Archive for the ‘Mining’ Category
Saturday, February 2nd, 2008
A team of Peruvian and American archeologists has uncovered a 2,000-year-old mine in the foothills of Peru’s Andes in the southern department of Ica. The leader of the expedition and assistant professor at Purdue University, Dr. Kevin Vaughn, says the Mina Primavera is the only pre-Hispanic hematite mine registered in South America and the first evidence of iron ore mining in the Andes.
According to a report by the archeologists, the mine was used by at least two pre-Inca civilizations, the Nazca and Wari, in order to extract hematite, the mineral form of iron oxide which was likely used as a pigment for painting pottery. The study finds some 3,710 tonnes of hematite was excavated from the mine, “suggesting regular and extensive mining prior to Spanish conquest.”
Inside the 500-square-meter mine, archeologists found pottery fragments, stone and shell beads, botanical remains, cotton textiles suitable for storing and transporting ground pigment and fragments of spondylus shells, suggesting the site was also used to make offerings linked to agricultural fertility and water. (more…)
Posted in Archaeology, Mining | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 29th, 2008
The head of the Peruvian Society for Environmental Law, SPDA, Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, sat down for an interview with daily El Comercio to discuss the creation of Peru’s future Environment Ministry and its relation to the country’s mining industry, one of the largest in the world.
Pulgar says the Environment Ministry must be able to regulate the environmental impact of mining. “A ministry that overlooks a widespread topic like mining has to be able to regulate. If not, it becomes a coordinator,” says Pulgar.
Without the ability to regulate, the ministry would have the same powers as the National Environmental Council, Conam, which he says “has lost credibility and become unmanageable.” “Citizens are demanding an entity that will be able to provide answers to mining.” (more…)
Posted in Environment, Mining, Politics | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 9th, 2008
Two mines in Peru’s central Andes have collapsed, trapping six workers. The San Vincente de Vítoc zinc mine, in Junín department, collapsed on Sunday night, burying four workers. A day later, the Atacocha zinc mine, in Cerro de Pasco, the capital of Pasco department, collapsed on two more men.
Agencia Andina has identified the workers in the San Vincente de Vítoc mine, owned by Peru’s San Ignacio de Morococha, as Juan José Valenzuela Berrocal, 35, Rubén Carrión Jara, 35, Daye Ninamanco Arteaga, 30, and Gustavo Heredia Ostrera, 22. Daily El Comercio identified the workers at the Atacocha mine, owned by Peru’s Atacocha, as Édgar Augusto Ugáldez Asañero, 25, and Luis Everth Ríos Damián, 33.
According to Agencia Andina, authorities are continuing to search for the bodies of the four men at San Vincente de Vítoc. They are using heavy machinery and relying on the support of local police officers and firefighters. Flooding and a landslide were reportedly the cause of the San Vincente de Vítoc mines collapse.
The Energy and Mines Ministry reported 58 fatal accidents in Peru’s formal mines in 2007. This is down from 2006, which had 65 fatal accidents.
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Tuesday, January 8th, 2008
Peru’s Defensoría del Pueblo — the national ombudsman organization — reported yesterday that almost half of the country’s social conflicts it tracked in December were related to environmental concerns.
The state-sponsored Defensoría, in charge of protecting the basic and constitutional rights of Peruvians, released a summary of its 46th Social Conflicts Report, stating that 47 percent of 78 social conflicts it tracked in December are “socio-environmental” in nature. (more…)
Posted in Environment, Mining, Regional Politics | No Comments »
Thursday, December 27th, 2007
The Missouri-based Doe Run Company is facing legal action in the United States for contamination at its poly-metallic smelter in the Peruvian town of La Oroya, in Junín department. According to daily La República, two American missionaries filed suit against Doe Run, citing a 2005 environmental study at the University of Missouri - St. Louis that documented lead contamination in 137 children from La Oroya.
In 2006 and 2007 the Blacksmith Institute named La Oroya one of the ten most polluted places in the world. A 1999 survey by Peru’s Health Ministry claimed the average blood lead level among local children between was triple the World Health Organization limit. According to La República, the 2005 study by the University of Missouri – St. Louis revealed blood lead levels four times higher than the WHO limit. (more…)
Posted in Environment, Mining | No Comments »
Saturday, December 15th, 2007
Peru will loom slightly larger than usual in the headlines in U.S. newspapers this weekend after President George W. Bush signed into law a free trade agreement between the two nations.
The bill passed following a contentious feud in Congress that ended only after Republicans agreed to Democratic demands to include labor union protection and environmental standards, both in the Peru deal and in future trade pacts.
Bush said before signing Friday that he is hopeful the Peru deal will pave the way for approval of deals with Panama, Colombia and South Korea before he leaves office in 2009. And President Alan Garcia assured Bush that his government will make good on its pledge that the trade deal will favor Peru’s poor, particularly “the population in the Andes and their small enterprises.”
“You should be sure, as well as the members of the Congress and the American people, that in Peru this treaty would not exclude the poorest of the Peruvian workers,” Garcia said moments before Bush signed the pact. “On the contrary; using the words of the great Abraham Lincoln, it will be a free trade agreement of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
But not everyone in Peru is comforted by that assurance.
Weeks before the House approved the deal on Nov. 8 in a 285-132 vote, David Bayer, a former deputy executive officer for USAID in Lima until 2002, sent out the following appeal. He wrote it from his home in Ica, the coastal city devastated by the magnitude-8 earthquake last August (it is reprinted here with David’s permission):
What is wrong with the Peruvian-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA)?
Chapter X is the most insidious part of the US-Peru-FTA in terms of its damage to the vast majority of Peruvians. The GRADE analysis ( a conservative NGO) points out the the poor and extreme poor in Peru will get poorer with the implementation of the FTA:
Chapter X boils down to this: when the FTA is signed, everything favorable to the big private corporations and multinationals gets “frozen in time” or “shielded.” If the companies are exonerated from taxes (as is the case with the Peruvian agro-exporters) or have a special low-tax regime (as is the case with 80 percent of the major Peruvian mining companies) THEN NONE OF THESE PRIVILIGES CAN BE CHANGED by the national, regional or local government without violating Chapter X . (more…)
Posted in Business, Earthquakes, Environment, Law, Mining, Natural Disasters, Politics, Regional Politics | No Comments »
Monday, December 10th, 2007
Peruvian Police siezed more than 2,000 pounds of explosives in two different operations yesterday. According to daily La República, authorities in La Libertad Department found 1,771 pounds of ammonium nitrate, 3,800 dynamite sticks and 5,000 meters of slow match fuse in the possession of a 52-year-old suspect. Police tests say the explosives were manufactured in Lima factories owned by EXSA and UEE-FANEXA.
In southern Peru, police also apprehended Vicente Tapara Carrasco and Ángel Ricardo Quispe Ccoa. They were caught allegedly transporting 568 dynamite sticks and 2,200 common explosives in Puno Department.
Authorities believe the explosives were intended for either informal mines or guerrilla activity. Lawyer Vicente Raúl Del Solar told La República the men will face a minimum of 10 years in prison if the material was intended for mining. They could face up to 35 years in prison if it was destined for insurgents.
Posted in Criminal Justice, Insurgency, Mining | No Comments »
Friday, December 7th, 2007
Cabinet Chief Jorge Del Castillo walked out on a roundtable discussion yesterday with community representatives in Piura department. The meeting was intended to resolve conflicts between local residents and the Majaz mining company. Residents accuse Majaz of fraud, illegally appropriating community land and damaging the environment.
Del Castillo abruptly suspended the meeting after representatives from the Front for Sustainable Development for the Northern Border insisted on last minute changes to the agenda. ¨They were trying to name a new facilitator and proposing new topics that weren’t viable¨ said Del Castillo. One of the new topics was a September 16 community study on the Chinchipe river basin and the legality of Majaz operations. ¨There needs to be a consensus for the agenda, and on this point we are in disagreement,¨ Del Castillo said.
Ayabaca mayor and roundtable participant, Humberto Marchena, told Peruvian media the report is a community expression and should be included, even though it is not binding to the negotiations. ¨The Cabinet Chief, Jorge Del Castillo, must understand that the study is important to the community, it should be considered a verdict of Ayabaca.¨
Posted in Environment, Mining | No Comments »
Thursday, November 22nd, 2007
The ¨Revive El Mantaro¨project has found high levels of toxins in the Mantaro river basin, an important water source in Peru’s central Andes. ¨Revive El Mantaro¨ - a campaign launched in July 2006 by civil society groups in six affected provinces – took soil and water samples at over 50 locations along a 105-mile stretch of the Mantaro basin.
The study found a cesspool of cyanide, lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, coliform from human waste and nitrates from agrochemicals.
According to the study, river contamination increased as they got closer to mines, including the Missouri-based Doe Run poly-metallic smelter in the city of La Oroya. In the Anticona river, for instance, lead concentrations are180 times higher than the baseline – established by taking samples at river sources where water is purest - and World Health Oganization reference levels. In the San Juan river, cyanide concentrations are up to 35 times higher than the baseline level. (more…)
Posted in Environment, Health Care, Mining | No Comments »
Thursday, November 8th, 2007
Peruvian President Alan García is celebrating after the United States House of Representatives approved a free trade agreement with Peru today. “Peru will have open access to the largest economy in the world. The United States, economically, is 150 times larger than Peru,” García told reporters. The 285-132 vote in favor of the accord was a major hurdle for the pact and means the FTA will become law if approved by the U.S. Senate.
Supporters say the agreement will help Peru’s economy expand by 10 percent in 2008 and 2009. “The FTA is a blow against poverty, against those that want an isolated Peru, against those that refuse investments and want to see povery continue,” said the president of Peru’s Congress, Luis Gonzales Posada. (more…)
Posted in Business, Environment, Mining, Regional Politics | 1 Comment »
