After the communities kicked out Mitsubishi subsidiary, Bishimetals in 1997, mining has not gotten any easier for the companies. Back when Nortec was showing interest in purchasing the shipwreck known as Ascendant Copper Corporation, I wrote the nineteen reasons to warn Nortec about some of the main problems they’d inherent in case the deal went through (it did not). Then, the communities got rid of Ascendant Copper. In the meantime, the list of reasons why any mining company should keep away from Intag grew and, though it’s really more like 42 reasons, twenty-one sounds better, and should more than suffice.
I think it disingenuous when companies say “we didn’t know”;; or “had we only known”, or even lamer yet: “had the government made it clearer that…” then they try to weasel out of assuming responsibility for their much ups.
and more Studies.
To justify their existence in certain projects, mining companies, when they can afford it, hire hot-shot NGO’s to carry out interviews and studies to ascertain popular perception on mining, identify key players, and confirm that they are loved. Then they actually go ahead and base their decisions on the study’s results! As if an area’s complexity and attitudes could be studied in a few days or weeks. But, this is what the company and/or government apparently did last year when they went around asking some folks in Intag and Quito what they thought about mining in Intag. Then, when they tried to hold meetings in key communities, they were surprised that their presence was considered non-grata!
A Brand New Century.
If there’s anyone from Codelco reading this (as I’m sure there are), you probably know- or should know- as all responsible mining companies can attest to (as well as key players like the World Bank), that support from the Executive Branch of government is not nearly enough guarantee a project’s success. You need genuine (not manufactured or self-delusional) community and local government support. In fact, national government support is no guarantee at all. So, do NOT bank on the government’s enthusiastic endorsement. You’ll lose. Big time.
Why Bother?
Because I feel a responsibility to inform the good people of Chile, who have not the slightest idea of what their corporation is getting to here in Intag, that it’s a no-win situation for Codelco. And, that in the process of trying to develop a mine in this minefield, their corporation will create utter and complete social chaos, and violate human and collective rights. And, if in spite of all the crystal-clear evidence that in the long run it’s a dead-end project, somehow Codelco is able to actually open the mine, it will be remembered as one of the biggest environmental nightmares of all time; right up there with the gold-copper Ok Tedi mine in Papua New Guinea.
I am positive that if most Chilenos find out about all the risks and obstacles facing the company’s expansion to Ecuador, they would firmly be against it. This, then, is one more attempt to try to inform Chile’s population of the reality behind the lies and distortions being generated around the Junín mining project.
Here then, are the latest reasons why Codelco should not mess with Intag.
IMPACTS
A. Based on the Bishi Metals Environmental Impact Assessment of mining in Intag, and on a small (450,000 ton) copper mine (a couple of years later they inferred 5x more)
1. Intag is no like the Atacama desert, where Codelco has its copper mines. Besides being super biodiverse, there are communities all over the place. According to the Study, the mining project would relocate hundreds of families from four communities. Afterwards, the Japanese found more copper, which could increase the number of communities affected by two- at the very least.
Relocation of communities is more than enough to stop most extractive projects.
2. It would impact primary cloud forests. What’s so special about cloud forests? Less than 2.5% of the world’s tropical forests are cloud forests. They are not only exceptionally biologically diverse- as well as severely threatened- but they play an outsized role in protecting important headwater watersheds.
3. The project would cause massive deforestation (their words, not mine). The small mine would directly impact 4,025 hectares.
4. The deforestation, according to the Japanese, would lead to drying of local climate, affecting thousands of small farmers (the EIA used the word desertification)
5. Intag’s forests belong to the world’s top Biodiversity Hotspot; the Tropical Andes. The scientist working on the study identified 12 species of mammals and birds facing extinction that would be impacted by the project, including jaguars, spectacled bears, mountain tapirs and the brown-faced spider monkey. (Based on incomplete studies, Decoin identified more than 30 species of threatened or endangered plants and animals, and there could be dozens more).
6. There are pristine rivers and streams everywhere within the concession. The EIA predicted they would be contaminated with lead, arsenic, chromium, cadmium and other toxic substances.
7. The project would, unquestionably, destroy pre-Incan Yumbo archeological sites.
8. It would impact the Cotacachi-Capayas Ecological Reserve (one of the world’s most biologically diverse protected areas and the only large one in all of western Ecuador).
Besides these very worrisome impacts identified in the Study (for a mine a fraction of what it could end up being)… there are other significant hurdles.
B. Legal hassles
9. Large-scale mining would violate the legally-binding Cotacachi County Ecological Ordinance created in 2000. Only the Constitutional Tribunal can rule on the validity of the Ordinance in light of the new Constitution. And the Tribunal has not.
10. Ecuador’s new Constitution demands that communities be consulted before any project impacting their social or natural environment takes place; a Constitutional guarantee that has been disregarded from day one. The Constitution also grants nature rights, and the people right to Sumak Kawsay, or Harmonious Life. Good luck trying to convince a decent government and world opinion that open pit mining will not violate these two fundamental rights.
11. In 2008 the Cotacachi County government created an 18,000 hectare municipal protected area right on top of the mining site. Mining is one of the activities prohibited within the protected area.
C. Opposition.
There is widespread opposition to the Intag mining project. This includes:
12. The Parish township governments the concession is located at, plus County-wide indigenous and campesino organizations. The new threat has actually mobilized more organization at the local, county and national level, than ever before.
13. Community Opposition. Most communities surrounding the mining project are still, after all these years, opposed to the project. Eighteen years of resistance has honed their skill in resisting (the right to resist is now a right protected by the Constitution)
14. 90% of NGO’s in Cotacachi County and Intag oppose the project. Late last year, the most important civil society organizations in Intag wrote a letter to Chile’s president to make sure he understood that the organizations would again rise to defend the area if Codelco went ahead and tried to revive the project.
D. Exaggerated Copper Claims
15. In 2007, Micon International, the entity contracted by Ascendant Copper to evaluate the Junin copper deposit, said that it could not confirm their earlier estimates due to degradation of samples. Copper Mesa had been saying all along that the Junin copper deposit had four times more copper than what the Japanese inferred after years of exploration. In all, 2.26 million tons were inferred by the Japanese, which is a little less than 1/10th of what the world consumes annually (and it would take decades to mine it all out).
E. Further environmental challenges
16. The area receives between 3000 and 4000 millimeters of annual rainfall. Heavy rainfall, abundant underground aquifers, and heavy metals in the ore make for a deadly mix. Not only that, but they raise the price of mining considerably, while greatly increasing the risks of man-made disasters, such as landslides. For an idea of what a landslide can do in an open pit mine, go here: http://blog.skytruth.
17. The ore contains toxic heavy metals and sulfur (which will cause Acid Mine Drainage).
18. There is a superabundance of underground water (according to Japanese EIA). This is bad news for mining companies and even worse news for the environment.
19. The area where they found the copper is exceptionally steep and mountainous, making mining very difficult and expensive
20. There are clear indications that Junín’s copper is very deep, making mining much more environmentally destructive and economically risky.
21. The Toisan Range has many geological faults, posing significant earthquake risks.
Truth be told, there are more than 21 reasons, but 21 sounds better than 43 or 31.
Carlos Zorrilla
Further Reading
www.codelcoecuador.com
www.decoin.org
www.codelcofueradeintag.