Please Help Protect Mount Tenabo
Write a Letter or email - TODAY!!
Deadline for comments - Nov. 3 2008

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the Cortez Hills Expansion Project - the massive new mine proposed by Barrick Gold Corporation. The BLM is taking comments on the FEIS for only 30 days, until November 3rd, 2008. It is critical that the BLM hear that this is one mine that should not be allowed!

The core reasons that Great Basin Resource Watch has decided to strongly oppose this mine are:

* Mount Tenabo is an important area for Western Shoshone cultural and spiritual practice, and many Shoshone individuals and tribal governments oppose the mine. We strongly believe that these cultural and spiritual values, which have been important for centuries and which can remain so for many generations to come, are fundamentally more valuable than a mine which will last less than 15 years, but devastate the area forever.
* The mine would effectively dewater Mount Tenabo, which would have devastating impacts on the regions wildlife, vegetation and general ecology, as well as the cultural and spiritual values for the Western Shoshone.

This is the first time Great Basin Resource Watch has outright opposed a mine. This mine is simply proposed for the wrong location, and must not be allowed to go forward! It is also legally required that the BLM deny this proposal, due to the irreparable harm it would cause to the clear and recognized cultural and spiritual values of the area. Unfortunately, we expect that BLM will not follow the law, and will permit the mine.

Please write a letter to the BLM expressing your opposition to the Cortez Hills Expansion Project

Electronic comments should be sent to Christopher_Worthington@nv.blm.gov
with "Cortez Hills Expansion Project Final Environmental Impact Statement" in the subject line.

For a sample letter and other resources go to our Mount Tenabo Action Page - here

Some important points to consider in your letter:
This mine would:

* Disturb 6,792 acres of land, including a heap leach and waste rock facilities.
* Blast the new Cortez Hills mine Pit approximately 900 feet in length, 6,400 feet in width, and a maximum depth of 2,200 feet.
* Pump groundwater from around the pit with an average dewatering Rate of approximately 1.8 billion gallons per year for ten years.
* Create a drop in the water table of 1,600 feet surrounding the pit, decreasing to 10 feet at a 3-4 mile radius of the pit.
* Potentially impact 50 springs and seeps in the area.

Of the 11 non-Cortex Gold Mine water rights impacted, only one is expected to recover fully within 100 years after dewatering ceases

The permanent impact to the cultural and spiritual practices of the Western Shoshone is undeniable. Mt. Tenabo has been, and continues to be, used by Western Shoshone people as a central part of their religious practices and world view. Western Shoshone visit the mountain and the valley below (the location of the mine pit) for prayer ceremonies, gathering of sacred plants, fasting, and vision quests, among other uses. The Mountain also contains Western Shoshone gravesites. All of these values and uses will be destroyed by the Project. In addition, the massive pumping of groundwater will likely dry up sacred springs and streams on and around Mt. Tenabo.

The BLM has never denied a big mining project in Nevada. This is one BLM must deny.
It is not ok for the BLM to allow the destruction of a Western Shoshone church.