Pascua Lama viable project after agreement with communities
Signed MOU with 15 Diaguitas clusters. Formed technical committee which must submit final report with Project evaluation.
The efforts of the Canadian Barrick Gold to unlock the stoppage of its main project, Pascua Lama, do not stop.
In addition to the approaches it had with the government, through the Ministries of Mining and Environmental-, the mining company, developer of the initiative of gold and copper for over U.S. $ 8,500 million, made an important step in late April, when it reached the signing of a memorandum of understanding with 15 of the 18 Diaguitas communities from Huasco valley.
While the 10-page document, entitled “Agreement for exchange of information and communication”, is in a first step (out of three), to date there are few things clear. Among them, the mediation will be conducted by lawyer and anthropologist Alonso Barros, and so far not considered compensation.
Sources close to the negotiations commented that the fact is unprecedented, considering that the communities represented by attorneys-Alex Quevedo and Lorenzo Soto- were those that managed to stop the project in the Court of Appeals of Copiapó, in April 2013. On that occasion, also requested that the environmental permit of the initiative was revoked, petition that was presented a second time before the environmental Court.
According to sources, this is a first step for the company to reach the so-called “social license” as it will look in the negotiations that follow international standards. That agreement is not binding and both communities and the company may be removed from the Board when they see fit. The agreement also provides that communities take waive no legal or administrative proceedings.
The negociations
According to connoisseurs of the agreement, the first phase of the memorandum will last six months and the company will give it all the background of the project to the communities, so that they evaluate information related to water, land and tangible and intangible cultural heritage. In this process, -which will be financed by Barrick- communities can hire experts to advise them. In addition, and together with the company already formed a technical committee composed of six people (three from communities and three from the company), which will aim to make a Final report of the findings of the evaluation. After this, provided that the communities agree, there could be step to the second step: dialogue.
In this new phase, which could last up to two years, communities could apply for an Indian royalty assessment, tool used in mining projects in countries such as Canada and Australia, and considers the payment of between 1% and 5% of annual sales of a project to the community in which it is inserted.
The sources said that if the deal is still on, the initiative, which is paralyzed by the Court of Appeals and the Superintendence of the Environment (SMA), after failing in its water management plan-could not be resumed until the process concludes.
Pascua Lama is located on the border of Chile and Argentina, more than four thousand meters above sea level. At the time of its stoppage, the company had already invested over U.S. $ 4,000 million.
Source: La Tercera
