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Kurilsky Zapovednik: Islands and Sea
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The magic word "gold" conjures up thoughts of sparkling gold bars and nuggets harvested from a gold vein that once lay hidden in the earth. We need only to locate that vein and gather the valuable treasure. But reaping the profit from such a discovery is not so simple. Before gold can be turned into the yellow metal that we know, it must travel along and environmentally destructive path. The current path of Kunashir gold could prove most destructive for the Kurile Islands and the sea around them. The source of the gold
is found in an area that has miraculously Yet, this is only the beginning. Once the ore is actually obtained, loaded tractors will transport it to the mouth of a neighboring river also within the Zapovednik's buffer zone. This river bears the symbolic name Zolotaya, or Gold River, and is one of the largest mineral rivers on the Kurile Islands. A plant to process the gold ore is proposed to be built near the mouth of the river. This process entails the use of sodium cyanide, a substance that is subject to the regulations of the 1997 International Convention on the Banning, Development, Production, Storage, and Use of Chemical Weapons. Sodium cyanide dissolves instantly in water, turning into hydrocyanic acid. The toxicity level of the acid will increase multiple times in the mineral waters of the Zolotaya River, putting at tremen-dous risk (if not entirely killing) the riparian ecosystem and everything downstream. The gold seekers developing the mining operations, Kurile Mining and Geological Company, (a former incarnation of the corporation Rif), has a poor environmental record. Headed by V.F. Pernashin, from 1992 to 1996 this company conducted exploratory work that ravaged the natural habitats of the Severyanka River and the salmon spawning grounds along its course. Moreover, none of the many promised or planned environmental protection measures, such as the construction of bridges, the reclamation of disturbed land, or the building of roads, was ever implemented. Assuming that its latest plan to build and operate a gold-enriching plant in the Zapovednik's buffer zone would provoke protests (the use of any toxic chemical is prohibited in this zone), the Kurile Mining and Geological Company submitted only part of their project for an environmental impact analysis. Specifically, they focused on the supplementary prospecting for gold ore, glossing over the part about the enrichment plant. The company has somehow managed to evade providing the details concerning the plant, claiming that the extracted ore will only be hauled away and stored at a special site in the Zolotaya River Valley. Furthermore, company officials argue that since there are no fish present in the Zolotaya River due it high mineral content, there is no harm in their development plans for this area.
To read more order your own copy of Biodiversity Briefings #2, or request a pdf version currently available free of charge. Note from the editors: Recently, we received additional startling news from Kurilsky Zapovednik about the latest development in the gold mining saga. On January 22, 1999 two tons of explosives for the opening of the quarry were delivered to Kunashir Island by border guards via airplane. On January 25th, the guards transferred this load by helicopter to the Severyanka River. On the same day, 23 ships were fishing illegally in the waters of the southern Kurile Islands, according to information from the FSB (Federal Security Service). The border guards, however, dispatched no helicopter to detain those ships, claiming that there was simply no money to purchase the fuel needed to do their job. Somehow, however, the guards did manage to obtain fuel to deliver the explosives for the mining operation on Kunashir.
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Focus
on The Kurile Islands
maintained little-disturbed, moist, dark-coniferous, and
deciduous forests. An open pit mine is now projected to be
excavated in the quest for gold ore within the protected
buffer zone of Kurilsky Zapovednik, at the mouth of the
Udachny River, a tributary of the Severyanka River in
northern Kunashir (please refer to the accompanying map).The
first step in the process of gold extraction, a phase that
is modestly coined "supplementary gold prospecting, "is
expected to take about a year. During this stage, the rocky
soil in the area will be blasted apart to dig trenches as
deep as 100m.
The
Sakhalin Expert Commission of the State Environmental Impact
Administration reviewed the project for the "supplementary
gold prospecting" and approved the plan by a vote of four to
one. The only member of the commission who prepared an
unfavorable finding on the project is Evgeni Grigoriev, the
director of Kurilsky Zapovednik. Grigoriev pointed out many
violations of environmental protection laws and omissions
from the plan. In particular he noted the absence of
documentation on the gold processing plant and the effect
the mine would have on the region's spawning grounds. The
mayor of the southern Kurilsky region, V.A. Zemy, has stood
behind Grigoriev and despite enormous pressure fr om Region
authorities, has not yet signed a document allowing for the
preparatory stages of gold mining to proceed. 
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