By Fiona MacDonald
Proactive Investors
Construction on Barrick Gold Corp.’s beleaguered Pascua-Lama project has been halted by order of the Chilean government environmental regulator Friday, according to a statement on the agency’s website, the newest delay in the development of the trouble-plagued mine.
In addition, the mining giant was slapped with a fine of 8 billion pesos, about US$16 million, the maximum amount available under Chilean law, for violating terms stipulated in the environmental approval it was granted in 2006, according to a statement posted on the website of the Chilean environmental regulator.
The ruling, which follows a four-month investigation, will bring construction work on the site to a halt until the company puts in place the systems for containing contaminated water it previously agreed to implement.