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Pascua-Lama is a project aiming at exploitation of a very rich field of gold and silver in the high mountains south of Atacama, at the border between Chile and Argentina, in an area approximately 150 kilometers southeast of Vallenar and 300 kilometers northwest of San Juan.
The singularity of this project comes from its situation and exploitation conditions. At an altitude of over 4500 m, the gold fields lie under two glaciers feeding the rivers of Huasco Province. The mining company, Barrick Gold, intends to remove a substantial amount of this ice to clear way to open pit mining, and will invest US$1.5 billion in this project, which is planned for 20 years of exploitation.
The project has been controversial due to the potential environmental impact of its unusual situation and conditions. It was scheduled to enter into operation in 2005, but has been postponed until the mining company provides complementary information about conformance to environmental regulations. In June 2005 the company has offered to pay US$60 million over 20 years to the local communities for contamination and disruption of the Huasco River watershed. To get to the minerals, it would be necessary to break, to destroy the glaciers - something never conceived of in the history of the world - and to make 2 huge holes, each as big as a whole mountain, one for extraction and one for the mine's rubbish tip. If the glaciers are destroyed, they will not just destroy the source of specially pure water, but they will permanently contaminate the 2 rivers running from glaciers so that they will never again be fit for human or animal consumption (because of the use of cyanide and sulphuric acid in the extraction process).
Marcel Claude, the executive director of Oceana, the environmental NGO protesting against the mining project has expressed their reserves in front of the canadian embassy (Barrick Gold's homeland)in Santiago.
“Pascua Lama will probably not pay much in taxes (in Chile) and its impact in terms of jobs is insignificant,” Claude said in a press release. “Therefore, we can say with conviction that (Pascua Lama) will contribute absolutely nothing to Chile’s development.”
visit to sign an online petition against this atrocity...
Pascua-Lama is a project aiming at exploitation of a very rich field of gold and silver in the high mountains south of Atacama, at the border between Chile and Argentina, in an area approximately 150 kilometers southeast of Vallenar and 300 kilometers northwest of San Juan.
The singularity of this project comes from its situation and exploitation conditions. At an altitude of over 4500 m, the gold fields lie under two glaciers feeding the rivers of Huasco Province. The mining company, Barrick Gold, intends to remove a substantial amount of this ice to clear way to open pit mining, and will invest US$1.5 billion in this project, which is planned for 20 years of exploitation.
The project has been controversial due to the potential environmental impact of its unusual situation and conditions. It was scheduled to enter into operation in 2005, but has been postponed until the mining company provides complementary information about conformance to environmental regulations. In June 2005 the company has offered to pay US$60 million over 20 years to the local communities for contamination and disruption of the Huasco River watershed. To get to the minerals, it would be necessary to break, to destroy the glaciers - something never conceived of in the history of the world - and to make 2 huge holes, each as big as a whole mountain, one for extraction and one for the mine's rubbish tip. If the glaciers are destroyed, they will not just destroy the source of specially pure water, but they will permanently contaminate the 2 rivers running from glaciers so that they will never again be fit for human or animal consumption (because of the use of cyanide and sulphuric acid in the extraction process).
Marcel Claude, the executive director of Oceana, the environmental NGO protesting against the mining project has expressed their reserves in front of the canadian embassy (Barrick Gold's homeland)in Santiago.
“Pascua Lama will probably not pay much in taxes (in Chile) and its impact in terms of jobs is insignificant,” Claude said in a press release. “Therefore, we can say with conviction that (Pascua Lama) will contribute absolutely nothing to Chile’s development.”
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