The Patagonia Area Resource Alliance hosted a screening of Cyanide Beach by InvestigativeMEDIA. John Dougherty, the filmmaker, was available to answer questions following the short documentary. It follows the actions of five of Augusta Resources current board members at a former mine project in Italy. Wildcat Silver also shares three of those same board members.
The story is the same regardless of the location and specific players. The mine companies make big promises to both the locals and the investors. It’s usually a promise of jobs and a big payoff, respectively. They hype up those promises every chance they get.
Suddenly, market conditions change or the minerals just weren’t accessible or, in the case of Cyanide Beach, there’s a messy clean-up involved to continue mining. The mine companies leave–often overnight. They declare bankruptcy, dissolve the company and legally no longer exist. The locals are left with a polluted mine site with potentially catastrophic consequences to water and the surrounding environment and a large clean-up bill. Mark Twain is often credited for saying “A mine is a hole in the ground owned by liars.”
So why do we keep falling for it over and over again?
Wildcat Silver (TSX: WS) just released their latest Preliminary Economic Assessment for their proposed Hermosa mine in Santa Cruz County near Patagonia, Arizona. It now promises a bigger, better silver deposit and a newer, better way to process the ore.
Who’s buying that hype?
