Czech Town Has No Faith in Mining ‘Heaven’ for Gold

So lovely and green is one mountain outlook in a national park here, near the border with Germany, that Czechs call it “Nebe”--Heaven.

The people of Kasperske Hory fear it may become a hell, in the name of economic development.

A Canadian mining company wants rights to dig up gold beneath the park, along what used to be the Iron Curtain, and to set up an ore-processing plant about 200 yards from the outlook.

For the Communists who used to rule Czechoslovakia, there was rarely any real battle between environmental and industrial interests. Industry always prevailed.

In the new era, the Czech government wants quick economic growth to make up for Communist inefficiency. But it can no longer ignore voters or shrug off environmental concerns.

The Czech government has managed to frustrate both sides by delaying a decision. There still is no decision, but the Pravo daily quoted Environment Minister Jiri Skalicky on Oct. 15 as saying that ecological considerations were paramount.

Authority over the project is being transferred from the Trade Ministry to Skalicky’s ministry, and his statement was the clearest indication yet of government thinking.

The town’s mayor, Frantisek Stibal, said simply that “mining gold here is madness.”

Some 30,000 people signed a petition opposing the mine, a sign that although Czech environmental activism hasn’t reached the level of Western Europe, it has grown since Communist rule ended. There is no firm structure, but groups have coalesced against projects such as the Temelin nuclear power plant near the Austrian border.

People living around the park contend mining will rip open the countryside, destroy the region’s delicate ecology and change its social and demographic character. Leaders in nearby German communities object to gold mining in a national park that may soon become part of the European Union.

In 1993, four years after the end of Eastern Europe’s Communist era, Canada’s TVX Gold mining company was awarded a government license to explore the area. It spent $3 million and found more than three tons of gold reserves, valued at $390 million.

One of the biggest worries is the cyanide that is used to extract gold from ore. Mining experts insist the process is harmless, but the thought of even traces of the poison leaching into the water table or contaminating the soil makes locals shiver.

Konstantin Martinek of Dulni Bohemia AS, the Czech subsidiary of TVX Gold, is optimistic that the area’s people can be persuaded of the mine’s benefits.

“By refusing to talk to us, the mayor disregards the interests of his own people,” Martinek said.

Kasperske Hory could earn the equivalent of $70,000 a year in royalties and even more than that in income taxes, Martinek said.

But with the proposed mine just 1 1/4 miles north of the town, many of the 1,650 residents say that money won’t compensate for damages to their livelihoods of forestry, agriculture and tourism.

Should the project go ahead, some 400 people would mine 2,000 tons of ore daily for the next 10 years, grind it in a nearby mill, leach it with cyanide to separate the gold, detoxify the waste and dump it in a valley outside town.

Both sides agree the project’s weakest point is the deposit of waste after leaching. Industry experts say it is nontoxic. Villagers are skeptical.