Copiapó Chile – April 11, 2013- A judicial ruling in Copiapó, Chile ordered the immediate suspension of Barrick Gold’s Pascua Lama project (see: 29°18’31.64″ S 70°01’10.86″ W), located on the border between Argentina and Chile. This confirms what communities and regulators having been saying for months: Barrick Gold is impacting glaciers, destroying high mountain wetlands, contaminating precious waterways with heavy metals, and ignoring regulations and official demands to clean up its act.
The suspension is a response to criticism from indigenous groups and government agencies in Chile about Barrick Gold’s environmental handling of the Pascua Lama project, the world’s largest bi-national gold mining project and one of Barrick’s most important operations. The grounds for suspension are as follows: “imminent environmental danger”, failure to comply with the due diligence to address impacts, failure to comply with any of the measures demanded by environmental authorities, and failure to follow instructions on to monitoring requirements.
The court sustains the opinion of the plaintiff indigenous communities that there is “overwhelming evidence” and “aggravating circumstances” demonstrating that Barrick is degrading the environment, including glaciers and water basins, due to:
- Faulty and unauthorized drainage systems;
- Contamination of highland wetland (vegas) systems;
- Failure to construct the necessary oxygenation and evaporation plant and system;
- Discharge of acidic water into the Estrecho River (just before the Estrecho Glacier);
- Discovery of illegal amounts of heavy metals including arsenic, aluminum, copper and sulfates in local waterways.
This ruling effectively suspends the Chilean portion of the bi-national project, where it was assumed that Barrick Gold had a more realistic chance of advancing administratively, despite the serious legal and economic hurdles that appeared during of the preparatory phase. Pascua Lama is still not operable, and it’s questionable if this highly complex project will ever get off the ground. Shares in Barrick Gold fell nearly 10% after the announcement of yet another suspension of activities and legal complications of the project.
On the Argentine side of the border, Barrick has had to confront new environmental laws banning mining in glacial and periglacial areas, creating serious legal obstacles for the important Lama portion of the project to go forward (Pascua, the principal gold reserves, are in Chile, while Lama, where the gold will be processed and waste deposited, is in Argentina). Barrick Gold presented studies in the mid 2000s revealing that Lama operations are located squarely in a periglacial environment. The new National Glacier Law, approved in 2010, directly prohibits mining in periglacial areas and also applies retroactively to existing projects, rendering Lama operations illegal in Argentina. Just days after the law came into effect in Argentina, Barrick Gold filed legal action attempting to get the law revoked, but a Supreme Court ruling rejected the request. Today, the Glacier Law still stands.
On top of the Chilean claims that Barrick Gold is not complying with environmental laws, studies in Argentina show heavy metal pollution in waterways that trace their source to the Lama and Veladero operations (Pascua Lama will share infrastructure with Veladero, located nearby), extensive glacier damage caused by the construction and use of access roads, and disregard for the vulnerability of glaciers in Barrick’s impact zones.
Barrick’s operations exploiting Veladero and preparing for exploitation at Pascua Lama have already had extensive impacts on glaciers. Barrick has been systematically destroying ice as it carries out exploratory activity and introduces access roads. Dust from explosions and mass earth removal have also taken their toll on the glaciers, soiling their surface and changing their albedo, thereby accelerating glacial melt. The contamination has been so serious that Barrick halted its activities in late October, 2012 in response to increased dust levels caused by high winds. Barrick claims on its website that there are only seven glaciers affected by operations at Pascua Lama. However, this contrasts sharply with reports from civil society groups, who have already started inventorying glaciers in anticipation of the official glacier inventory, which still may take considerable time to carry out. The Center for Human Rights and Environment (CEDHA), which studies mining impacts to glaciers, has inventoried nearly 300 glaciers in Barrick’s impact zone (these can be downloaded and viewed in Google Earth: click the link for a Glacier Inventory in Chile / Argentina). CEDHA is due to publish a new report entitled “Barrick’s Glaciers” on the mining company’s extensive impacts on the region’s ice reserves, later this month.
The Argentine National Park Service (ANPS) condemns the Pascua Lama and Veladero projects due to the environmental risks they pose to the hydrological system of a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. At the Veladero mine, Barrick constructed a massive lixiviation valley to hold arsenic and other contaminants. The ANPS protested because Barrick Gold chose to situate the contaminated pools on critical and environmentally sensitive vegas (high mountain wetlands). Despite the official opposition to the decision, Barrick was allowed by the local provincial government to destroy several acres of vegas systems. Today, a Barrick employee is sent with large garbage bags to dispose of birds that die from the consumption of arsenic laden water. The ANPS calls Veladero, “Argentina’s sacrifice to Barrick.”
As the preparations for exploitation at Pascua Lama continue, Barrick’s problems seem to be increasing, legally, financially and environmentally. The launch of the project was postponed in 2012 after Barrick was unable to convince EDC of Canada and EXIM Bank of the United States that Pascua Lama was a sound investment. Both banks visited Chile and Argentina and held extensive meetings with public officials and communities in which Barrick’s lack of legal and environmental due diligence was prominently featured on the agenda. Local groups filed an Equator Principles Due Diligence Review with the public banks warning of Barrick’s failure to comply with minimum international investment standards for sustainability. Shortly after those meetings, Barrick’s loan applications fell apart and the project was suspended. Argentina’s Supreme Court upheld the glacier law, further complicating Barrick’s operations. And now Chile has suspended Pascua Lama, also for due diligence failures.
For Barrick Gold’s Pascua Lama, the road ahead seems to be covered in dangerous, slippery ice.