SAVE THE ELEPHANTS: Stop Dow and Dupont from selling Cyanide in Africa
- by: Brenda Martinez
- recipient: DuPont Chemical Company, Memphis, Tennessee; and The Dow Chemical Company, Nashua, New Hampshire, Orica Queensland, Australia.
American companies Dow and Dupont and the Austrialian company, Orica (one of the largest global producers of sodium cyanide in the world) produce cyanide & sell it for commercial use in Africa in the mining of gold, but there is an alternative. Scientists at Illinois’ Northwestern University recently announced their discovery of a new gold recovery process that’s based on a non-toxic component of corn starch. We need to encourage Dow and Dupont to offer an alternative to this destructive use of its products. In the gold-mining process, the precious metal is extracted from low-grade ore in a technique known as gold cyanidation. As its name suggests, the process utilizes highly-poisonous cyanide, some of which ends up entering the environment in the mines’ tailings. Wild life in Africa elephants in particular, are being poisoned with cyanide stolen or purchased from the mining companies. Poachers poison watering holes to kill elephants for their ivory, but every other form of life that goes to the watering hole dies as well. When the dead are eaten by other animals, they too die. Help me appeal to Dow and Dupont to help avert this tragedy that is threatening to render these beautiful animals extinct.
Ms. Brenda S. Martinez M.A.
44282 Espirit Circle
Hemet Ca. 92544
January 1, 2016
Re: Sodium cyanide and its misuse
Orica Limited Head Office
Chairman: Mr. Russell Caplan
1 Nicholson Street
East Melbourne
Victoria 3002 Australia
& Level 2,38 Southgate Avenue, Cannon Hill QLD 4170, Australia
_____________________________________________________________
Dupont Chemical Company
CEO and chairman, Ms. Ellen Kullman
1007 Market Street
Wilmington, DE 19898
_____________________________________________________________
Dow Chairman and CEO Mr. Andrew Liveris
Dow Corporate Media Relations: Rachelle Schikorra
The Dow Chemical Company
2030 Dow Center Midland,
MI 48674
_____________________________________________________________
Dear Mr. Russell Caplan, Ms. Ellen Kullman & Mr. Andrew Liveris;
Orica is one of the largest global producers of sodium cyanide. Orica’s sodium cyanide manufacturing facility is located in Queensland, Australia.
DuPont (Also known as E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company) and its spin-off company called Chemours makes cyanide in its Memphis, Tennessee facility.
With Dow’s acquisition of the Hampshire Chemical Corporation in 1998, and the subsequent formation of Dow Haltermann Custom Processing, Dow has been engaged in the manufacture of hydrogen cyanide for over 40 years.
For over 100 years, cyanide has been the leach reagent of choice in gold mining because of its high gold recoveries, robustness and relatively low costs. The environmental damages resulting from its mismanagement, however, have now been turned against endangered species, in particular the Elephants in Africa. Poachers are using cyanide to poison watering holes in Africa the damage result is not only that elephants are killed, but all animals who visit the watering hole are also killed. Once those animals die, any animal or bird that feeds on the dead, also die. The devastation is domino in its effect.
With this petition we here signed demand that your companies take responsible action and implement the necessary steps to stop the damage being done by your products. We encourage you to research, develop and revert to alternative lixiviants for gold ores extraction, for example, thiosulfate and alpha-cyclodextrin. Our concern is for the environment and wild animals. We appeal to you to become a leader in an effort to ban the use of cyanide worldwide.
Sincerely,
Brenda S. Martinez M.A.
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