Documentary puts harsh light on Gabriela Mercer donors

A new documentary about the owners and operators of the proposed Rosemont Mine shines a critical eye on some heavy donors to Gabriela Saucedo Mercer's campaign. Mercer is for the mine, saying it would provide 2,000 jobs, and has recieved, money from Rosemont Copper and its parent company, Augusta Resource.

It's not Augusta Resouce that is the focus of John Dougherty's "Cyanide Beach",  rather, "it’s about a company called Sargold that bought a mine in the small town of Furtei on the island of Sardinia in 2003," according to Dan Shearer of the Weekly Bulletin.  "The link is that five Augusta executives were on the board of Sargold" when they "misspent a government loan, owed investors thousands of dollars, and found itself in a major cash crisis. It also eventually was revealed that they skipped legal filings, kept investors in the dark, and failed to disclose that a Cayman Islands hedge fund owned more than 10 percent of its mine stock."

"Sargold owned the mine four years and lost $7 million, " Sheaer writes. "It sold the Furtei mine in 2007 to Buffalo Gold, but kept a 25 percent interest. The Sargold board dissolved, which is key – that’s the reason Augusta Resource today declines to answer any questions about the mine. Because when Buffalo Gold walked out literally overnight 14 months later – leaving Furtei with a horrifying mess – Augusta executives technically weren’t involved."

According to Dougherty, "The documentary reveals a pattern of unethical business behavior that is being repeated in Arizona. Vancouver-based Augusta and its Rosemont Copper subsidiary in Arizona have unleashed a propaganda campaign aimed at drumming up support for the proposed Rosemont copper mine. Exploiting widespread job fears, Rosemont is making wildly disparate job projections for the mine: Augusta Resource Corp. CEO Gil Clausen says 4,500 jobs will be created while an Augusta spokeswoman says its 9,000."

More information about the subject here at http://www.investigativemedia.com/

Read Dan Shearer's article, "Rosemont, and some big questions" 

Mercer finance info at Opensecrets.org

Mercer 527 donor info at Campaignmoney.com