"Last Friday Astur Gold delivered its second information brochure, the December issue, to mailboxes in Tapia de Casariego. The brochure explains that they are planning to work an open-pit mine in Salave using a cyanide pond, in order to separate the gold from the earth, despite the ecological disaster witnessed by all that this chemical substance caused in the Danube". This was the blunt response yesterday from the Oro No (Gold No) platform in reaction to plans by the company Astur Gold, the site's owner, to create a neighbours' association which would have the economic funds to develop socially-oriented projects favouring the community's economic growth once the mine is closed, with an estimated viability of 18 years.

Source: El Comercio Digital (The Digital Commerce)

Tapia de Casariego, Spain - 20/12/2010. "What's important is not what they are offering, but what they expect to get out of it", claims the group. "The company has been trying to extract gold in an open-pit in Tapia for around six years, although the local authorities and courts have told them that they do not meet the necessary standards. They have denied this on more than one occasion, as this is the most profitable form of extraction for them. This is why it is now explicitly necessary to gather volunteers".

The neighbours' association fully refused to participate in the organisation proposed by Astur Gold, to which the firm will, initially, donate 200,000 shares, each with a value of one euro. The company - which forecast that they could increase in value to a worth of between 2 and 5 million euros - wants to be able to count on support from representatives within the primary sector, commerce, the hotel industry, non-profit organisations, neighbours of no particular affiliation and young people, "to reflect upon and lay the foundations for the future of the community".

"Obviously, we are not going to take part in their evil game. They want to influence the townspeople to make a decision, although only the administrative bodies can approve the projects. They seek to bring about confrontation and division amongst the people, because, after all, troubled waters are the fisherman's gain". After reading the declarations made the day before yesterday by the company's delegated adviser, Cary Pinkowski, in which he expressed his desire to speed up the process, the platform indicated: "If the company is in such a hurry, why have they not already presented the project, instead of spending ten months announcing it? Why not present this initiative which, according to Astur Gold, is going to generate full employment in the local region, which rather than contaminating, is compatible with other activities, using innocuous cyanide and which, now, offers rewards and benefits to those creating it as well?"

Employing the use of irony, the members of Oro No added: "If they achieve what they are promising, maybe they won't win the Prize for Concord, but certainly for Cooperation or Development. Now it turns out they are going to become an ONG, concerned for our future".

The platform underlined that, although the project "can be measured by the praise it receives, we will not do it" and, returning to their ironic tone, rounded off by saying: "It's just that we don't understand, we don't get the significance of what is developing", after pointing out that, "the case has been taken to the Supreme Court. The company has lost all arguments."