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The National Environmental Licensing Authority (ANLA), announced this Saturday its decision to order the filing of the administrative procedure presented by the Sociedad Minera de Santander for the project of Soto Norte underground exploitation.
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The decision will be notified soon to the company and the third parties in the process. As explained by the entity, the determination was based on technical arguments, which were result of the evaluation of the Environmental Impact Study and the responses issued by the company to the requirements made by the Environmental Authority.
According to what Anla stated in a statement, the evaluation process had more than thirty professionals from different disciplines, experts in geology, hydrogeology, geotechnics, geochemistry, air quality, among others. It also had the support of five professionals from the Faculty of Mines of the National University, based in Medellín.
(You may be interested in: Soto Norte Mining Project, Explained from Opposite Shores)
As a result of the analysis made to the Environmental Impact Study and the information subsequently provided by the company, Anla’s technical team established that it was not possible to issue a substantive decision on the mining project, so it had to be archived.
Among the main technical considerations for ordering the file by the Authority, is the definition of the area of influence, technical aspects of the tailings deposit (residues of mining activity), considerations on geotechnics, hydrology and hydrogeology, the risk management plan and economic valuation.
Finally, it is important to highlight that during this environmental procedure, 44,191 interveners have been recognized to date, a situation that has guaranteed citizen participation and access to information on the environmental licensing process to the communities surrounding the project, throughout the evaluation process.
ELTIEMPO.COM
