Mining Lobby in Argentina Launches Legal Strategy to Reverse – New National Glacier Act Barriers to Gold Mining
November 3 2010 – San Juan Argentina – A federal judge in the gold mining frenzy prone province of San Juan Argentina, slammed the recently enacted National Glacier Act on grounds of unconstitutionality.
The mining lobby had filed an injunction request hours ago, attempting to derail the recently enacted Glacier Act because it greatly limits mining operations in glacier regions of Argentina. Some of the world’s most aggressive gold mining companies stand to loose millions, even billions in investments if this new legal battle fails.
Suramina, TNR Gold Corp, IMA Resources, Barrick Gold, IRL, Anglo, Xstrata, Neilsen Expedition, Troy Resources, and Yamana Gold, among others, all have existing or exploratory operations in provinces such as San Juan, Mendoza, Santa Cruz, Rio Negro, La Rioja, Catamarca, Jujuy, and Salta, which according to the newly enacted
National Glacier Act, could be deemed illegal because of these companies’ close proximity to glaciers, glacier ecosystems (glaciosystems) or other forms of perennial ice.
The Glacier Act not only defines glaciers very liberally as, “all perennial stable or slowly-flowing ice mass, … whatever its form, dimension and state of conservation” but also expressly prohibits “all activity that could effect the natural conditions of the functions [of glaciers], in particular mining and hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation” (understrike added). With this definition, any companyoperating at or near glacier sites or in their glaciosystem, is considered illegal by the federal glacier act. The consequences for many existing mining investments in glacier territory (of which there are many) are literally devastating.
A quick glance at some of these operations on Google Earth shows just how sensitive the situation is for companies like Suramina, who’s exploration in the Vicuña gold project (type the following address exactly as it appears here in the upper left GPS box in Google Earth and hit Enter to see the site: 28 26 13.55 S, 69 32 58.78 W) is just a mere 5km from one of San Juan’s largest glaciers El Potro (at: 28 23 14.51 S, 69 36 42.81 W). The Batidero copper and gold project by TNR is even closer. (see: 28 25 48.51 S, 69 35 36.00 W). IMA Resource’s Mogote copper and gold project (see: 29 15 26.53 S, 69 51 25.08 W) is within 10km of at least eight important glaciers all highly visible on simple satellite imagery available from Google Earth (see for instance GPS: 29 14 0.87 S, 69 47 59.24 W). TNR’s La Ortiga gold and silver project (29 19 9.57 S, 69 50 14.06 W ) is practically on top of a glacier (at: 29 19 18.91 S, 69 48 33.98 W).
All of these projects and many more in the now famous Indian Gold Belt, which mining companies have flocked to in recent years due to important precious metal deposits discovered by Barrick Gold at Veladero and Pascua Lama, have only now realized that alongside and over the mineral deposits, reside even more precious water deposits in the form of glaciers and snow cover.
These companies once conducted their prospecting in isolation and with little public knowledge of what exactly they were up to and where. Even governments have little technical knowledge of once obscure natural resources such as rock glaciers, which are not even white but brown from earth and rock cover. Modern technologies like Google Earth however, have placed precise satellite imagery at the hands of common citizens, and on the computers of environmental advocates, like the Center for Human Rights and Environment (CEDHA), which is presently mapping the geophysical relationship of mining projects to glaciers, river systems and basins, human populations, revealing extremely sensitive information about the risks posed to communities and to the environment of large scale mining projects.
The once mining friendly investment climate in Argentina buttressed by highly favorable tax exemption incentives promising investors enormous profits, is slowly souring as political opposition parties to the incumbent government have found that attacking unsustainable mining operations are a way to attack the current administration which has been extremely favorable to mining investments, led by Mining Secretary Jorge Mayoral. Mayoral travels from mining conference to mining conference around the world painting telling of an aggressive environment, for mining that is ripe for picking, hoping to transform Argentina into a mining haven by the next decade.
But Argentina’s former Environment Secretary, Romina Picolotti, who now presides CEDHA, had begun a crackdown on contaminating industries and had set her target on companies like Barrick Gold, who has already had a devastating impact on several Andean glaciers, including the Coconta Glacier (GPS: 29 59 26.66 S, 69 38 3.21 W) which was literally blown up to make way for an access road to Barrick’s Veladero gold mining project (GPS: 29 24 19.50 S, 69 53 18.02 W) and upcoming Pascua Lama (GPS: 29 19 10.27 S, 70 1 40.91 W ). A satellite view of Pascua Lama’s zone of impact shows endless roads dug by Barrick into glacier covered mountain sides such roads over a Rock Glacier at GPS: 29 19 42.99 S, 70 4 16.02 W. It is precisely this uncontrolled destruction of Argentina’s glaciers that the new federal glacier act addresses.
Picolotti spoke before the Canadian Parliament recently while Bill C-300 which suffered a narrow defeat days ago, was being considered, a bill that would have put greater controls on Canadian public funds going to mining investments around the world. Canada has been going through a reflective process over Canadian mining ventures around the world, as recent reports commissioned by the mining sector are showing that much of the world’s problem mines are Canadian. Most of Argentina’s mining investments come from Canada.
Political undercurrents, environmental movements and other anti-mining sentiment existing in many communities in Argentina’s Andean region are starting to eat away at the glossy picture mining authorities have tried to paint of Argentina’s once lucrative investment climate. Battles like the current regulatory framework battle will dig deeper, introducing an element of doubt for future investors in companies like Suramina, TNR, and others that have placed their bets on gold prospecting in extremely sensitive environmental sites like the Andes.
Heated discussions in Congress which led to the passage of the strict glacier protection law which outright forbids mining activities at glacier sites or near glaciers, also included much debate over reforming the Mining Code which many agree gives far too many benefits to overseas investors, while offering little in return beyond low-paying labor posts in difficult and dangerous mining terrain. Further, recent extremely dry years and disappearing water resources for human and agricultural consumption have drawn public attention to the importance of glaciers as natural water reservoirs particularly as rampant deforestation rates dry up goundsoil and make water flow more quickly to the ocean, resulting in less absorption which lowers natural ground water storage rates, critical for dry seasons. This is precisely when glaciers become so important.
The recent accident in the San José mine in Chile in which 33 miners were trapped for nearly 4 months underground following a shaft collapse rings has also rung alarm bells for mines and mine prospecting projects underway in Argentina over the irresponsibility of many mining ventures, several of which many are just getting underway. The attitude of mining companies like Barrick Gold who at one point offered to blow up glaciers and move them in giant dump trucks, like garbage or rubble that can simply be placed elsewhere, has not helped the efforts of mining companies to sell themselves as “responsible”.
The legal action filed by mining actors in San Juan days ago, received immediate attention from federal circuit judge Angel Galvez, who ordered a temporary suspension of the National Glacier Act suggesting that the local glacier law should suffice to protect glaciers. The public is generally skeptic of such rhetoric. Ironically, San Juan’s local glacier law was introduced and passed hours after San Juan Governor José Luis Gioja met with Peter Munk in Canada. Munk is CEO of Barrick Gold, the world’s largest mining operation, right in San Juan. Gioja returned to Argentina after meeting with Munk and immediately submitted his glacier bill to the provincial legislature. The bill had the explicit approval of the mining community. No debate took place in Congress and the bill became local law practically overnight. Other mining friendly provinces submitted identical versions of the bill to their own legislatures. Some were immediately approved, while a few others are pending confirmation.
Yesterday’s ruling posits a legal conflict over jurisdictional control of glaciers, which most presume will fall in favor of a federal oversite, despite the preferences of all mining permit holders and their government allies. What is certain is that the legal battles over mining investments are just getting underway in Argentina and stand to be a great hurdle in the efforts to create a mining fiscal paradise.
The Supreme Court will now have to review the ruling and determine to what extent Argentina will protect its glaciers, or not.
Jorge Daniel Taillant
Coordinator, Glaciers, Mining and Human Rights Program
Center for Human Rights and Environment (CEDHA)
tel. +54 9 351 507 8376