Page 12 - ATD29NOV2016

A12 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 29 November 2016

New mine brings big changes to town in Suriname rainforest

PIETER VAN MAELE after a decades-long war falling commodity prices, include about 200 Parama- siteit Brussel who has stud-
Associated Press with the government and is forecast to shrink 9 per- ka — a large percentage ied the economic effects
LANGA TABIKI, Suriname mercenaries. It is a region cent this year and inflation of the entire community. of the mine, said workers
(AP) — Muddy footpaths where people take pride in is nearing 80 percent. A company spokesman, are spending their money
wind past empty homes, their independence from a “This project shows foreign Albert Ramdin, said New- mostly in the capital. “Peo-
most collapsing into ruins. distant central government investors still have faith, not mont also has invested $1.5 ple who now have gotten
Dozens of stores and bars and the formal economy. only in our small economy, million in local infrastructure formal jobs for the first time
have closed. The most Lifelong residents like Ced- but also in the political sta- and set up a fund to pay prefer to spend their time
prominent citizen, the chief er see the new mine as an bility of Suriname,” Presi- for new schools and clinics. off in Paramaribo,” she
of a tribe descended from said.
escaped African slaves, Langa Tabiki is on an is-
has decamped to the cap- land in the Marowijne River,
ital. which forms the border with
A gold mine operated by French Guiana. It is a four-
a U.S.-based company hour drive from Paramaribo
opened recently in the on mostly unpaved roads.
rainforest of southern Suri- Still, it thrived for years and
name, bringing hundreds became the Paramaka
of jobs and badly needed capital. “It used to be a
revenue to a government hustle and bustle here,”
struggling with some of said Ezechiel Paulus, one of
the highest inflation in the the village elders.
world. It became a focal point of
But it has also emptied out the civil war that raged in
the nearest community, Suriname in 1986-92. Reb-
Langa Tabiki, a small fron- els fighting against the re-
tier town with an outsized gime of Bouterse, then mili-
role in the history and cul- tary dictator, briefly chose
ture of this South American Langa Tabiki as their head-
nation, one that has de- quarters and fighting raged
pended heavily on wildcat all around. People fled en
mining. masse.
Thousands of independent Two men, both indigenous Paramaka, known as Rasta, left, and Luck, right, independent miners After peace was restored,
miners have left the area, working on a gold pontoon on the Marowijne river near the town of Langa Tabiki set up a mining a rush for gold made the
driven off by soldiers and operation. The hose they are mounting is used to suck up mud from the river bottom. They say they town lively again. No one
are able to find much less gold in the river than on land. Many independent miners have left the
private security keeping area, leaving Langa Tabiki a ghost town. knows the exact number
them away from the nearly (AP Photo/Pieter Van Maele) of miners, but there were
2,000 square miles (5,200 thousands, a mix of locals
square kilometers) of forest intrusion on their way of life. dent Desi Bouterse said at Two years after work be- and people who came
in the “area of interest” al- “Newmont did not discover the Nov. 17 opening cer- gan on the project, Langa from Brazil and elsewhere.
lotted by the government that the soil here contains emony. Tabiki seems to be returning Supermarkets, service sta-
to Newmont Mining Corp. so much gold. My father, Newmont has pledged to to the forest. The only store tions, mechanic shops, bars
Only a few stragglers re- who was a miner as well, he restore land damaged by still open offers only alco- and brothels opened along
main. already knew this,” Ceder its mine with “no net loss of hol, frozen chicken and the 55 miles (90 kilometers)
“Most people have already said. “I want to live and biodiversity” and won’t use canned beans. The larg- of dirt road leading to the
left to other places in the earn a living just like my fa- mercury. That’s in contrast est house, owned by the town.
country to try their luck,” ther did, not by working for to the independent miners leader of the Paramaka, is Nearly all the businesses
said Tjamie Ceder, one of foreigners.” who alarmed environmen- empty because he moved left as most wildcat miners
those who stayed. “Langa Newmont, based in Den- talists for years with the un- to Paramaribo for unspeci- headed elsewhere, leaving
Tabiki, once again, has be- ver, Colorado, expects Me- checked use of the toxic fied health reasons. The only a handful who hope
come a ghost town.” rian will produce 500,000 metal to extract gold and elementary school, which the government will pro-
Langa Tabiki, which sits ounces of gold annually in who tore apart the forest had about 200 students in vide an area where they
about 11 miles (17 kilome- the first five years and has with excavators and high- the 1970s, is largely empty, can mine again. They di-
ters) from the Merian mine, total reserves of 4.2 million powered hoses. Newmont though it has a new build- rect their anger at Bouterse.
is home to the Paramaka ounces, worth about $5 CEO Gary Goldberg said ing donated by Newmont. “He promised us he would
people, one of several small billion at current prices. Su- Merian would be the “saf- Mine workers, meanwhile, never sell our gold to a for-
groups descended from in- riname’s government has est and most environmen- largely live at the mine eign company,” said miner
digenous people and es- a 25 percent stake in the tally friendly mine in the compound itself. Johannes Joris. “Look what
caped African slaves from mine and says the project world.” Lieselotte Vaneeckhaute, he has done. He just came
coastal plantations who is critical in a country where The company says its a researcher at the Bel- here, telling us the gold is
won control of the land the economy, buffeted by roughly 1,000 employees gian university Vrije Univer- no longer ours.”q