GOLD MINING THREATENS ENVIRONMENT AND COMMUNITIES IN EAST AFRICA

Ashanti Goldfields of Ghana and South Africa's AngloGold began mining for gold in June on Lake Victoria, the world's second largest lake, in the face of bitter protests from environmentalists. Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa inaugurated the US$165 million Geita Gold Mine, located 12.4 miles (20 kilometers) from the southern shore of Lake Victoria and pledged more incentives for investment in the East African country's mining sector.

The Geita mine, Tanzania's largest gold mining project, is located next to the Nyamalembo River which drains into Lake Victoria. The lake borders on Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa. Environmentalists warn that the soldium cyanide used to extract gold from ore may leak into the lake through the rivers and cause a species imbalance and water poisoning.

"Should any of this cyanide find its way into the lake, then Tanzania will not suffer alone but so will her neighbors and millions of other people," warned Tundu Lissu of the Washington, DC based World Resource Institute. "The project is being established just next to a river that drains into the lake. This is a disaster in the making."

Tanzania embraces a wide variety of landscapes, although most of the country lies on an interior plateau between 3,200 to 5,000 feet (1,000 to 1,500 meters) above sea level, covered by savanna, bush or woodland. The plateau abuts forests, uplands and mountains of which Mt. Kilimanjaro is part of a chain of volcanoes in the north of the country. Some 13 million acres (5.3 million hectares) of the country comprises lakes, notably lakes Tanganyika and Nyasa, which lie in the Rift Valley, and Lake Victoria which lies between the eastern and western arms of the Rift. The country's population numbers some 27 million people. Diamonds, gold, gemstones, coal, iron ore, phosphate, salt, nickel, copper and tin are all mined in the country.

Professor Wangari Maathai, of Kenya's Greenbelt Movement, and Godba Tumushabe, Executive Director of Uganda's Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment, have expressed outrage at the project and have criticized the Tanzanian government for supporting a project that would jeopardize the environment of the lake and the lives of residents living around it.

"It is dangerous, unethical and the most insensitive economic undertaking I have ever come across," said Maathai who has threatened to mobilize residents along the shores of the lake against the gold mining companies involved in this project. "It is not just a matter of poisoning people. Very soon, European Union will ban all fish exports from East Africa just because some toxic elements have found their way into the fish, and that it will also be a great economic loss to the local people whose life depend entirely on fishing. This project is a threat to the whole world," Maathai warned.

More than 41,000 ounces of gold have been produced during the commissioning phase. Geita Gold Mine is already the biggest gold producer in East Africa. At the end of 1999, Geita's resources were estimated at 12 million ounces of gold.

SOURCES: "Lake Victoria Vulnerable to Cyanide from New Mine," by Tervil Okoko, Environment News Service, August 23, 2000. Other sources include: "Risks Multiply for World's 2nd Largest Lake," by Tervil Okoko, Environment News Service, May 19, 2000; "Tanzania's Second Largest Gold Mine to Start Production Next April," Xinhua News Agency, September 14, 2000.