Okay, I will give you a bit of a description about the photos, and you will have a chance to review them. They basically show the entire effort that the company has made, leading up to the closure of the production facility, whereby the site has been reclaimed. In particular, the open-pit areas have been reseeded and reforested. We also have reclaimed and reseeded the leaching pad area completely, and there are now farm animals actually grazing there. You'll see that in the pictures.
Another important part would be the containment ponds, where we had a lot of the water processing taking place during production at the mine. That entire area was also reclaimed. Now, that area actually is the site of tilapia farming. As of 2011, they are now producing approximately 55,000 kilograms of tilapia fish for sale and consumption in the area.
We also have other types of businesses that are operating in the area, as I mentioned. There is the production of beef, and there is also a chicken-producing farm in the area that now produces approximately 38,000 kilograms of poultry meat per year, including for sale and distribution in the area.
One of the things we did, however, with the San Martin Foundation was to actually transfer the ownership of all of the offices and facilities that were used by our mine workers in the past, and which are now being used as an eco-hotel. The eco-hotel, as I mentioned, has pool and tennis facilities, and now attracts approximately 4,000 guests per year, visiting the sites and the reclaimed areas of the mines, and actually carrying on quite a lot of sports activities,
That was the part of the presentation I had with the pictures.
Part of the documentation that I also brought for you, Mr. Chairman, is a November 2011 certification from the Honduran public prosecutor's office. This is the Special Prosecutor of the Environment, and his document is translated into English. This office, Mr. Chairman, undertook environmental studies of the former mine after receiving accusations from local NGOs. Using World Health Organization parameters, the special prosecutor found that arsenic, cyanide, and mercury were not above normal levels in the blood of local inhabitants. It did mention that lead levels were a bit above the WHO guidelines, but found no significant link to the mining operation. I've tabled a copy of that also.
The closure of the San Martin mine has been and will continue to be very important for Goldcorp. It allows us to showcase to other communities where we are currently producing, or hoping to produce, that we take the closure of our mines very seriously. Committee members have heard the testimony saying that the mine site was left in bad condition. I want to underline that doing so would not only be morally wrong, but it would also make no business sense for Goldcorp. If Goldcorp were to handle closure badly at one of our operations, it would harm our reputation and have a negative affect on our industry and the value of our company. The success of our business depends on having good relations with communities where we operate. Our investments are long term, and often last several decades.
I would like to emphasize to the members of the subcommittee that Goldcorp Inc. takes its environmental responsibilities very seriously.
We are always ready to conduct scientific studies in all our activities. We firmly believe that we have left the people in the Valle de Siria with an environment that does honour to Goldcorp Inc. and, by extension, to Canada.
Mr. Chair, honourable members of Parliament, thank you once more for inviting me. I will be pleased to answer your questions.
Thank you.