, which was done without the communities knowing about it. The communities hold that the company responsible for it didn’t do it in the mining site, since it’s an area controlled by the community of Junin. Daimi Services was hired in January to convince the people of the benefits of the project and to socialize the EIA. However, there has been dramatic resistance to the presence of Daimi. In February, communities blocked a forum organized by Daimi and Ascendant. The previous week, two Daimi employees were taken to Junin by community activists as a way to pressure Daimi to leave the area. No one has been arrested as a result of this latest community action, though five activists were accused by Ascendant of kidnapping. It’s worth noting that the indigenous community of Sarayaku officially asked Daimi to leave their territories due to the aggressive way they executed the community relations programs, and there were accusations of bribery.

CODEGAM officially broke relations with Ascendant on February 17, 2006, and at one point wanted to join with the anti-mining forces to force Ascendant to leave Intag. CODEGAM called on several government institutions to investigate Ascendant, and to revoke its mining concessions.

May 20th 2006, nearly 800 men, women and children, joined all seven Parish presidents, as well as legitimate representatives from most of Intag’s communities and NGO’s in a regional Assembly, where firm anti-mining measures were adopted, including asking Ascendant to leave Intag. The company, at its own peril, has chosen not to abide by this massive demonstration of rejection.

SUCCESSFUL MARCH TO QUITO.
On July 12 and 13th 2006, approximately 600 intag residents traveled to Cotacachi, and then to the nation’s capital, to march to the Ministry of Energy and Mines and the offices of the company, to let the Ministry and the rest of Ecuador know they will not allow mining in Intag. The protesters were led by Parish government presidents and the indigenous Mayor of Cotacachi. The Minister met with a delegation and promised to make sure the company was complying with all laws, and force it to abandon the project if not. To date (10-06), the Minister has not issued any statement regarding promises made.

August 2006: As stated above, several lawsuits and administrative legal processes are being presented by DECOIN as well as community and Parish presidents to declare the concessions illegal, and to legally challenge other aspects of this illegitimate project. Currently, the company is socializing what they consider to be their Environmental Impact Statement for their Junin project, in spite of the presence of several glaring illegalities connected to it.

September 2006: The government of Imbabura Province voted to ask the national government to stop Ascendant from carrying out any exploration or exploitation activities within the Junin mining concession. With this decision, all local governments having any jurisdiction over the Junin mining project have publicly announced their opposition to Ascendant Copper Corporation’s mining project.

Using the courts: In an effort to intimidate the opposition, approximately 12 criminal lawsuits have been filed by Ascendant and/or its employees against approximately 50 community members opposed to the mining project. As of April 2007, the company has lost all the cases that have reached the courts.

OCTOBER 2006: In October 2006, 19 heavily-armed police raided the home of Carlos Zorrilla based on trumped up charges filed by a person believed to be a Ascendant employed. The police took advantage of the raid to steal hundreds of CD’s with personal information, as well as information on Carlos’ environmental work with DECOIN. One of the police also planted a gun and some drugs in his home, leading to other criminal charges. Carlos avoided arrest until the arrest warrant was revoked, and as of April 2007, all charges have been dropped for lack of evidence.

For accounts of the police raid see:

• www.counterpunch.org/zorrilla10262006.html
• www.cedhu.org/html/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=360 (Spanish)
• www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=13&ItemID=11281

EVENTS OF NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER 2006
November 2006
On November 1st, about 50 persons carrying machetes, tear gas and attack dogs, tried violently to go into the Barcelona-Cerro Pelado area. Despite the risk of confronting paramilitaries, who used the tear gas against unarmed community members (including a 3-year-old child) the communities stopped them. In the struggle, Vicente Quiguango, of the Villaflora community was run-over by a vehicle belonging to the company. Some of the paramilitaries in this incursion would again be seen in Intag 30 days later.

THE USE OF PARAMILITARIES
On December 2, 2006 several dozen armed guards tried to gain entry to Ascendant’s concessions. They were stopped at the Junin road control, which was manned by community members, and were told they could not proceed any further. Without any provocation whatsoever the guards, led by the international security firm Honor and Laurel, used pepper spray and fired their guns indiscriminately at the unarmed community members, wounding one of them in the leg (the attack was videotaped and photographed). The attack was repelled by the communities, and three days later 56 of the estimated 120 armed guards thought to be in the area, were captured by over 100 of the nearly 300 Intag residents who by then had arrived to Junin from all parts of Intag to support the community. The guards were all ex-military. The company also hired an army helicopter to provision the guards with food.

Ascendant later claimed they didn’t hire the guards, who the Quito-based human rights organization CEDHU, labeled paramilitaries, but that they were hired by Falericorp, a company contracted by Ascendant to supposedly work on agricultural projects. Later it was found that Falericorp was not only not an agricultural company, but that they were operating illegally in the country since 2004. The same was discovered about Honor and Laurel, and most organizations or companies Ascendant’s hired to work in Intag.

More aggressions: On the 6th of December, a large delegation composed of nearly 300 persons from Intag and the highlands of Cotacachi along with the Mayor of the county and the governor of Imbabura province were viciously attacked by crowd of about 50 pro-mining persons, when they were on their way to the community of Junin to officially receive the captured guards. The pro-mining crowd threw thousands of rocks, Molotov cocktails, burning tires and shot at the delegation, wounding several of them (including two Decoin representatives) In order to avoid an escalation of the violence, the trip was cancelled. Three days later, representatives from the national government, as well as the Mayor of Cotacachi, arrived by helicopter in Junin and the 56 guards were turned over. Later, as some of Intag’s residents were leaving this event in Junin, pro-mining personnel attacked them, wounding three of them with machetes, and sticks.
(For more information on the events that took place November and December 2006, please see HYPERLINK “http://www.decoin.org” www.decoin.org)

MORE UPDATES:
March 2007: Community representatives turned over the guns taken away from the paramilitary force in December of 2006 to police officials in the village of Chalguayacu Alto. One of the police officials expressed his grave concern over the possibility Ecuador becoming another Colombia in light of Ecuador of the paramilitary presence.

April 2007: In March, the opposition peacefully took over Ascendant’s camp in Chalguayacu Bajo, and the company was forced by the government to reduce its workforce by 70% as a consequence of community pressure. The communities then turned over the guns confiscated from the armed paramilitaries to government officials, and agreed with the government to take down its road controls. The company, however, is still prohibited by the communities from entering the mining site. Ascendant’s Environmental Impact Study has not yet been approved.

Near Lynching
On July 2007, Polivio Pérez was nearly lynched in Garcia Moreno by a mob comprised, in part, of Ascendant Copper employees. He was saved by the presence of the police, but the mob destroyed his motorcycle. Based in part on this incident, Amnesty International issued an Urgent Action request, calling attention to the threats that anti-mining activist face in Intag. As of January of 2008, Polivio is under 24 hour police protection.

Lawsuits: As of September 2007, charges against Carlos Zorrilla were dropped for both, the original robbery, and illegal possession of firearms charges due to lack of evidence. The drug issue is still pending, however (the District Attorney has not charged him, and has 2 years to decide). Two other court cases were lost by the company in Imbabura courts and were ruled inadmissible- so that, to date (Jan 2008) the company and its followers, has lost all of the court cases it has brought against community members.

September-October 2007: In September, the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum ordered Ascendant to suspend all its activities, including its agricultural work within its Intag concessions. The suspension is still in effect, and it forced Ascendant to fire all of its officials employees working in Intag. There are a few locals who we believe are still under contract with Ascendant, but no way to prove it. Nevertheless, the tension was reduced drastically.

In October, the company lost title to 17 of its properties around the Junin area when a government institution annulled the ownership rights due to illegalities discovered as part of an investigation launched by the government’s Anti-Corruption Commission. The company lost perhaps close to a million dollars and nearly 3,000 acres (1,200 hectares) of land they had purchased to try to gain access to the concessions.

Smear Campaign: In the meantime, the company continues with its smear campaign against organizations in Intag, but specially targeting Decoin and Prodeci (Prodeci is a Spanish-funded NGO). Likewise, Carlos Zorrilla and Polivio Pérez were targeted in late 2007 for a personal smear campaign, which involved the production of a calendar with a strong anti-Decoin message.

BAD COMPANY
In addition to all of the above, there are many other reasons to view Ascendant and its crew with a healthy dose of skepticism. These include:

Chris Werner, Ascendant Exploration’s first Chief Financial Officer, was fined by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for illegal trading of stocks in 1998. According to the SEC’s decision, Werner was involved in a company called Aqua Buoy with Joseph and Constance Pignatiello, in which the couple named “made materially false and misleading statements concerning the Company’s financial condition and sold their own Aqua Buoy stock at inflated prices.”

It is probably only a coincidence that Mr. Werner became involved with a company whose estimate of its assets (copper ore) some believe to be inflated. To whit, though it has yet to do any studies beyond those done by Bishimetals, Ascendant claims that there is more than three times the copper ore estimated by the Japanese company. According to a letter written on December 15, 2004 by Dr. Al Gedicks, addressed to the Finance and Audit Committee of the Toronto Stock Exchange, Ascendant’s figure is so far beyond the original estimate “as to raise serious questions of misleading and inaccurate information provided to stockholders.”
Among retired Ecuadorian military personnel once associated with Ascendant’s top management is Gen. César Villacís, a man who believes that those in favor of human rights, indigenous rights and workers’ rights are part of a “triangle of subversion;” It comes as no surprise that the general is a graduate of the School of the America’s, now located in Fort Benning, Georgia, where some of Latin America’s worst human rights violators have been educated, and that he was also involved in an illegal operation in 1997 related to a US petroleum company. He was also mentioned in a newspaper report (Nuevo Herald), as having taken part of illegal armament purchasing from Colonel Gaddafi ((note: as of Sept 05 Villacis was no longer working in the Intag area)) Paul Grist’s father is an adventurer-fortune seeker with prior dealings in Hampton Resources a Canadian mining company that owned concessions in the same area Ascendant Exploration now has concessions in Ecuador’s Amazon’s. The company went broke in 2004. Mr. Grist is one of Ascendant’s founders.

And then we have former congressman Ronald Andrade. Andrade, until early 2006 when he broke relations with Ascendant, was the mining company’s most vocal defender. His company-contracted bodyguards have been the protagonists of some of the incidents described above. Some of CODEGAM’s members have been involved or charged with several instances of intimidation death threats, and violent actions against public officials (Municipality of Cotacachi), etc

ALTERNATIVES TO MINING
Communities in the mining area and throughout Intag are developing alternatives to mining. For example, Junín owns a nearly 3,000 hectare forest reserve, the centerpiece of its Community Ecological Tourism project (located right over the mineralized area). Fifty men and women from two communities run the project.

AACRI- the Coffee Project. Junín, as well as the rest of Intag, also benefits from a shade-grown, fair trade coffee project, carried out by AACRI, a coffee grower’s association started by DECOIN in 1998, but now independent. AACRI has approximately 300 members growing sustainable coffee.

WOMEN’S GROUPS: Several groups have organized since the Mitsubishi camp bonfire seeking to institute their own form of development. This includes several women’s groups working in sisal handicraft, hand-made soap, etc.

TOISAN SOLIDARITY STORE: Another initiative born directly from this challenge, was the creation of the Toisan Solidarity Store. The Store, situated in Otavalo, sells products only produced by organized groups in the Intag area, and under FAIR TRADE premises.

These are only a few of the many sustainable projects residents have developed in response to the mining threat. These initiatives, and the model of sustainable development being created in Cotacachi County, are supported by a County ordinance, which in 2000, declared Cotacachi County the first Ecological County in Latin America. The Ordinance promotes local, community-based development, full respect for human rights; sustainable use of renewable resources and cultural and biological diversity, to mention a few of its objectives. In other words, a copper mine threatens far more than four communities, primary forests, endangered species and pristine rivers.

Community members from several communities adjacent to the mining area have expressed their intent to continue stopping them, and keep doing whatever it takes until Ascendant leave.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE ISSUES DISCUSSED IN THIS SUMMARY, check updates on www.decoin.org, and:

Ascendant Alert
Intag Solidarity Network
Periódico INTAG’s web page

INFORMATION ON ASCENDANT: Ascendant’s web page and more company info.

If you would like to get in touch with us, write to:
DECOIN: decoin@hoy.net

There are many other excellent articles on this issue out there in cyberspace: just google decoin and intag

Junin’s email is: ecojunin@yahoo.es *
* For English, contact Decoin. Also note that the Community Council and Junín cannot regularly check their emails (no nearby phones). You can copy us and we’ll try our best to contact them.

DEFENSA Y CONSERVACIÓNDECOINECOLÓGICA DE INTAG
Casilla 144 Otavalo, Imbabura Ecuador
www.decoin.org
decoin@hoy.net
Tele/fax: 593 6 264 8593

DECOIN, is a grass-roots environmental organization founded in the Intag region in 1995. All members of DECOIN live in Intag. Our main objectives are: to conserve the area’s unique natural resources, with emphasis on forests, biodiversity and water, and to promote and support sustainable productive initiatives. One of our most important work has been building and supporting a strong opposition to mining activities by working closely with communities, organizations and local governments.

Comments (54)

By Carlos Zorrilla, December 11, 2007

Ascendant Copper: Trying to Keep the Titanic Afloat?

The project is dead. And no amount of slick public relations campaign can bring it back.

A complete stop-work order for their Junin mining project, their so-called “nest egg”;

A nest egg with 17 less properties which the company lost recently (see prior blogs)

No environmental impact study- not even on the pipeline..

A self-evaluated drilling program analysis from their other Ecuadorian mining projects,

A possible buy-in with another mining company with no record of production, and a mine not worth throwing money on

A government hell-bent on totally revising the mining legislation to drastically reduce profits for the industry, much like it did with the petroleum industry (the last move was to take 99% of the industry’s windfall profits)

All local governments, and communities still adamantly opposed to the Junin project.

Recent archeological investigation confirming previous reports of a rich archeological zone within the Junin mining concessions (mining is illegal in archeological areas)

National mobilization against large-scale mining growing all over Ecuador

And from Ascendant and others like it, a lot of hype but nothing concrete and independently verified to show to the world.

In the meantime, the millions keep being spent, and no doubt the company will soon move to try to sell more shares to try to keep this Titanic afloat.

Does the name Bre-X mean anything?

Carlos Zorrilla

Comments (114)

By Carlos Zorrilla, November 23, 2007

Ascendant Loses 17 Properties in JUNIN / Empresa pierde 17 propiedades en Junin

On October 10^th, the General Secretary of Ecuador’s Land Reform Institute (INDA) announced that the institute extinguished the legality of 17 of Ascendant’s properties in the JUNIN area. The land will return to government ownership.

The Institute had adjudicated the untitled land to third parties, which then promptly sold the land to the company in violation of the law. The decision by INDA points out several illegalities associated with the transactions, including violation to the country’s Constitution. INDA also pointed out the company’s involvement in pre-purchase agreements with some of the sellers. The land in question allegedly sits over the copper deposit.

In a previous report based on an on-the-ground inspection, INDA confirmed that a large portion of the adjudicated land was covered in primary forests and too steep for agricultural use. INDA can only adjudicate land for agricultural purposes. Furthermore, INDA found out that the properties in question were being managed by the community.

In its 2007 third quarter reports, the company stated that it had spent $1,900,000.00 in land purchases around Junin, and that it was planning to spend an additional $193,000.00 for land acquisitions……..

ASCENDANT PIERDE 17 PREDIOS EN INTAG DEBIDO A ILEGALIDADES

Con fecha del 10 de Octubre, en el expediente número 13654, el Secretario General del INDA, Pablo Nieto Montoya RESUELVE DECLARAR LA EXTINCCIÓN de 17 predios rurales que fueron vendidos a la empresa Ascendant Copper por supuestos moradores de la zona de Intag. Los predios se encuentran el los sectores de Junin Alto, Parroquia García Moreno, Cantón Cotacachi, y abarcaba una importante área del yacimiento cuprífero de la empresa transnacional.

Uno de los causales que provocó la extinción de derechos fue el hecho que las tierras fueron enajenadas inmediatamente después de la adjudicación por parte del INDA, lo cual comprueba que las adjudicaciones fueron tramitadas con fines de lucro, lo cual viola la Ley del Inda. Además, se comprobó que en algunos casos, los adjudicatarios habían celebrado convenios de compra y venta con la empresa minera canadiense, Ascendant Copper- una confirmación más del doloso tráfico de tierras que impactado a la zona de Intag.

Adicionalmente de las violaciones a la Ley de Tierras Baldías y Colonización la providencia señala que las adjudicaciones violaron el artículo 119 de la Constitución Política de la República.

La providencia indica varias irregularidades contenidos en los trámites de adjudicación- entre los cuales se encuentra una divergencia significativa entre la información contenida en los trámites de adjudicación, y la realidad en el campo. Cabe señalar que en un previo informe del INDA se comprobó que la gran mayoría de la superficie adjudicada se encontraba cubierta por bosques primarios y no apto para la agricultura.

La providencia señala que el director del INDA en Quito fue responsable de autorizar varias de las adjudicaciones sospechosas.

CON GANAS DE SEGUIR COMPRANDO….
DECOIN denuncia que Ascendant Copper Corporation, según documentos publicados en el sitio web de la misma empresa, dice haber invertido 1,9 millones de dólares en adquisición de tierras en el sector de JUNIN, y que tiene dado decenas de miles de dólares en adelantos para adquirir más propiedades. Adicionalmente, admite que, hasta el 30 de Septiembre del año en curso, tenía presupuestado invertir otros $ 193.000,00 para comprar nuevos predios. El tráfico de tierras provocado y financiado por esta empresa transnacional, que hoy se comprueba, es culpable, en gran medida, del caos y convulsión social últimamente experimentado en la zona de Intag.

Nuestra organización, al igual que todos los gobiernos locales afectados por la presencia de Ascendant Copper en Intag, y la gran mayoría de comunidades y el resto de organizaciones en la zona de Intag, nos preguntamos hasta cuando va el estado seguir permitiendo los atroces atropellos y violaciones a la Constitución, leyes y de los derechos humanos por intereses transnacionales.

Comisión de Prensa,
DECOIN
decoin@hoy.net
www.decoin.org

Comments (36)

By Carlos Zorrilla, November 16, 2007

ASCENDANT’S NEW CREATIVE 3RD QUARTER REPORTS

It’s best to start by pointing out that Ascendant’s 3rd quarter financial report report is unaudited. There is no sign anywhere of an auditing firm taking responsibility for it. This helps to understand what follows.

Regarding the Management and Discussion section of the report, it can be summarized as an excersise in ommission. Here’s why:

Losses and more losses. 7.8 million dollars spent during the first 9 months of 2007. Total losses since November 2004, 17 plus million. This merits a bit of analysis. All this money raised from Canadian investors and, after 3 years on the scene, the company can’t even get their Environmental Impact Study approved for Junin, their nest-egg concession? Unfortunately, Canada seems to be an unending source of easy money to keep funding dead-end projects.

The list of omissions and misinformation is a bit too long to go into detail, but let me present some of the more galling ones:

SUSPENSIONS: The company says that work has been suspended… but what it doesn’t tell you is that, on September of this year, it was ordered by the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum to halt all of its activities in the Junin project. There is no timetable at all for the company resuming activities, if it is even ever allowed to do so.

Mining or Agriculture?. Some of you out there may be confused by the following statement made on page 10 of the report:

The Company has met with various ministers from the MMP to continue discussions of negotiations with local communities and authorize to advance the Junin project. At this time, all mining-related activities have ceased including farming until clarification and negotiations have been reached.

If you are wondering how farming could be considered a mining activity- you are not alone. It’s not, of course. And here, you thought you were holding stocks of a mining company! Too, there is no negotiations going on at all with communities because the company was ordered to cease all of its activities, including negotiating with communities (which could be seen as public relations activities).

What is more relevant to ponder is the reasons behind the drastic suspensions. Look back to our earlier blogs to discover why, especially those dealing with the violence and use of “paramilitary outfits” financed by the company against communities back in November and December of 2006…

COMPANY ASSETS AT RISK. The company is suppose to inform its investors of anything that may be a risk to the their assets. Ascendant considers 1.9 million dollars they say they’ve spent to buy land around JUNIN as assets. So, why did the company not report on the latest and devastating report from the Institute for Agricultural Development in which it found a number of illegalities connected to 18 of properties held by Ascendant around JUNIN? The INDA investigation and report was prompted by accusations from the nation’s Anti-Corruption Commission, regarding illegalities with these properties, and it called for the properties to revert back to the state. The INDA report confirmed the illegalities, and identified some new ones.

Among the findings was that the overwhelming majority of the properties in question had primary forests on them, and were completely unsuitable for agricultural use (which is the only land INDA is allow to adjudicate). In the past, Gary Davis has said that the company’s concessions had been severely logged.

EXPLORATION ANYONE? One has to read the section on expenditures for exploration a couple of times to understand what is being said. It apparently says that during the last 9 months, the company spent 4.5 million dollars for “advancing exploration” costs. This is what the report claims:

The primary reason for the increased net losses for the 2007 periods compared to the 2006 periods was due to higher expenditures on exploration and in particular on the Chaucha property.

Yet only 1.57 million, of the 4.5 million dollars for exploration was actually spent on exploration activities; and this on its Chaucha property (did anyone wonder why this time they did not report on the exploration results from Chaucha?). No exploration activity whatsoever has been undertaken in JUNIN, and they do not reveal what they spent the other 3 million dollars on, except to point out that they’ve spent $250,000 for preliminary exploration at Telimbela (but they fail to inform if the company has a legally approved Environmental Impact Study for exploration at this site- which is not even theirs) [this is still an improvement over the outrageous claims of millions of dollars spent on exploration activities in Junin in prior reports)

Very strange. But not as strange as the following:

On page 8, the two directors responsible for the report claim that:

On November 27, 2006 the Company entered into an agreement with the Organization for the Development of Intag, Parish Council of Garcia Moreno and the Women’s Association of Garcia Moreno, representing over 90 local communities in support of Junin development…

Here’s what they didn’t tell you:
The agreement with the Parish Government of García Moreno was legally annulled by the full Parish Government (not council) 8 days after it was signed. This was mostly due to the use of paramilitaries against Garcia Moreno communities. There are around 15 women’s groups in Intag: 14 of those oppose Ascendant’s presence in Intag. Furthermore, the legal document annulling the agreement with the company also discredits the Organization for the Development of Intag, saying it does not represent anyone, much less the 90 imagined communities “in support of Junin development” (Junin development is pretty vague, you have to admit)

But beyond the question as to the meaning here, there aren’t 90 communities in Intag. And if they want you to believe that those 90 non-existent communities are in favor of the mining project, it would be a gross lie, even if they did exist. After all the accompanying violence generated by their presence, they’d be hard put to prove that even 10 communities in Intag support the company’s mining project.

An interesting and very relevant piece of information to the company’s incredible claim regarding the presumed support, is that all seven local governments in Intag, as well as the Municipality of Cotacachi and Imbabura’s provincial governments have all publicly expressed their rejection of the mining project. This is easy to prove, since these governments have signed documents expressing their rejections. Where are the signatures of the legal representatives of the 90 ghost communities supporting Ascendant’s version of development of Junin?

There’s a lot more of questionable things, like the very high costs of telecommunications (average $ 10,000 per month), or the unbelievable high rents, and so on. But, we’ll save this for another time. For now it’s enough to note the disparities pointed out above, and to keep in mind that:

· After 3 years of Ascendant’s presence in Intag, no exploration has taken place in Junin

· Ascendant is not allowed to carry out any activities whatsoever within its Junin concessions

· The company has not resubmitted another environmental impact study after their last one was rejected nearly 12 months ago by the government

· The company is seriously at risk of losing at 18 of its properties around Junin

· The latest government report confirmed the presence of primary forests in the Junin mining area- something the company has denied in the past. Cotacachi’s Ecological Ordinance prohibits mining in primary, or native forests.

· Water: This week IAMGOLD lost 30% of their concessions because its Quimsacocha project threatened streams, rivers and lakes. The Toisan Range, where the Junin concessions are located, is also exceptionally rich in pristine water resources. IAGOLD’s land will be turned over for public use and conservation purposes; the first of many such concessions revokations to come

· The mining area is also rich in archeological sites. Ecuadorian law prohibits mining in these areas.

· The opposition from all local governments, communities and NGO’s is still as firm as ever

It’s no wonder the company is looking to distract attention from its woes in Ecuador by buying non-producing mines in the US!

DECOIN 16 November 2007

Comments (105)

By Carlos Zorrilla, October 31, 2007

Gross Irregularities found in Connection with Ascendant Copper Corporation’s Properties in Junin (ESPANOL ABAJO)

On October 22, Ecuador’s Institute for Agrarian Development (INDA) made public its report of their in-situ inspection of17 of the Ascendant’s properties in the Intag area (JUNIN PROJECT) The investigation came in response to a denunciation of illegal land trafficking in the Junin area involving Ascendant Copper Corporation, made by the country’s Anti-Corruption Commission (http://www.comisionanticorrupcion.com/Biblioteca/boletines/BOLETINDEPRENSANo320.pdf)

Based on the information pointing at gross illegalities in connection with adjudication of state land meant for agricultural use to benefit Ascendant, the Anti-Corruption Commission made several recommendations, including that the land illegally acquired by Ascendant revert back to state ownership.

Among the findings and of the INDA report:

1) Most of the land inspected is covered in primary forests

2) The adjudicated land is very steep (over 90% slope), and unusable for agriculture (INDA is only legally able to adjudicate land that is apt for agricultural use)

3) At least one of the inspected lands may be within the Chontal Protected Forest

4) There was a lack of due diligence by INDA officials who adjudicated the land.

5) The data reported by Inda employees as part of the adjudication process has no relation with reality on the ground.

6) Some of the land now supposedly owned by Ascendant was previously sold to the community of JUNIN

7) Ascendant has not taken possession of its lands, which are in the hands of community members from Cerro Pelado and Junin- who expressed their desire to conserve the forests, since it is suitable apt for agriculture.

In essence, the INDA report confirms- and even expands on- the Anti-Corruption Commission’s findings.

A parallel report prepared by community members and two Intag Solidarity Network members, who accompanied INDA’s representatives on the inspection, mentions that other adjudicated properties are found within the Chontal Protected Forest Reserve; and that a large property (over 270 hectare) that should have been inspected by INDA was not. Both reports make the same observation that most of the adjudicated lands showed no sign of anyone ever possessing or working the properties, which clearly violates INDA laws. Also, it is illegal for INDA to adjudicate primary forests, or land not suitable for agricultural purposes. If false information is given to INDA employees to obtain legal title it is, likewise grounds for annulling the adjudication (the land would revert back to the national government)

As soon as we have the official reaction from the Executive, which should not take too long, we’ll be posting on the site.

COMPROBADO TRÁFICO DE TIERRAS DE ASCENDANT

EL DÍA 22 DE OCTUBRE, el INSTITUTO DE DESARROLLO AGRARIO emitió un informe de su investigacion de 17 predios recientemente adjudicados en la zona de Intag que fueron a parar en manos de la empresa transnacional minera Ascendant Copper Corporation. La investigación del INDA fue en respuesta a un informe de parte de la Comisión Anti-Corrupción de Julio del año en curso, donde se descubrió señas de ilegalidades en el traspaso de propiedades adjudicadas a supuestos posesionarios de tierras que yacen encima de los yacimientos de cobre de JUNIN, Zona de Intag, Cantón Cotacachi http://www.comisionanticorrupcion.com/Biblioteca/boletines/BOLETINDEPRENSANo320.pdf

El informe del INDA confirma la existencia de ilegalidades e incumplimientos por parte de funcionarios del INDA en la adjudicaciones de predios en la zona de Intag a favor de la Ascendant Copper Corporation. La empresa minera, según la Comisiónm Cívico de la Corrupcíon, habría adquirido 56 propiedades en la zona de Intag, que abarcan a miles de hectáreas de áreas agrícolas y forestales.

Entre las conclusiones y hallazgos del informe consta:

1) “No hubo una investigación prolija en la toma de datos técnicos de campo por parte del perito inspector” .
2) La mayor parte de los predios visitados por la delegación del INDA se encuentran cubiertos por bosques primarios
3) “Los predios adjudicados por el INDA no son de vocación agrícola” , consta literalmente en el informe.
4) “Los datos que sirvieron como para base para las adjudicaciones en su mayoría no concuerdan con la realidad comprobada en la inspeccion
5) Exepto en 4 casos, no existen ninguna señal de ocupación, posesión o uso de los predios (mostrar la poseción es requisito indispensable para cumplir con la adjudicación)
6) En una propiedad adjudicada de 98 hectáreas tan solo 2 hectáreas pasto, el resto, 95.79 hectáreas, consiste de bosque primario.
7) Se presume que por lo menos 2 de las propiedades adjudicadas se encuentran dentro del Bosque Protector el Chontal- lo cual expresamente viola la Ley
No se cumplió con los planes de explotación de los predios propuestos en los trámites de adjudicación
9) Se estableció que los predios se adquirieron con ánimo de lucro- lo cual también cotraviene la Ley del INDA

Concluye el informe resaltando que la empresa minera no ha tomado poseción de las tierras adjudicadas, y que más bien, estan en manos de los comuneros de Junín y la comuna de Cerro Pelado, quienes tienen la idea de conservar sus bosques y que se encuentran en trámite para declararlos como áreas de reservas.

Por otro lado, moradores de la zona de Intag aprovecharon la presencia de funcionarios de INDA para denunciar irregularidades relacionadas a otras propiedades recientemente adquiridas por la empresa minera, en especial una propiedad de 273 hectáreas que estaría cubierta por bosques primarios. En su informe paralelo los moradores y dos observadores internacionales de Intag Solidarity Network, denunciaron que Por otra parte, el informe da fe de denuncias de los moradores del sector que varias de las poseciones compradas por Ascendant Copper Corporation como propiedades adjudicadas habrían sido previamente vendidas a la comunidad de Junín.

COMISIÓN DE MINERÍA
DECOIN
Defensa y Conservación Ecológica de Intag
PO BOX 144
Otavalo, Imbabura
Ecuador
www.decoin.org
decoin@hoy.net

Comments (86)

By Carlos Zorrilla, October 25, 2007

Holding Steady on Misinformation: II part of the Spin

Sure enough, The Resource Investor’s latest news release (10/19) on Ascendant Copper’s operations in Ecuador did not disappoint. The first part of the 2-part spin left us with some truly impressive whoppers- such as saying that the latest government suspension of its activities in the Intag region was similar to the government’s “other suspensions”. Another good one was a quote from one of its directors to the tune of that the company was sitting on the biggest or second biggest copper deposit in the world. Then, the company lied about the December 2006 violent confrontation in which dozens of armed thugs labeled as paramilitary force by a prestigious Human Rights organization shot at defenseless community members. The thugs were paid for by Ascendant, and the confrontation did not take place in their land, as was alleged. Finally, and like a broken record, the company tried to blame all their woes in their Junin concessions (their “nest egg”) to the actions of “an ecological organization” (guess who?)

On the second installment of the spin, the company repeats its unbelievable claim that they are sitting on one of the world’s biggest copper deposit (see our first exposé) Then, the release identifies DECOIN as the ecological group- but then goes further in making untrue statements that DECOIN signed an agreement in March 20th with the company to ease tensions in the area, and that DECOIN was involved in the demands contained in the agreement which forced the company to reduce it’s work force from 159 to 48 (keep in mind that they were not doing any exploration work) All of this is not only untrue, but ridiculous, since DECOIN has never signed anything with either the government nor the company. The company knows this very well because they have a copy of the March 20th agreement, which, in any case, was signed by the Community Development Council and the government- and not with the company (the company signed its own agreement with the government)

As if this wasn’t sufficient, the spinners say that what has kept the company from “conducting its drilling program” was the seizing of the company’s farm in March of 2007 by local anti-mining protesters. This is one of the biggest pieces of misinformation yet. The plain truth is that company cannot drill, or carry out any other exploration activities unless it first gets its Environmental Impact Study approved. It is amazing that in spite of informing its investors and Canadian regulators that it has incurred over three million dollars in exploration costs just at the Junin site, the company has not done any exploration work whatsoever. And, this is simply because the government has not approved the company’s Environmental Impact Study (nor is it likely to)

As to the claim that it is part of the UN Global Pact and that it is a socially responsible corporation- flexibility is the key here. Flexibility in interpreting what socially responsibility means. Paying for paramilitary-like force to violently try to storm past a community roadblock and shoot at defenseless campesinos might not qualify in most people’s concept as socially responsible behavior. Nor perhaps is financing the use attack dogs against community residents, and tear gassing six year olds. Inciting illegal land trafficking (currently under government investigation) might also be incompatible in most people’s mind with social responsibility. I suspect that telling investors the company has spent million of dollars in exploration costs when, in fact, no real exploration work has been undertaken, would probably fail the acid test for socially responsibility in most persons and institutions. I also wonder what socially responsible company would keep the truth from the public about the real nature and extent of the opposition to its project? Or tell the public that it is sitting on four times more minerals than what was technically inferred after years of drilling by a very capable corporation (Mitsubishi Materials in the 1990′s) ?

The list of questionable and illegal behavior and claims is very long. But let’s face it; unless there is genuine civil society involvement in Canada and other northern countries that really give a damn, there is nothing to stop extractive corporations from perverting the truth, ripping off investors, and causing social and environmental upheaval in countries like Ecuador.

DECOIN

Comments (35)

By Carlos Zorrilla, October 12, 2007

Exposing Ascendant Copper Corporation’s Latest Spin

If there is one thing that makes most mining companies homogenous, is their need to spin, distort, and disinform the public regarding either the real value of their mining deposit, the regulatory obstacles they face, and/or, the projects’s environmental and social challenges, plus the true nature of the opposition their projects face on the ground. They are specially careful about controlling and manipulating the information regarding grass-roots opposition. Rarely are all these spins found in one single, short news release. Following is a typical example of such spin- one of many we’ve faced in the years of dealing with a copper-mining project in the biodiverse Toisan Range of Ecuador.

The October 10th Resource Investor news release (http://resourcexinvestor.com/news.php?id=2554) concerning Ascendant Cooper Corporation projects in Ecuador makes quite a lot of interesting, and outright disingenuous claims.

Let’s look at the claims in the news release one by one.

Amount of copper: We are sitting on the second if not the largest copper/molybdenum property in the world” …… “in fact we are looking at a potential in excess of a billion pounds of molybdenum and in excess of 20 billion pounds of copper”.

Truth: The truth is that, after 5 years of exploratory drilling in the 1990’s in the Junin mining concessions, the Mitsubishi subsidiary, Bishimetals, only inferred the possible existence of 2.26 millions tons of copper, and very little molybdenum . This amounts to four times less copper than what Ascendant is saying they are “sitting on”, and only 52 days worth of global annual consumption. Needless to say, it does not constitute even a medium size discovery, much less a world-class one. On the other hand, what little was discovered in the company’s Chaucha concession was so disappointing, that it led Antofagasta to pull out of their joint exploratory agreement 2 months ago forcing Ascendant to fork over to the Chilean mining company 1.12 million dollars (http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/070716/0278284.html)

Suspensions: the release makes this assertion concerning the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum latest stop work order:

“On the downside, the Correa government on September 25 announced the formal suspension of Ascendants mining and community development activities in the Junin area in an effort to defuse tensions, an announcement Ascendant said was only a repetition of a previously announced order”

The Truth: the September 25, 2007 complete work suspension, contrary to what Ascendant would like to believe, is very much different from the other three suspensions, in that it came with a legal order signed by Ministry officials, and was based on a major judicial decision by the nation’s Attorney General. Also unlike previous times, this suspension was based on a violation of article 11 of the Mining Law- something not used in the previous suspensions.

The Confrontation: This is what the Resource Investor has to say about the decisive and violent confrontation between the communities resisting the project and paramilitary-like security guards paid for by Ascendant:

“These tensions boiled over in December of last year on Ascendants agricultural property. Anti-mining activists confronted a third party contracted agricultural firms Intag workers and security guards resulting in almost 60 people being held captive by activists, and locked in the local community church for several days until order was restored by Ecuadorian police.”

The Truth: The confrontation took place, not on Ascendant’s agricultural property, but on the road leading to the community of Junin. Second, the “agricultural firm” mentioned was hired by Ascendant, and the persons which confronted and shot at the unarmed community members were a paramilitary force, as described by CEDHU, the prestigious Quito-based human rights organization. Third, of the nearly 60 persons held in the community church, none was from the Intag or Junin area- all were ex-military personnel from the coast of Ecuador, all had .38 caliber hand guns, pepper spray, and several had 12 gauge shotguns. The company later tried to claim these individuals were “agricultural consultants”.

The Copper Delusion: As if this self-delusion wasn’t enough, the news release goes on to say that: “The Junin prospect has an inferred, NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate of 982 million tonnes. A drilling program is under way at the Chaucha property on the western flank of the Andes, the results of which are expected to up its combined resource estimate, according to Haigh”.

In June of this year Micon International stated that, because of a noted discrepancy between a 2007 and an original assaying of the Bishimetals sampling, it was unable to verify their previous inferred 982 million ton copper deposit. Here is an excerpt from the June 11th release

Because of the noted discrepancies, Micon has advised Ascendant that the inferred resource estimate contained in the Junin Report of 982 million tonnes grading 0.89% copper, 0.04% molybdenum and 1.9 grams per tonne silver, may not be fully representative of the mineralization at Junin, as the inferred resource estimate was based on historical data, some of which is now considered to be unverifiable due to deterioration of the core samples over time, the loss of fine material in the transfer of the historical core samples, and the methods of sampling and assaying employed during the 1990s Program. .” http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/070611/0264465.html

In other words, termite damage and other factors may now make it impossible to confirm Micon’s earlier inferred results for the Junin mining concessions. In fact, in 2006, CELA, the Canadian Environmental Law Association, filed a complaint with the British Columbia Securities Commission questioning the procedure used by Micon International to ascertain the Junin inferred mineral content, which was based on the Bishimetals samples. The complaint is still being investigated.

Scapegoating: If there has been a constant among Ascendant’s spins it is its efforts to try to portray to the world that their problems in Junin are due exclusively to the work of an environmental organization in the area. Here’s what the October 10th news release has to say:

“The problems that we have had and are having at Junin are the result of a massive campaign of no mining in Ecuador conducted by a local NGO. This particular NGO has been operating since the mid-1990s and were violent objectors to Mitsubishi when they were drilling there from 1993 to 1997 on the same deposit.”

DECOIN is very flattered to think that we, a very small, under funded and understaffed grass-roots organization, with an office measuring 3 by 3 meters in the Intag town of Apuela (rent: $ 40 a month), could be responsible for all of Ascendant’s troubles in Junin. But we know the truth is very different, and that Ascendant’s allegations have other objectives. It is in any corporation’s interest to create the illusion that their project does not face grass-roots community and local government opposition. As every Banker knows, this is equivalent to a death sentence for mining projects.

The opposition to Ascendant’s Junin project is, in fact, truly remarkable in scope- perhaps even unique. It includes all seven local township government in Intag, as well as the Canton (county) government of Cotacachi, and the Provincial government of Imbabura- not to mention approximately 95% of the area’s legitimate organizations, and the overwhelming majority of the communities. Finally, it is important to point out that the opposition to the company’s project is led by the communities, and by them alone. The opposition to mining, far from being concentrated in Intag and Junin, is now a national issue, with several very strong anti-mining national groups opposing large-scale mining development. Given the firm and widespread opposition generated by this single mining project, one can only hope that investors are asking themselves what was it that the company did to deserve it. And while they are at it, perhaps they can question the need to misinform, exaggerate, distort, and keep vital information from the public.

As a matter of fact, these are the kinds of question Rio Tinto Zinc should be asking itself, since it apparently considers itself a socially responsible corporate citizen, and Ascendant considers Rio Tinto its “strategic partner”.

DECOIN

Comments (3)

By Carlos Zorrilla, October 4, 2007

4 de Octubre de 2007

Momentos en que Edgar Romero, funcionario de la Dirección de Minería de Pichincha pone los sellos de suspensión.

García Moreno, La Hora

Ayer, una delegación de la Dirección Regional de Minería de Pichincha, por intermedio de Marco Cruz, director de la regional minera, exteriorizó la providencia que el Ministerio de Minas y Petróleos le impuso a la empresa canadiense Ascendant Copper para que suspenda sus operaciones de tipo minero en la zona de Intag.

La Hora