Chilean environmental victory

This video is called Controversy surrounding Barrick Gold’s Pascua Lama mine in Chile.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Indigenous Chileans win gold mine pollution case

Tuesday 16 July 2013

A Chilean appeals court has ruled against the world’s largest gold-mining company, favouring Diaguita Indians who accuse Barrick Gold Corporation of contaminating their water.

The judges in the city of Copiapo unanimously ruled on Monday that Barrick must keep all its environmental promises before continuing construction of the Pascua-Lama mine on Chile’s mountainous border with Argentina.

They also ordered the company to monitor the condition of three glaciers next to the mine project.

Chile’s environmental watchdog agency had already ordered construction stopped until Barrick builds systems to stop the mine contaminating the watershed.

But Monday’s ruling goes beyond that by demanding repairs to damage in the watershed, calling for increased monitoring of the effect on surrounding glaciers and opening up the project’s environmental licence for review.

Related articles

• Barrick’s Pascua-Lama mine to have work suspended by Chilean court: report (business.financialpost.com)
• Barrick Gold Chilean mine suspended over water issues (cbc.ca)