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Chile’s environmental watchdog has laid three charges against Anglo American (LON: AAL) for environmental breaches at its El Soldado copper mine, located 125 km north of the capital Santiago.
The Superintendency of the Environment (SMA) labelled the charges as “serious,” the second of three levels of offenses, and said Anglo American Sur, the local arm of Anglo American, faced the possible revocation of its environmental permit, closure or a fine of more than 12 billion pesos ($12.4 million) if it did not address the issues.
Anglo American told Reuters that it has been working on issues related to SMA’s findings and has informed the agency about its efforts. It added that it has requested a meeting with environmental officials to determine how to proceed.
“We are committed to working continuously with the authority to comply with all our environmental commitments,” the company said in a statement Monday.
In 2023, Chile’s environmental agency had approved Anglo American’s environmental impact statement (EIS) for its $40 million operational continuity plan at El Soldado.
The project is an open-pit mining industrial facility, whose minerals are processed in a conventional grinding and flotation plant that produces copper concentrates.
The tailings from the copper extraction process, meanwhile, are deposited in the “El Torito” dam, which began operations in 1993 with a capacity of 76 million tonnes of tailings, which was expanded to 181 million tonnes within the framework of modifications made to the project, once it came into force in the Environmental Impact Assessment System (SEIA).
The project introduced new modifications in 2020, expanding the dam’s capacity to 235 million tonnes and extending its useful life until 2027.
As part of the investigation, officials from the SMA, General Directorate of Water (DGA), National Geology and Mining Service (Sernageomin) and National Fisheries Service (Sernapesca) carried out oversight activities at the project.
The first charge is related to the poor implementation and operation of the infiltration interception and water injection system, the second charge, the environmental watchdog said, is due to the owner’s failure to comply with the early warning plan.
The third charge is related to the partial execution of the mitigation measure of rescue and relocation of fauna, regarding 3,867 individuals of the amphibian rulo toad — whose category of affectation at the date of evaluation was “vulnerable” — since the marking of the specimens was not carried out nor were subsequent monitoring carried out.
According to the Law of the Superintendence of the Environment (LOSMA), for a serious charge the owner of a project risks the revocation of its environmental qualification resolution, closure or a fine of 5,000 unidad tributaria anual (UTA).
“However, the alleged offender has an extended period of 15 business days to present a compliance program and 22 business days to formulate his defense,” SMA said in a news release.
The Superintendent of the Environment, Marie Claude Plumer, pointed out that “environmental compliance in this and any other project is essential in the context of economic development.
“For this reason, it is important to reiterate the call to the owners to comply with what is established in their permits in order to operate,” Plumer said.
“The conditions and measures established in the environmental qualification resolutions have a clear objective, which is to reduce the impact that the execution of an economic initiative may have on the environment and thus guarantee its protection.”
In 2014, SMA handed Anglo American Sur a $4.5 million fine for violating 16 environmental rules at El Soldado mine.
(With files from Reuters)
