Posted on 03/31/2017 6:16:28 AM PDT by JimSEA
Lawmakers in El Salvador, Central America’s smallest nation, have passed a law that bans all mining for gold and other metals, making the country the world’s first to impose such a broad prohibition on the extraction of minerals, environmentalists and human rights groups said.
The ruling, aimed at protecting the nation’s allegedly quite fragile environment, comes after a long-dragged dispute over a proposed gold mine by Pac Rim Cayman, a unit of Canadian-Australian company OceanaGold Corp. (TSX:OGC).
The law also bans the use of cyanide and mercury for mining. Legislators across the political spectrum supported the measure, which does not apply to quarrying or the mining of coal, salt and other non-metallic resources.
Supporters said the ban was essential to protect water reservoirs and reduce social tensions.
"Mining is not an appropriate way to reduce poverty and inequality in this country," Ivan Morales, country director for the charity Oxfam in El Salvador said in a statement. "It would only exacerbate the social conflict and level of water contamination we already have."
(Excerpt) Read more at mining.com ...
Time to head for the moon and the asteroids.
Wouldn’t it be funny if pennies suddenly became very valuable!
Thank you for the explanation Mr. D’Anconia.
This STINKS of George Soros.
I remember when copper was 35 cents a pound. Nixon was president.
Back in the late 70s I had friends who were commodities brokers.
They had farm customers who were filling up grain bins with copper pennies.
I have a feeling the ocean floor is full of copper deposits here and there. The problem would be economically mining it.
It’s pretty much the same as with oil, if there is a need, someone will go out and find it.
Pennies are made of zinc, save your nickels, they are made of copper and nickel.
I save all of my pennies (pre-1982) and all nickels.
Drives the Mrs. crazy.
They’re trying to protect their endangered squirrel droppings.
Comments?
Many years ago, a top economist discovered something unheard of in economics: an economic model with 100% accuracy throughout all of recorded human history.
It was so extraordinary that he spent at least a decade both trying to disprove it, as well as annotating every bit of it. When he finally published it, it was a very dry, academic tome, and over half the book was footnotes.
But what he had discovered was simple in its basis. That throughout history, prosperity or decline in nation states and trading blocs, was determined by mining.
More mining equals more prosperity. Nations that reduce or discontinue mining are moving into decline and poverty.
The reason for this is that mining is like throwing a large rock into the middle of a pond. In an economy it sends waves through every part, increasing production, prosperity, wages, and military might.
Absent this, the best that can be hoped for is stagnation leading to decline.
Thanks. Now I know my browser supports 8000 pixel images.
Pre 1993 pennies, IIRC. The news ones have little copper in them.
See nautilus minerals
I don't believe mining in a country is essential for that country's strength, provided they can import the resource. But if the only resource is minerals or metals, the the country cetainly downswings when it stops or the resource runs out.
And I believe the economists theory is spot on. Minerals and metals are extremely valuable - sometimes for their usefulness, sometimes just because they are scarce and beautiful (gemstones, gold). Having and tapping that resource results in wealth.
The US is blessed with both rich mineral/metal and rich ag/food resources.
Actually the copper in the old penny is worth about two cents, that is why they are being replaced with zinc pennies. A dollar in pennies is worth about two bucks, squirrel them up.
What about fool’s gold? Is that included in the ban?
Why, if there is no mining in the first place?
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