Application of sustainable development concepts to an alluvial mineral extraction project in Lower Caroni River, Venezuela

The Caroni River, a tributary of the Orinoco River in the State of Bolivar, Venezuela, has been subjected to mining since the end of the last century. Until the 1990s, hundreds of artisanal miners operated along a 70 km stretch of the river using rudimentary suction dredges to extract gold and diamonds from sediments. Although artisanal miners created considerable wealth along the river, the local community has also been negatively impacted by the social and environmental effects that characterize this sector. The flooding of many parts of the Lower Caroni River, in conjunction with the development of a large hydroelectric-power complex, changed the conditions for dredging operations. A Canada-based company is proposing to open the recently-created hydro-electrical lakes to a Mineral Dredging Project. The early forecasting of potential socioeconomic and environmental impacts would be a valuable tool to build a sustainable business case that facilitates the integration of the project into a sensitive environment. These strategies, currently used in other economic sectors, would contribute to the identification of opportunities to negotiate mutually beneficial agreements with stakeholders of the Project, and reduce the risk of conflict, in this particular case, with the hydroelectric company (EDELCA), former small-scale miners and other stakeholders. This paper, based on the pre-feasibility study of the Project, assesses the applicability of such tools to the mineral dredging and to junior mining company projects in general.