Chilean Court Ordered Shutdown of Barrick Gold Pascua Lama Mine

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The Chile’s environment court on Thursday confirmed the ruling issued by the country’s environmental authority in 2018 towards total and definitive closure of the Pascua Lama mining project.

The court rejected legal challenge from Barrick Gold, who owns the mine. In addition, the Canadian miner has been asked to pay a fine of $9 million. It ruled that the closure of the mining project is inevitable, considering the magnitude of danger it poses to people’s health. The company has not been able to come up with alternatives for safe operation of the project, in a way that causes no harm to environment and population health.

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The multi-billion project, launched in 2009, had to face fierce legal battles from local groups, who cited concerns over the damage it may cause to adjacent waterways. Following the Chilean court’s acceptance of complaints filed by indigenous groups, the company had to halt construction works. Initially, Barrick Gold had planned to invest $8.5 billion in the mine, so as to start production by 2014.

The authorities alleged that Pascua Lama violated 33 environmental violations. Further, it caused extensive damage to native flora and fauna, by way of discharge of acidic water into the Estrecho river.