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Project
overview
World Bank involvement
Environmental and social
concerns
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Project
Overview
The International Finance Corporation is equity holder of a planned copper mine in the south of Peru. The region is one of the
driest regions in the world. In this area,
where the battle for water is a daily theme,
Minera Quellaveco plans to use 700 liters of
water/second for its operations, divert a
river, dispose the waste in the river bed
without protection and create a highly acidic
and extremely deep pit lake. This could be
absolutely destructive for local agriculture
and cattle raising, especially since it is a
seismic and windy area. The El Niño
phenomenon is known to cause heavy unexpected
rains that flood the river beds. Both wind
and rain would seriously contaminate the
valley.
Project preparations are in full swing.
The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
prepared by Minera Quellaveco has been
approved by the Peruvian government after a
highly inadequate consultation process. The
land for the mine has already been bought; in
fact the area where the pit will be dug has
been marked with white plastic. In February
2002, when Minera Quellaveco applied for
ground water licenses, about 35 local
opposition letters were presented to the
regional government. The process of
responding to those letters is still ongoing.
The IFC has said it will not release its EIA
before the 'license issue' is resolved, which
has caused the delay of the document by a
year already.
World Bank
involvement
Minera Quellaveco is a joint venture of
Anglo American (80%) and the International
Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group.
The Board of the IFC first approved its
investment in 1993 and subsequently extended
it in 1996, 2000 and 2001. IFC's wen site
states: 'The project sponsor was reluctant to
proceed without IFC's involvement. The
project sponsor believed that the IFC would
provide 'political comfort' and minimize the
project's vulnerability against adverse
political developments.' IFC also says that
its investment is meant as a sign of
continuing endorsement and support of the
Peruvian country's privatization and
liberalization program.
Environmental
and social concerns
The Moquegua area, where the project is
planned, is a poor region. While many people
hope that the exploitation of the minerals
will be clean and provide jobs, foreign
dividends and wealth, Minera Quellaveco and
the Peruvian government claim that there will
hardly be any negative impacts. However, as
Robert Moran, PhD, stated in an environmental
analysis of the impact, that claim is 'simply
untrue'.
The main problems with the project are:
-
it will aggravate an already serious
scarcity of water and create water
conflicts;
-
springs are likely to dry up and
several present water users will have their
allocations reduced. They will be required
to change the method of irrigation used and
crops cultivated;
-
ground and surface water will be
degraded by releases of contaminants from
tailings, waste rock, explosives, fuels
etc.;
-
a proposed river diversion is likely to
lead to substantial contamination when
heavy rains wash mining waste out of the
old river bed into the valley;
-
no use of anti-seismic technology is
envisoned which could lead to large scale
avoid contamination in the event of
earthquakes in this seismic area;
-
Minera Quellaveco will be allowed to
use tremendous volumes of ground water for
no cost, and pay unreasonably low rates for
surface water and
-
it will provide only a few long term
jobs for local people.
The problem that concerns people most, is
the use of ground water. Chilota is a
beautiful wet land area, one of few water
sources, from where the mine wants to extract
ground water. All sorts of birds nest here
and there are many butterflies. The alpacas
and lamas that graze peacefully provide many
communities with a subsistence income. Use of
Chilote ground water will lower the water
level in alpaca breeding regions of Chilote
and lead to a change in the micro climate.
Farmers say that their grounds will be
unusable if the mine extracts water from
here. They have declared that they will not
sell their land. Minera Quellaveco will pay a
one-time sum to the government for
compensation, but the negative effects will
be felt by the communities. Chilote farmers
are concerned that the company will fence off
the wetlands to safeguard their access to
water, and fear new local conflicts.
Another reiterated concern is the lack of
monitoring and enforcement of water use:
'They say they will use 700 l w/s, but who
checks this? What happens if they use more?'
said a local farmer.
The future for nearby farmers does not
look bright. In Tala, 5 km from the planned
mine site, a small community has managed to
turn a steep hill into a beautiful and
productive agriculture area. They grow
diverse crops and were planning to shift to
organic farming and export their products.
But they lost that hope when they heard about
the mine. They know that the wind will spread
the dust from the mine all through the valley
and cover their acres with toxic materials.
Another problem for the community has to do
with the diversion of the nearby Asana river.
The river water will be led into a small
river bed running through Tala. However, that
river bed is far too small and agriculture
areas would simply be drowned.
Concerns about the proposed mine stem from
the region's forty-year history with the
nearby Southern Peru Copper Corporation.
Local farmers near the SPCC mine recall how
they used to go to the rivers and the
wetlands, and find a wide variety of fish and
frogs in the waters. Nowadays this diversity
has diminished greatly. Trout, frogs and
shrimps have disappeared and the colour of
the water has changed. Irrigation is also
much harder than before. A former employee of
SPCC who worked there for 25 years, reported
that the corporation did not manage its waste
disposal very well, nor execute regular
checks. In the past, tunnels broke through
which the tailings were transported to the
smelter, thereby spreading acid material in
the environment. Also, more cases of
bronchitis and cancer have been registered.
All this makes people suspect of yet another
mine.
On top of all this, local communities are
worried that an important and long awaited
irrigation project in their region will not
be finished. The Peruvian government has
invested already more than 164 million
dollars in irrigation, but the usage of
ground water at mine operations would make it
difficult to develop the irrigation project
in its full capacity.
Read more
'
The quellaveco mine: free water for mining in
peru's driest desert?
' an environmental
impact analysis by Robert Moran, PhD, also in
spanish
(both in PDF-format)
Asociacion Civil Labor (FoE Peru) at
labor.org.pe
Conacami Peru at
www.conacamiperu.org
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