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Activists Plan Protest of Canadian Mining Firm at Morrison, Colo., Meeting

Posted on: Friday, 2 June 2006, 21:00 CDT

By Tom McGhee, The Denver Post

Jun. 1--Activists plan to protest a Canadian silver mining company's search for precious minerals in El Salvador at the company's annual meeting in Morrison next week.

The El Salvadoran government has granted Au Martinique Silver Inc. permits to explore the land in a part of the country called the Department of Chalatenango, said John McNeice, Ontario-based Au Martinique's chief financial officer.

"We are nowhere thinking about mining yet," he said. "We have started exploration. We have permits and are completely entitled to explore the property but have been treading lightly and being respectful of the communities because there has been some resistance." The 3-year-old public exploration company, which is traded on the Toronto Venture Exchange, is headed by a Golden resident who helped found it, chief executive and chairman Jeffrey Klenda.

The company is holding the meeting in Morrison because Klenda, a University of Colorado graduate and financial planner, and other large shareholders live in Denver, McNeice said. Klenda and other managers and directors of the company are also involved with another mining company with headquarters in Denver, Ur-Energy Inc.

The U.S.-El Salvador Sister Cities Network has asked a local man who was involved in protests against Denver-based Newmont Mining Corp. in April to organize a similar action against Au Martinique.

Glenn Spagnuolo, one of the organizers of the Newmont protests, said he hopes to enlist up to 50 people to greet Au Martinique shareholders outside the meeting, scheduled for June 9.

The Sister Cities Network, which helps local organizations developing rural El Salvador, may also have someone attend the meeting to address shareholders, said Emily Carpenter, the group's national director.

Only registered shareholders will be permitted to enter the meeting, McNeice said.

Residents of 11 municipalities that are home to about 20,000 people are concerned that exploration will lead to mining operations that would destroy their land, said Maria Orellana, an El Salvadoran organizer who spoke through an interpreter in a telephone interview.

"The people in the communities aren't in favor of the mining project. The people who are in favor of it are the people in the government who say it will bring development to the area," she said.

Protesters who gathered outside Denver-based Newmont's annual meeting in Englewood in April beat drums and carried signs condemning the company.

Newmont, the world's No. 2 gold producer, has encountered opposition to its mines in countries such as Peru, Indonesia and Ghana, and from the Western Shoshone tribe in Nevada.

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NEM,

Source: The Denver Post

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