Gold Hawk (CGK.v) Positive developments at Coricancha

Things are starting to move forward for Gold Hawk Resources (CGK.v). Previous posts on the company (start here...the other links are found in this post) give you the full rundown on the problems it has had with its tailings dump, but today a news report from a respected Peruvian media service states that the tailings are now being removed. Rather than give you my take on things, here is my translation of the Spanish language report available right here.

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Tailing Relief Work Inspected at San Mateo de Huanchor

Lima 21/07/2008 (CNR). The Vice Minister of Mines, Felipe Isasi, visited the district of San Mateo de Huanchor, located in the province of Huarochirí (Lima) that faces a possible collape of the Coricancha tailings pond.

Isasi oversaw the start of transfer operations for the tailing to a provisional tailings dump with the objective of reducing the weight in the tailings ponds 1 & 2 at Tamborauqe hill, where the San Juan Mine, owner of the site, operates.

The functionary (Isasi) then went to the Chinchay zone, where the tailings will be transferred to a provisional tailings pond, with the proviso that a Environmental Impact Study is completed to enable a permanent tailings zone.

For this operation, an access road to the North of the tailings dump has been built to allow easy access for the vehicles that will transfer the tailings.

Ruperto Cáceda, president of the commitee for the defence of the environment and sustainable development (CODEMADES) of San Mateo, alerted a few days previously that the tailings pond, with capacity for up to one million tons of tailings, was built on another reservoir. Because of this, in the event of a collapse the River Rimac would be polluted with arsenic, lead, cadmium, other heavy metals and toxic substances.

In such an event, a flooding of the residual material would also affect three railway lines, a part of the Central Highway and a hydroelectric power station, all of which would cause an ecological and social crisis in the zone.

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All this can only be good for CGK.v. With tailings now being moved to a provisional dump, and the Environmental study being expedited by the gov't, the worst seems to be over for the company. I'm now looking forward to the time CGK can announce it is going back to work and employing the 600 people currently laid off at the mine. This will not only suit the company, but the Peruvian authorities, too.