War a few years prior. He also told Quiroga to deny any connection with him to the press. Quiroga later played a crucial role, as his vote was deciding in the Newmont victory. After the video was first broadcast on a Peruvian local television station in 2001, the French Ambassador Antoine Blanca was quoted as saying "Now I know why Newmont won". In July 1999, Montesinos was seen with the then departing CIA station chief "Don Arabian" on the third video, giving him a gift and thanking him for the help he gave Peru stating "[W]e hope that when you're back there [in Washington] you'll remember your friends". The IFC financed Yanacocha's expansion in 1999 for which it received the 5% ownership stake. Environmental conflict Newmont has been involved in an ongoing conflict over damages resulting from a mercury contamination. On June 2, 2000, 151 kilograms of mercury were spilled when transported by a contracted truck from Yanococha to the Pacific coast, contaminating the town of Choropampa and two neighboring villages. According to government estimates, more than nine hundred people were poisoned. Local environmental activists have claimed that mining operations, which use large quantities of a dilute cyanide solution, have contaminated the water sources, leading to the disappearance of fish and frogs, illnesses among cattle, air pollution, and loss of medicinal plants. An environmental audit by the Colombian consultancy firm Ingetec S.A. (Ingenieros Consultores: Auditoría Ambiental y Evaluaciones Ambientales de las Operaciones de la Minera Yanacocha en Cajamarca - Perú 2003) found some water contamination above permitted levels, and recommended improvements to Yanacocha's environmental management practices. However, the study did not examine claims of impacts on wildlife, plants or livestock. Based on an Ingetec review in April 2006, Yanacocha acted on the 309 Ingetec recommendations, fully implementing 137, making progress on 111, and starting to address 45 of the recommendations - representing progress on 90% of the recommendations in advance of the agreed 2007 completion date. In 2004, more than 10.000 people living in the Cajamarca area protested the expansion of Yanacocha onto nearby Cerro Quilish, a mountain that supplies water to Cajamarca. In response to public outcry, Newmont announced that further exploration would be suspended. However, since Yanacocha starts its expansion, the landscape has been changed drastically. At the end of 2004 after losing a three-year fight to keep the lawsuit out of US courts, Newmont announced that it