Bajo de la Alumbrera
Coordinates: 27 ° 19 ′ 29.3 " S , 66 ° 35 ′ 30.9" W.
Bajo de la Alumbrera is an important mine in the Argentine province of Catamarca . It is located in the vicinity of Los Nacimientos de Arriba in the north of the province in the Andes Precordillera . Above all copper is extracted , but also gold .
The mine is exceptionally controversial in Argentine public opinion. The operating company is mainly accused of polluting the environment in an irresponsible manner and of making agricultural conditions in the valleys below the mine more difficult through excessive water consumption .
operator
The mine is operated by a consortium made up of the Argentine state company Yacimientos Mineros de Agua de Dionisio , which is controlled by the Argentine federal government, the government of the province of Catamarca and the Universidad Nacional de Tucumán , and Minera Alumbrera Limited , whose main shareholder is the Swiss mining company Xstrata is.
Data
According to the operators was the investment that were inserted into the opening of the mine, at 1.2 billion US dollars . The mine was inaugurated in 1997.
The extraction of the raw material amounts to 120 million tons per year. From this, 650,000 tons of concentrate containing 180,000 tons of copper and 600,000 ounces of gold are obtained through filtering processes. The concentrate is piped to San Miguel de Tucumán , where it is further processed. A large part of the products are exported through the port of Rosario .
controversy
In 2004, a group of farmers settling 2 kilometers downriver from the mine on the Río Vis-Vis sued Minera Alumbrera for pollution. They were forced to leave the region by the contamination of the river and therefore demanded payment of compensation. Without adequate filtering, the operators would have discharged the mine wastewater into the river, causing toxic substances such as sulfur to show much higher levels. The case at the end of the same year caused greater media coverage when the environmental pollution allegations were presented in a television program called Zona de Investigación and at the same time the opinion was expressed that the operating company was evading the environmental regulations of the Argentine state by bribing the provincial government. In 2005, a research group supported by the National Commission for Atomic Energy was able to substantiate the allegations of elevated levels in toxic substances.
Another controversy arose in 2006 when the pipeline on which the concentrate is being transported was broken several times and toxic substances were also released into the surrounding rivers. In March 2007, the Argentine Environment Secretariat confirmed the allegations. At the beginning of October 2007, the operating company gave in and took measures to prevent environmental pollution from such defects.
credentials
- ↑ Oro Sucio , based on an article in the El Ancasti newspaper (Spanish)
- ^ Oro Sucio , based on several newspaper reports
- ↑ Article in the web magazine Esto es Tucumán ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Article in the web magazine Ecoportal ( Memento of the original from September 19, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Article in the regional newspaper Diario C
Web links
- Website of the mine (Spanish)