Controversy over the closure of mines in Ayacucho

During your visit to Ayacucho, the president of the Council of Ministers, Mirtha Vásquez, announced that the Executive will monitor the closure of the Pallancata, Inmaculada and Apumayo mines, the first two in the last stage of progressive closure and the last in final closure. Breapampa still has a little over a year to spare. All at the head of the basin, all the scene of social conflicts over water in recent weeks.

Vásquez was accompanied by a high-level commission made up of the vice ministers of Mines, Jorge Chávez; of Environmental Management, Mariano Castro; and Development of Family Agriculture and Agrarian Infrastructure and Irrigation, José Muro; as well as the head of the National Water Authority (ANA), Roberto Salazar, who carried out the dialogue with the mayors and leaders of Lucanas, Parinacochas and Páucar del Sara Sara, towns in the zone of influence of perishable projects.

According to Law 28090, the law that regulates the closure of mines, a plan of this type “is an instrument of environmental management made up of technical and legal actions, which must be carried out by the owner of the mining activity, in order to rehabilitate the areas used or disturbed by mining activity ”, with the aim that these achieve ecosystem characteristics compatible with a healthy and suitable environment for the development of life and the conservation of the landscape.

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The closures are carried out at the request of the mining companies, as foreseen by resolutions of the General Directorate of Mining Environmental Affairs of Minem. It is not true, therefore, that they have not been aware.

However, representatives of the extractive sector have raised their voice in protest at what they consider to be a “unilateral political decision”. From Hochschild, a subsidiary of Ares (Inmaculada and Pallancata), have extended “a call to the prime minister to clarify to the public opinion the real scope of the act signed in Cora Cora and, in addition, reconsider the illegal position adopted.” From Apumayo, it has been demanded that “legal guarantees be provided to establish responsible communication channels that allow an objective dialogue table” that result in peaceful solutions, translated, of course, in an expansion of its operations.

PCM: peace for the water

After the counterload of the representatives of the mining sector, who came to suggest the ventilation of the case in the judicial jurisdiction, under the support of other private unions, among them AGAP, Confiep, Adex and SNI, the PCM came to the fore and clarified that the The agreement signed with the Ayacucho residents responds to “compliance with said plans within the established deadlines and under the supervision of the competent ministries”, according to law.

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As the general secretary of the Transparency Civil Association points out, Iván Lanegra, a mining operation is very complex and “cannot wait for the end of the useful life to just start the closure”. For this reason, there is a “progressive closure” during operation and, when the useful life ends, “the final closure comes”. On the contrary, if it is required to extend the useful life, it is requested by means of a prior authorization, with the environmental component at the forefront.

In this sense, Mirtha Vásquez categorically ruled out that the announcements made in Huamanga are arbitrary, illegal, or that contravene the legal security of the country. He also reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to encourage private investment, including mining, in strict compliance with the current legal framework to which, now, they are complying.

“We call for the calm and serenity of the mining business union and not to pay for the political instability of the country. We all need a climate of peace that allows responsible investments ”, he remarked.

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Basin headwaters cannot be mined

Ricardo Giesecke, former Minister of the Environment

We have two water management systems in Peru: they are generated by the jungle and they pass to the mountains, where glaciers and headwaters of the basin await them, these with their wetlands and wetlands, which are the system through which the resource falls and begins to filter to get to the river. Mining directly in the headwaters of the basin is bread for today and hunger for tomorrow. The headwaters of the basin are a water regulator. There, no water is generated, there it is received and filtered into the interior rivers of the Andes, on the way to the coast.

The Water Resources Law says that they are environmentally very delicate places and that no activity should be carried out. However, in Peru the opposite is done. The EIAs are made from part. What are they going to tell the miner if she is the one paying them? I would like someone to tell me, where has a mine closure been made in Peru, with the law that states that when the mine is designed, it must also be foreseen what the closure will be like? I think it is very wise to start closing these mines, because, as water becomes scarce in these areas, they will most likely end up poisoning the people who depend on it below. It is inadmissible.