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El Morro site.
Chile’s Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that mining giant Goldcorp (TSX:G), (NYSE:GG) can’t move forward with its $3.9 billion El Morro gold and copper mine until local indigenous groups who oppose the project are better consulted.
The court, Orbe news agency reports (in Spanish), said an environmental permit awarded last year should be put on hold until a fresh consultation, based on an International Labour Organization convention, has taken place with the local Diaguita community, from Chile’s north.
In April, an appeals court rejected the same indigenous group’s attempt to halt the project, saying the Canadian gold miner conducted the required consultation. But the group complained Goldcorp had not done it in the way it should have to regain its mining licence. They also said the mine could pollute a local river and they took the case to the Supreme Court.
This is not the first time Goldcorp has to suspend construction at the site. It happened in 2012 and then again in November last year.
The Diaguita also opposed the massive Barrick Gold (TSX:ABX) Pascua-Lama project, stalled since 2013.
Goldcorp holds a 70% stake in El Morro. New Gold (TSX:NGD) owns the other 30%. Due to begin operations in 2017, the mine has proven and probable reserves totalling 6.7 million ounces of gold and 4.9 billion pounds of copper.
3 Comments
Harvey Wood
politics rather than substantive issues must be the lot of the industry but it does raise the issue that taking communities along with projects is a necessity that has been a guiding principal of good mineral development practice for twenty years .
Digger
Let’s cut through the bull here, all these Diaguita want is a peace of the action for free. The culture is noted for wanting something for nothing. The bottom line here is that some lawyer can see a huge payday toward the future and has gathered as many Indians as he can to create momentum.
I my self worked in this area long before Goldcorp was ever in the picture and I can tell you that there was only a few scattered rock huts made out of stone on the way up leading to the actual project so where do these 250 families come in to play.
Don’t get me wrong as I am a firm be-leaver in taking care of our environment and respecting where people call home but from what I have seen in Chile over the last few years is that people want something for nothing and they would rather die trying to get it in these types of situations.
Just go’s to show that mining laws here in Chile really need to be addressed so that investors coming into the country are clear on the risks such as El Morrow ect,ect.
Jorge Daniel Taillant
Digger, your comments are offensive and disrespectful of the native Diaguita indigenous communities–NOT CALLED “indians”. There are THOUSANDS of inhabitants in the Valle del Huasco and the several rivers that come down from Pascua Lama and the El Morro mining projects (check your spelling on this last one, as you got the project name wrong) that depend on the drinking water from glaciers, also affected by BOTH projects. Also you clearly don’t know the Diaguita and the differences between the people who have asked that El Morro be stopped, and the people that filed the legal complaint against Pascua Lama. You are precisely the sort of problem these people have, insensitive capitalists that come in thinking they can be imperialistic with other peoples’, natural wealth. Stay home buddy and get some civic schooling while you’re at it.