Chilean Environmental Court rejects claims that Barrick damaged glaciers
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Chile's Environmental Court ruled on Monday that the Pascua-Lama project straddling the Chilean/Argentinian border had not damaged glaciers within the project's area of influence.
Barrick reaffirmed its commitment to work with stakeholders and local communities in Chile to advance Pascua-Lama in an environmentally responsible manner, respecting its legal and regulatory requirements.
The Pascua-Lama team was currently focused on resolving the project's outstanding legal and regulatory hurdles, and the completion of a new execution plan to optimise remaining construction activities and reduce ongoing project costs.
"Preserving and protecting glaciers from harm is essential to the work we do every day at Pascua-Lama. That is why Barrick worked with leading independent experts and glaciologists to develop and implement one of the most rigorous glacier monitoring programmes anywhere in the world,” Barrick's executive director for Chile, Eduardo Flores, explained.
Pascua-Lama's comprehensive glacier monitoring programme captured data from 27 points and provided results directly to regulatory authorities.
Chile's environmental regulator, known as the SMA, fined Barrick $16-million in May 2013 for not complying with some of the country's environmental requirements for its colossal gold/silver project.
But then the country's Environment Court found that the fines were not properly determined and, subsequently, the Supreme Court said it would not hear an appeal by the Canadian miner.
That left the door open for the SMA to re-evaluate the fines it previously imposed.
At one point, the project was Barrick’s biggest new development project, but development was halted in October 2013 after Barrick had spent more than $5-billion.
The project had been beleaguered by political opposition, permitting issues, labour unrest, cost overruns and a failing gold price.
Article Enquiry
Email Article
Save Article
Feedback
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation

















