Pascua Lama enters Supreme Table: Key trial
It would be the first statement of the Third Chamber with Rubén Ballesteros.
In late July will begin to define a key edges to the future of the binational Pascua Lama Project. In the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court the allegations of the appeal submitted by the project developer will be developed, Minera Nevada Spa (Barrick) against the judgment of the Environmental Court that annulled the sanction of U.S. $ 16 million against the mining company.
In this instance, the mining company represented by attorney Juan Antonio Urrutia, will defend the process developed by the Superintendence of the Environment, culminating in the highest sanction of environmental history.
Barrick’s strategy is to convince the Country’s High Court that the sanctioning process and grouping of faults made by the environmental regulator was developed according to the law. This is because the company runs the risk facing a new reunification its economic sanction could increase more than ten times.
The mining company told the Supreme Court that “this injury consists by the equity effect derivative of the potential multiplier effect in sanctions against infringement facts, object of the sanction procedure that can determine, at its worst scenario, a pecuniary penalty whose value far exceeds the established by resolution of the SMA, and paid for my submitted “.
In this trial, where the Superintendence of the Environment not made part of it, other actors attended as Agrícola Santa Mónica, company that has historically presented his objections against the project.
Indeed, Pascua Lama detractors will argue to the Supreme Court that Minera Nevada Spa lacks the legal authority and standing to defend this case in the Supreme.
From the standpoint of the detractors, this work belongs solely to the Superintendency for the Environment, an organization that expects the pronouncement of the court to develop a new infraction competition. –
Another element that is viewed with care by the industry will be the delivery of the Third Chamber of the Supreme this time will not have the presence of Minister Sergio Muñoz, but will be headed by Judge Ruben Ballesteros.
“It will be interesting to see how the delivery of the Third Chamber, in its first case of relevance after the departure of Muñoz,” says a source close to the case.-
Source: Pulso
