Tecnologo

Mining a Bad Business for People in Honduras
Kenneth Maurice Laffite Discua
Shadai School
October 31, 2012

Abstract
First of all, what is mining? It is the activity of extracting minerals or other materials from the ground. It is divided into 2 groups, metallic and nonmetallic mining. Mining has brought wealth throughout history, but with it environmental disasters came to. This situationis present in Honduras since the age of discovery. Spaniards took a great part of our country’s precious metals leaving population in poverty. In present days concessions are the most used method for allowing mining companies to exploit our resources. Concessions seem to be advantageous for communities, but it is all the way around.
Keywords: mining, wealth, concessions

Mining a BadBusiness for People in Honduras
Mining is one of the oldest tasks that exist. Since people in the past moved to our country mining have existed, flint was everywhere. With it people made weapons and tools. While time was advancing it was harder to find this mineral. Because of this problem people started digging to find it; as a result mining was created. The book states “Agriculture and fishingweren’t possible without tools made with minerals” (Asociacion de Organismos no Gubernamentales de Honduras (ASONOG), p. 6), this situation stimulated mining in the entire region. As a result a large group of people started to work at it. But in our region mining wasn’t commercial until the Spaniards came.
The period of time where mining did more damage to Honduras was during the colony, it isknown that thousands of Indians died in mines. Supposedly by 1942 America was inhabited approximately by 100 million Indians. In the late 16th century it is believed that there were only 8 million left (see Appendix A). The book suggests: “the diseases like flu expand quickly between Indians causing the death to millions” (Varela Osorio, 2011, p. 128). The Spaniards brought many epidemics toAmerica; smallpox was the most mortal between natives, because the vaccine was not introduced until 1803.
In the 1700 one of the most essential elements in Honduras economy was mining, mainly in “La Alcaldia Mayor de Tegucigalpa”. From the book it is confirm that “Mines in Honduras contributed with a 5% to the empires total wealth.” (Varela Osorio, 2011, p. 145). The labor was mainly from Indians,who weren’t qualified for the job. The owners of these mines paid the Spanish crown the 20% of all the metals extracted. This was thanks to the trade monopoly, which is a monopoly where there is trade just between two sides, in this case the Spanish and the American colonies. (Varela Osorio, 2011, p. 145)
Mining doesn’t bring only wealth and tools, it have negative consequences in naturalenvironments. The book indicates that “of all types of mining the most harmful is that of open sky or open pit” (Asociacion de Organismos no Gubernamentales de Honduras (ASONOG), p. 9). In this mining first it’s required to move great amounts of ground, destroying forests and natural environments, second this ground is transported to a yard. It is calculated that for getting one gram of gold, oneton of ground should be removed. Later in the yards ground is washed in huge piles with cyanide. This wash can last from several days to several months, an average is 90 days. Then Zinc is added to the ground, zinc and cyanide cause gold to harden, next gold is picked up and it’s formed in bars. Finally cyanide is discarded leaving pollution in the region.
In present days mining only benefitscompanies, thanks to concessions. But, what does concessions are? They are permissions that the government gives to companies (national or international) for them to exploit our mines. With these permissions mines should pay big taxes and provide jobs for the villagers near the mine. “Reality is much different; mines are a great business for companies, but consequences for communities are terrible”...