{"id":1119435,"date":"2019-06-04T22:33:14","date_gmt":"2019-06-04T22:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=991657"},"modified":"2019-06-04T22:33:14","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T22:33:14","slug":"argentina-rejects-barricks-challenge-to-glacier-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1119435","title":{"rendered":"Argentina rejects Barrick’s challenge to glacier protection"},"content":{"rendered":"

T<\/span>he verdict is in<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0and it\u00a0does\u00a0not look\u00a0good for miners<\/span>\u00a0in Argentina.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In a unanimous decision<\/span>\u00a0on Tuesday,\u00a0<\/span>Argentina\u2019s Supreme Court rejected\u00a0<\/span>a challenge to an environmental law banning mining in glacial areas that\u00a0<\/span>was<\/span>\u00a0brought by\u00a0Barrick Gold.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>The Canadian miner\u00a0<\/span>had\u00a0<\/span>attempted to\u00a0<\/span>subvert<\/span>\u00a0Argentina\u2019s controversial\u00a0<\/span>Glacier Protection Law<\/span><\/a>\u00a0prohibiting mining in glacier and permafrost areas.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Barrick owns the Veladero gold mine in Argentina and the Pascua-Lama project on the Argentine-Chile border.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The company did not issue a statement, but a Barrick source with knowledge of the matter said the court’s decision would not affect any of the company’s current operations in Argentina. The source, who said Barrick would “analyze” the ruling, spoke anonymously, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Min<\/span>ers<\/span>\u00a0have long marked this region for its rich gold, silver and copper deposits, and have been on standby for nearly a decade awaiting a judicial decision from Argentina\u2019s top tribunal as to whether or not they could mine in glacier terrain<\/span>,\u201d said\u00a0<\/span>Jorge Daniel\u00a0<\/span>Taillant<\/span>, executive director,\u00a0<\/span>Center for Human Rights and Environment<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in a media statement.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

McEwen Mining<\/span>\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0Los\u00a0<\/span>Azules<\/span>, Stillwater<\/span>\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0El Altar,\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a0<\/span>Meryllion<\/span>\u00a0Gold<\/span>\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0Cerro Amarillo are\u00a0<\/span>a few other mining\u00a0<\/span>projects that stalled when Argentina passed the world\u2019s first\u00a0<\/span>Glacier Protection Law<\/span><\/a>, prohibiting any industrial activity that could harm glaciers and periglacial areas<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span> Miners\u00a0have long marked this region for its rich gold, silver and copper deposits, and have been on standby for nearly a decade awaiting a judicial decision from Argentina\u2019s top tribunal as to whether or not they could mine in glacier terrain<\/q><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>The\u00a0<\/span>Argentine Glacier Law<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>was passed in 2008, unanimously by Congress, when then activist Environment Secretary Romina\u00a0<\/span>Picolotti<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>brought<\/span>\u00a0the draft law through Congress with no opposition whatsoever<\/span>,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Taillant<\/span>\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Then President <\/span>Fern\u00e1ndez<\/span>\u00a0de Kirchner<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>vetoed the new Glacier Law on the grounds that it was detrimental to the mining sector.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

E<\/span>nvironmentalists\u00a0fought for the return of the Glacier Law, and in 2010 Congress passed a national Glacier Protection Law,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>prohibit<\/span>ing\u00a0<\/span>mining\u00a0<\/span>and oil and gas projects\u00a0in glacier and permafrost areas<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0making the law retroactive.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2015\u00a0<\/span>Chile’s<\/span>\u00a0Environmental Court ruled that the Pascua-Lama<\/a> project had not damaged glaciers within the project’s area of influence.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Argentina\u2019s public officials in the mining sector, and environmental authorities <\/span>took nearly 10 years to carry out the glacier inventory which the law called\u00a0<\/span>for, and<\/span>\u00a0failed to crack down on mining operations already in glacier areas, which the law also mandated<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Sure<\/span>\u00a0that the court system would take years, or even decades to rule on the case, pro-mining public officials went about their business as if the\u00a0<\/span>Glacier Law<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>did not exist, encouraging mining companies to move forward with investments, although the billions of dollars promised by mining companies to extract gold, silver and copper, did not materialize,<\/span>\u201d\u00a0Taillant\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Argentina’s Supreme Court knocked down\u00a0<\/span>the miner\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0arguments,\u00a0<\/span>m<\/span>a<\/span>inta<\/span>ining that the company failed to show that the\u00a0<\/span>G<\/span>lacier\u00a0<\/span>Protection Law\u00a0<\/span>affected mining investments.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe request of Barrick to declare the unconstitutionality of the national regulations has been a perverse move that fortunately lost.\u00a0Now, it is necessary to enforce the law and close Veladero.\u00a0We\u00a0can not\u00a0allow more mining on the glaciers of the Argentines,\u00a0“\u00a0said\u00a0Gonzalo Strano, a Greenpeace Argentina spokesperson in a media statement.<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s ruling halts 44 mining projects nearby or on bodies of ice that are being evaluated, according to the National Secretariat of the Environment.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The post Argentina rejects Barrick’s challenge to glacier protection<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling halts 44 mining projects nearby or on bodies of ice that are being evaluated. <\/p>\n

The post Argentina rejects Barrick’s challenge to glacier protection<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[421,2613,404,369],"tags":[12,48,71],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119435"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1119435"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1119436,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119435\/revisions\/1119436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1119435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1119435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1119435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}