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Mining in Chile Going Back Underground
Posted by Inter Press Service: Marianela Jarroud on August 23rd, 2013
Inter Press Service: Declining mineral content, the need to preserve the environment, and technological advances are causing big mining companies to turn back to underground mining in what is a rising trend in Chile and around the world, experts say.
Juan Carlos Guajardo, head of the Centre for Copper and Mining Studies (CESCO), told IPS that "not only Chile is opting for underground mining, but the industry itself is evolving towards that kind of extraction."
The trend, he said, "is because large deposits that...
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Chilean Court Suspends Pascua Lama Mine
Posted by Inter Press Service: Marianela Jarroud on April 11th, 2013
Inter Press Service: Environmental groups and indigenous Diaguita communities of the Huasco Valley in northern Chile celebrated a court decision Wednesday that will bring to a complete halt work on the Pascua Lama gold, silver and copper mine belonging to Canada's Barrick gold.
"The mine was approved on the condition that the glaciers would not be touched. But the General Water Department (DGA) has repeatedly confirmed that Pascua Lama is destroying glaciers," said Lucio Cuenca, director of the Latin American Observatory...
Hydroelectric Project Threatens Chile’s Lake Neltume
Posted by Inter Press Service: Marianela Jarroud on February 6th, 2013
Inter Press Service: "This is paradise and they want to destroy it. This has had an enormous psychological impact on us," says Guido Melinao, leader of the Mapuche indigenous community of Valeriano Cayicul, referring to the Neltume hydroelectric power plant project planned by the Spanish-Italian consortium Endesa-Enel.
The plant, to be built with an investment of 781 million dollars, would have an installed capacity of 490 megawatts and generate an estimated average of 1,885 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually....