Leoncia Ramos lives beside Barrick Mining’s Pueblo Viejo gold mine in the Dominican Republic, where communities report water contamination, air pollution, and other health impacts. Barrick brought Pueblo Viejo back into production in 2012, and has since generated vast quantities of mine waste as Latin America’s largest gold mine. Barrick now plans a major expansion, including a new facility for storing hundreds of millions of tonnes of additional waste that will extend operations for years to come.
Leoncia organizes with the Comité Nuevo Renacer, which is demanding safe relocation for 450 families affected by the mine. Residents fear the expansion will worsen existing harms and raise concerns about the safety of the proposed new tailings dam.
She is in Ottawa this week to demand that Canada take responsibility for the impacts of its mining companies abroad. Delays in the issuance of her Canadian visa prevented her from arriving in time to speak in person at a parliamentary press conference, sponsored by NDP MP Heather McPherson. She sent this short testimony to be read during the press conference and has since arrived.
My name is Leoncia Ramos. I am the General Secretary of the Nuevo Renacer Committee.
I live in the community of La Piñita, near Barrick’s Pueblo Viejo mine, in the Municipal District of Zambrana in the province of Sánchez Ramírez, here in the Dominican Republic.
Since 2011, we have been fighting against the problems caused by Barrick, namely the construction of the ‘El Llagal’ tailings dam. Firstly, our water supply began to disappear, and we are now facing difficulties because we have no water at all. Why? Because we used to have 21 streams, and they have all disappeared. Two main rivers, the Llagal and the Maguaca, have also vanished. The Llagal was buried under what is now the tailings dam.
The Maguaca has become like a living corpse because the Llagal used to flow into the Maguaca. Today we no longer have a river; we have no water. Nor do we have any agricultural produce. Our crops have gradually disappeared. We no longer have any kind of fruit, such as mangoes or oranges. We can no longer grow those in our area.
We have no animals. They, too, have been disappearing because where there is no water, there are no animals. The livestock have been dying off. We have nothing left here. The only thing we have left is our lives. And even that is slipping away from us. In the past, we used to grow our own produce and sell it at the market. Today we have to go and buy food to feed our families.
We live below the tailings dam, which is quite high. There are families living 100, 200, 500, 1,000 and 1,500 metres away from the wall. We live right below it. We live in fear, because at any moment, it could collapse just like in Brazil and bury us all. We are afraid to continue living in this area, because there are so many illnesses caused by the dust that falls on our communities. There are many problems with our kidneys, lungs, heart and eyesight, which is why we have been fighting since 2017 for a dignified resettlement.
At this moment, we are asking and appealing to the Canadian government – since it too has benefited from Barrick’s Pueblo Viejo project – to intercede with the Dominican government, so that we may be provided with a dignified resettlement, where we can continue to live with dignity, where there is water and opportunities for our families and our children.
We want to be given land so that we can continue to work the land, because we are farmers and that is what we know how to do – to make the land productive. Since Barrick claims to be transparent, we want that transparency to become a reality. And we want Barrick to do things as they ought to be done. That is why we are asking the government to help us – both the government and Barrick – so that we can escape this hell we are living through. Let them resolve this problem for us. We can no longer bear this life we are leading, where there is so much wealth, where there is so much gold, and yet we have to live amidst this pollution and poison. Please, get us out of here before it’s too late. Before something happens and we can no longer go on living. And before you come to regret having killed 450 families. Help set us free. And help us for the sake of our children’s future. Thank you very much.