From Animosity to Cooperation - Conflict resolution and mineral development in the tropics - The Las Cristinas experience

When the Venezuelan government decided to consolidate the Las Cristinas mining leases in the mid 1980 in order to permit the promotion of intensive exploration and large-scale development of the property by private interests, it did not take into account the impacts that this decision would have on the viability of the livelihoods of thousands of independent artisanal miners working in the kilometre 88 mining district. The government wanted to introduce rationality and business sense into the exploitation of mineral resources, that it sensed it had failed to do by focusing solely on state controlled and independent small holder development of mineral resources. The assistance provided by the small-scale mining support program (1980s and early 1990s) of the Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana (the state development corporation), even with external help from the US Department of Agriculture's Forest Service, had benefited only small pockets of miners and their communities; while most activity remained disorganized, haphazard, and environmentally and socially disruptive. As a pre-requisite to opening Las Cristinas to foreign investment, CVG shut down all existing mining operations on the property and cleared the property of encampments and established villages (late 1980s). In advance of turning the property over to placer dome Latin America in 1992, CVG completed the job of reubicacion removing the last remaining communities of independent miners from the property. No alternative areas were made available for the displaced miners the contract between CVG and placer dome prohibited the operating company (MINCA) from permitting independent miners from returning to work on the property. Furthermore, there existed a political and regulatory vacuum with regard to local mining practice and the rights of local miners, and this put the company at a disadvantage in terms of finding ways of dealing constructively with the situation in which it found itself. About 3500 people had resettled in the general area; and almost all of the miners remaining returned to work on those lands with which they were familiar. This led immediately to a series of violent confrontations between the miners and the foreign companies, which had come to operate in the area. In1994, Minera Las Cristinas, the largest developer in the district, decided to evaluate alternative ways of dealing with their miner situation, and of trying to reduce the social risk surrounding its potential investment. This evaluation evolved into a dialogue between the company and the community based miners, and then a process for developing a totally different kind of working relationship between the local miners and their communities and the mining company, away from which the CVG and Venezuelan government initially distanced itself. This process became known as the Los Rojas Project, after the place name of the mining area originally designated as a safe area for artisanal mining within the Las Cristinas concession. It became the principal vehicle for both communities and company to learn how to relate constructively (1994- 1998) and for providing opportunity to local miners to continue to earn a living in a secured environment, with increasing levels of technical and organizational support from the mining company. This project expanded over time to include more local people, and assisted the miners to appreciate the value of organization, collaboration, and change. It led to the introduction of new mining and processing techniques, which improved productivity and health and safety conditions and introduced environmental management thinking and practice to the mines. The program went through a number of changes over time, but came to a dramatic end in September 2002, when a new operator took over the property. This paper reviews the most important successes and limitations of this experience. It will highlight the challenges of organizing independent miners, of promoting socially and environmentally responsible practice, and of learning how to relate with other stakeholders in new ways - all in a deteriorating and marginal political and economic environment. If nothing else, the experience proves that when the will exists, stakeholders with radically different interests can find mutually beneficial and constructive ways of living and working together