MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Pascua Lama approved by Chilean environmental authorities

Chilean environmental authorities have approved Barrick Gold's proposed $1.5 billion gold project in the Andes mountains, company officials said Tuesday, notwithstanding the opposition of environmental groups concerned about water pollution and other contamination issues.

Barrick's project had already received tentative approval from Chilean government authorities, who indicated their preference for a traditional mining operation, with shafts, rather than an open pit mine as Barrick had originally proposed. The proposed mine straddles the Chile/Argentine border, and a final decision from Argentine environmental authorities is pending.

The Pascau Lama gold mine project first began in 1996 when Canada-based Barrick Gold found a huge gold and silver deposit beneath three mountain glaciers in Region III, on the border between Chile and Argentina. To mine the gold, Pascua Lama proposed removing the glaciers and digging two gigantic holes ? one for an open pit mine for extracting the gold, and the other for the mine's waste products.

Opponents believe that if the company destroys the glaciers, they will not just destroy the source of especially pure water, but will permanently contaminate the two rivers, making them unfit for humans or animals because of cyanide and sulfuric acid contamination (ST, May 18).

Experts say that preliminary work at Pascua Lama has already revealed the kinds of problems that can be expected in the future. Initial road development has led to sediment filtering into shallow, underground waterways, compromising the water's cleanliness.

A recent report produced by the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Program at the Universidad de Diego Portales (Desc-UDP), warned against Pascua Lama's "devastating" consequences to community water rights and the indigenous farmers in the area whose livelihoods depend on the glacial waters.

According to report director Nicolás Espejo, "One issue has to do with ?water rights,' or the use of the waters that pass through private properties, which is regulated. The other issue, which is very different from the first, is the right to the water that melts down from the glaciers." This final issue, said Espejo, is not dealt with in the Constitution, or in any other law.

"What's really of great concern is that no one has asserted that Pascua Lama won't contaminate the area," said Espejo. "The regional environmental commission, Corema, hasn't been doing all that it can in order to guarantee that the project will not affect the water rights (of the local inhabitants)."

Barrick signed a "protocol agreement" last July with the Huasco Valley Monitoring Committee (a group of the area's farmers who use irrigation), promising US$60 million to guarantee that the Pascua Lama project would be to their benefit. This agreement, however, was declared void by the Direccion General de Aguas.

Espejo said earlier this month that if Chilean authorities approve the project, the next step would be to bring a lawsuit against the State of Chile in the Inter-American Human Rights Court, "where the ancestral rights of the indigenous people are considered with special attention."

The land where the mine is to be built also faces a contentious fight from indigenous rights groups, who for years have been contesting Barrick's ownership of the property. Observers say it is just a matter of time before this case, too, gets sent to the Inter-American Human Rights Court.

"As with all of its other operations around the world, in Chile Barrick will maintain its philosophy of responsible mining," Barrick Chile Director Jose Antonio Urrutia said in a statement sent to media on Tuesday afternoon.

Barrick, the world's largest mining company, plans to begin building the mine this September, and to start producing by 2009. The Pascua-Lama project has reserves of 17.6 million ounces of gold.

By Steve Anderson The Santiago Times - News about Chile