Appeal for ban of the cyanide technology at gold extraction in the EU

Sofia, 09.04.2010

“Cyanide Free Bulgaria” Coalition is formed by environmental and mining NGO’s together with local communities threatened by the use of cyanide in mining projects. Our Coalition is working in close cooperation with “Cyanide Free Hungary” and “Cyanide Free Romania” Coalitions against the use of thousand of tones of cyanide at the mining projects in Bulgaria, Romania, but also for the entire European Community.



The use of cyanide across the World has proven many times that its high toxicity exposes to unsubstantiated risk our home and well-being. The result is ban on those technologies in provinces and states, including two EU Member states - the Czech Republic and Hungary.

Today, we are calling the Honorable members of the European Parliament to vote for ban of cyanide technologies in mining, applying the precautionary principle stated at the Art. 174 (2) of the EC Treaty, in order to prevent the European environment and the health of the citizens from further accidents as the Baia Mare

The 10 ppm levels of cyanide required by the Mining Waste Directive has shown one more time in October 2009 at River Trent cyanide accident, that it cannot protect us in an adequate way.

Contacts:

Daniel Popov - dpopov [at] ceie.org;

Vasil Kadrinov - ngoconst [at] yahoo.com;