On July 12, the Supreme Court rejected the appeals filed against the judgment of the First Environmental Courtwhich in 2020 determined the closure of Easter Lamaan “open pit” gold and copper mining project in the Andes area of the Atacama Region.
The decision was made by the breaches in urgent and transitory mitigation measuresso the Third Chamber of the highest court dismissed the form and substance of such appeals to sanctions against the company Nevada Mining Companysubsidiary in Chile of Barrick Gold.
This translated into ratification of the closure of the mining project on the border between Chile and Argentinawhich has had a history characterized by studies and conflicts with the communities in the area, who for years discussed the environmental impact that it would cause in the Huasco Valley.
Supreme Court ruling.
In addition to the above, it ruled out that the sentence incurs a violation of the law, confirming the three charges filed by the Superintendence of the Environment (SMA) against the subsidiary company of the Canadian multinational. But does this resolution mean the final closure? Could the mining project be reactivated?
To delve into this case, Future 360 we talked with Sergio Millamánone of the defense attorneys of a group of inhabitants that make up the Assembly by the Water of the Upper Guasco who gave us his perspective on the latest developments in this project.
“It is a very long processpart with the mining treaties from 1997 onwards and this mine had its Environmental Qualification Resolutions in 2001, then it was modified in 2006. In 2009, a series of contamination events began to be verified, non-compliances that began to be supervised by the superintendency, self-reported by the same company and reported by the inhabitants of Huasco. Several sanctioning processes were initiated, ”explained the lawyer.
read also: Supreme Court confirms closure of Pascua Lama mining project
The genesis of this bug
Exploration activities in the area began in 1977, during the Military Dictatorship. Twenty years later, Chile and Argentina, through their former presidents Eduardo Frei Ruiz Tagle y Carlos Menemcelebrated the Mining Integration and Complementation Treatyso that the cross-border project became a reality.
In 2001, the Nevada Mining Company presented the mining project that was qualified as favorable by the then CRegional Environment omission (Corema)an ancestor of the Environmental Assessment Service (SEA). Then it underwent a series of modifications that began in 2006, with about 400 conditions to the original project in that year.
Until in 2017, a spill in Argentine territory caused great environmental damage in the Province of San Juan. As reported Infobae, it was a pipe that transported a solution of water with cyanide and various heavy metals, in addition to extracted gold and silver. This would have caused a pipe disconnection.”which then caused the subsequent removal of two other pipes“.
The following year in our country, lThe SMA sanctioned the definitive closure of the Pascua Lama mining project. The sanctioning procedure included a total of 33 charges (four of them acquitted) and a sanction of 12.360 UTAequivalent to $7,000 million at the time, due to “multiple non-compliances related to discharges of acidic waters, destruction of flora, incomplete monitoring of both environmental and social variables and environmental damage caused in high Andean plains areas“.
Read also: Problems with Pascua Lama: Supreme Court ordered inspection for non-compliance with the closure plan
In relation to the above, Millamán confirmed that a sanctioning process was carried out in that period, where in that meantime “new records were brought, new charges and all that was decided in 2018 by the Superintendence that ordered the closure of the project and his maximum sanction,” he said.
Although in March 2019, the Supreme Court annulled the previous ruling, on September 17 of the following year, the First Environmental Court of Antofagasta confirmed the definitive closure of Pascua Lama plus a fine of $7,000,000,000.
For this reason, according to the lawyer, what happened a couple of weeks ago in the Supreme Court ratified the decision of the Environmental Court that “confirmed the decision of the superintendency to apply sanctions against the project of Nevada Mining Company“.
What’s next?
According to Sergio Millamán, the only thing that corresponds to the company today is to abide by “Resolution 72 of the year 2018 of the SMA. It applies fines that they have to pay, closure sanctions and a series of measures to effectively close it so that it does not generate more prejudices”. According to the expert, this situation is being supervised by the SMA, since there is a mine closure planbecause it is a mining project “must be supervised and authorized by National Geology and Mining Service (Sernagemin)“.
In relation to the conformity of his clients, the lawyer expressed that beyond the fact that the communities have always rejected the project “obviously we would have preferred greater fines or even the revocation of the RCA, for a strategic matter”, but the closure of the project was achieved. this mining project and therefore “the decision of the SMA was supported at all times.”
“There is satisfaction with the closure, but they remain alert to any income from a new project (…). There is no doubt that it is finishedthe closure of that project was decreed, but the company or another can enter a new Environmental Impact Study proposing a new form of exploit minerals. We have nothing left but to be vigilant”, concluded Millamán.
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