Indigenous mining complicates Brazil’s fight against illegal gold
The Munduruku territory, a reservation the size of Switzerland on the Tapajos river, a major Amazon tributary, has become a hot spot for illegal mining.
Chile’s state-controlled Codelco, the world’s top copper mining company, said on Friday it had requested a second international arbitration process with Ecuador and its National Mining Company (Enami EP) over the Llurimagua copper project.
The request was filed with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), the miner said. In April, Codelco had also requested an arbitration with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
“The request came after over a year in which (Codelco) formally asked to begin a process of friendly and confidential conversations about its investments in the Llurimagua project,” the firm said in a statement.
The project has been the subject of commercial tensions since November 2020, when Codelco said its Ecuadorian counterpart had not fulfilled an agreement reached a year earlier to jointly develop the project, which at that point was in the exploration phase.
Llurimagua could become the first mine Codelco operates abroad following years of scattershot efforts to expand internationally. The project, about 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Ecuador’s capital of Quito, has faced resistance from a nearby community over environmental concerns.
(By Fabian Cambero; Editing by Sandra Maler)
2 Comments
Carlos Zorrilla
Codelco is one of 3 transnationals that have tried to develop this mine since 1995. The other two, Bishimetals, and Copper Mesa, abandoned Intag due to community opposition. The mining project is in jeopardy because of Constitutional challenges to stop it based on violations to the Ecuadorian Constitution. The last challenge was filed on Novembe 30th, 2021. More are on the horizon. I suggest this recent article on The Guardian about the case https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/23/frog-back-from-the-dead-helps-fight-mine-plans-in-ecuadors-cloud-forest-aoe
Walter Kotecki
Thanks for the mining information you provide. wck