The inhabitants of the Colombian Municipality of Piedras rejected big mining projects yesterday in a local referendum. The population was summoned to respond if they agree with the development of “exploration, exploitation, processing, transformation or transport of minerals from large scale gold mining, and the use of toxic compounds which could carry risks to health and the environment”.
To this question, 2,971 people voted “no” and 24 voted “yes”, and 12 votes were null, reported the Colombia electoral authority known as Registraduría.
A total of 3,007 participated in the referendum, 58,9% of total inhabitants in capacity of voting (5.105) in this Municipality of the Tolima Department, in the center area of the country.
See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=12406.