In an unprecedented act of civil activism, the villagers of a small mountain village in Bulgaria succeeded to prevent an environmentally devastating gold mining project. For twenty days in June and July, the people of Popinci guarded the road to the gold field on Petelovo hill above their village. Despite the pressure from the corporation, the federal authorities and the police, the local community was victorious: the Canadian Martern company pulled-out in canceling its plans to create a cyanide bleaching gold mine near the village. The struggle of Popinci was shared and supported by environmental NGOs and citizens of Bulgaria with the help internet tactics.
There were more than fifty people permanently in the camp and when needed, more than five hundred turned out. “We have kept them from going up,” explains Doika Terziiska, position… “It is clear what you can find up there. It has all been researched and it’s proven that gold can be extracted with cyanide only”.
Popinci is a small community situated in the central part of the Balkan range in Bulgaria. Many in the village of 2000 are mineworkers. Two thirds of the women there are widows of workers who have given their lives to one of the numerous mines located in the region.
It all started in the 1980s when the Bulgarian Geological Committee carried out a thorough research of the potential gold field in the hill of Petelovo, above the village of Popinci. At that time, between ten and fifteen tons of gold were located. After a number of experiments with various technologies, it became clear that the only profitable way to extract the gold would be via cyanide bleaching. That process involves breaking up the seams in which the gold is contained with cyanide. As a result the groundwater would be slowly contaminated with tons of cyanide.
In the 1980s, preparations for industrial gold extraction were made and a plan for resettlement of the inhabitants of Popinci village developed by the autorities. Yet by 1988, the threat of contaminating the entire Trace valley became clear and the project was canceled: “in 1987 there were talks about resettlement of the village of Popinci. I had just finished building my house and the village had four thousand people. It would have been difficult to resettle so many people at that time,” remembered villager Georgi Daskalov.
In 2004 the threat of development was revived when the Canadian company Euromax leased the mining rights for the Petelovo hill. “We have not stopped since then,” says Georgi.
Under the lease made by the local municipality of Panagyurishte, 99% of the profits from the extraction go to the company, while 1% goes to the state. The company attempted to start investigating the gold reserves in the summer of 2005. That was when the local population set up a protest camp, which has since prevented the machines and equipment of the company from reaching the mining concession.
A year later Euromax acquired all the necessary permits and attempted to restart the drilling works. Attempts to promote the mine among local residents met with strong opposition. Shortly after, people in Popinci heard “something happening” at night and discovered a drilling machine was being brought onto the hill. Within several hours, five hundred people mobilised and blocked a path through which the generator necessary for running the drilling machine was to pass.
To understand the villagers’ uncompromising actions, one needs to know that there has been no local consultation about the proposed mine whatsoever. Nor had public hearings of the project been organised before the start of the drilling works. On June 29 2006, the people from Popinci set up a permanent barricade at the hill of Petelovo, blocking the road to the proposed gold mine. Elderly grannies, mothers with small children, teenagers, middle-aged men and women are all joining in since then to save their village, the land and the nature from cyanide poisoning.
Despite pre-election promises parliament members from the region and local councilors withdrew their support for the people of Popinci. The locals were left alone against the well-paid corporate mercenaries, the mercantile politicians and riot police.
Nevertheless, the locals would not leave the camp and the road to the mine remained blocked. They even managed to have fun such as demonstrated by the performance of “Popinski Babi” (Grandmas from Popinci), a folk band especially formed on this occasion. The choir raging grannies composed songs about its resistance and the meaning of human rights.
Support came surprisingly fast. NGOs from the “Cyanide Free Bulgaria Coalition” raised alarm in mass media throughout the country. The coalition was fighting against two other cyanide bleaching gold mining “investments” – in Krumovgrad and Chelopech. A www.cyanidefreerhodopi.org web site maintained by Za Zemiata and other members of the coalition carried all relevant information about the campaigns. But the news from Popinci circulated in Bulgaria’s civil society circles mostly through the daily postings to the NGOs@bluelink.net mailing list, maintained by Bulgaria’s environmental civil society network and APC member BlueLink.
Over time, the pressure in the camp escalated. Two participants had strokes. On July 5, seven days after the camp started, one of the protesters was found stabbed with a knife in the chest. The man had had a disagreement with the company’s bodyguards the previous day. No further information about the case has so far been made public.
Several days afterwards inhabitants from Popinci village stopped the Bulgarian president on his way to the region’s administrative centre Panagyurishe. The protesters demanded an immediate decision in favour of the local people and the environment. President Purvanov promised to give a response the following week, as well as to alert the Chief Prosecutor and the Minsitry of the Environment & Waters.
On the thirteenth day of the protest, the local mayor organised a referendum in the village of Popinci. 97% voted against the extraction of gold in the region. Prevented from carrying out their project, Martern company withdrew from the region. The company’s decision was followed by a wild fiesta on the top of the hill, where protesters had stayed on guard for almost a month.
The author of this article, Filka Sekulova, is from the Za Zemiata Environmental Association, co-founder of the BlueLink Information Network