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The Minister of Mining, Baldo Prokurica, positively valued the ruling of the Antofagasta Environmental Court that this Thursday determined the “total and definitive closure” of the emblematic binational mining project Pascua Lama, in the commune of Alto del Carmen, Atacama Region.
The court ratified its judgment of October 2018, when it approved the sanction issued by the Superintendency of the Environment (SMA) against the project of the Canadian mining company Barrick Gold, after hearing the allegations before the claim of illegality filed by the subsidiary Compañía Minera Nevada that sought to reverse the closure, and another one presented by Agrícola Dos Hermanos that called for greater sanctions.
It also maintained the fine of more than 7,000 million pesos imposed by the inspection body.
“In Chile the rulings are fulfilled and here it is demonstrated that we are facing a robust institutional framework, that when there are projects that have inconsistencies or that have eventually damaged the environment, the courts and institutions work and do not allow them to go ahead, “said Minister Prokurica after hearing the ruling.
In total, the SMA raised five charges in 2018, three of which were accepted by the sentence, which are related to environmental breaches regarding the monitoring of glaciers and glaciers; Alabama monitoring and discharge of contact waters to the Estrecho river; and the use of a methodology for calculating unauthorized water quality alert levels, which uses more permissive levels than those contemplated in the environmental qualification.
“The contamination of the waters of the Estrecho River constitutes one of the environmental effects evaluated in greater depth, considering the magnitude of the effects on people’s health,” the judge stressed.
The judgment established as an undisputed fact that between January and March 2013 the company discharged, directly into the Estrecho river, collected waters due to the contact water management system, which “produced a deterioration in the quality of the river and thus put the health of the population at risk. by exposure to manganese “.
“It is a giant accolade for the communities,” they say in the Huasco Alto Water Assembly (Photo: ATON)
“THE LIE COULD NOT AGAINST THE TRUTH”
Constanza San Juan, spokeswoman for the Assembly for the Water of Huasco Alto, one of the institutions involved in the fight against the project, said that they are “completely happy” with the resolution, highlighting that “Environmental justice in our country is working and the lie could not against the truth. a giant accolade for communities that we have been demanding for years that we be heard. “
“Has won common sense and truth. That is totally important and could not be different. The damage to health from the company’s action was even corroborated, which polluted our river with heavy metals, which destroyed our glaciers, “he stressed.
The ruling, which marks the end of a work, reviewed more than 500 documents and thousands of pages of documentation and reports from various agencies, also establishes that the company must continue with the execution of socio-environmental monitoring activities.
Another judicial process in this court was a Lawsuit filed by the Defense Council, which concluded with the conciliation – questioned by activists – with the mining company, agreeing to carry out a restoration plan for the High Andean Vegas and a Plan for the Enhancement of Azorella madreporic for the repair and restoration due to the affectation of 13,832 hectares of Azorella madreporic and 0.6 hectares of high Andean fertile plain damaged due to the construction of plays.
Barrick Gold’s Pascua Lama mining project, through its subsidiary Compañía Minera Nevada, is located in the Andes Mountains, on the border between Chile and Argentina, approximately 150 kilometers south east of Vallenar, and has gold reserves , silver and copper.
