US $ 14 million daily in losses would generate suspension of operations at Antamina mining

This Sunday, October 31, the Antamina mining company announced, through a statement, the paralysis of its operations due to the non-existent guarantees for the correct performance of the corresponding tasks and that a group of community members carried out a strike in the district of Aquia (Ancash). The president of Antamina, Víctor Gobitz, pointed out that this stoppage of Antamina’s operations will generate losses of between US $ 10 and US $ 14 million daily because the mining company generates approximately 50% of GDP.

“In general terms, due to the size of Antamina, we are talking about between US $ 10 and 14 million per day, with lower income. This has an impact on workers’ income, on the country’s collection and on the mining canon, ”he said in dialogue with the Fourth Branch.

Faced with the strike carried out by the community members, company He asked the government to reestablish dialogue in the area. “We are struck by the fact that we are allowing these violent leaders to exist. Aquia has 2,000 residents. and only 500 are part of the community. It is a minority group that is promoting these violent acts, “said Gobitz.

The president of Antamina He pointed out that he already met last Thursday with the Minister of Economy and Finance, Pedro Francke, and tomorrow he will have a meeting with the Minister of Energy and Mines (Minem). “We want dialogue, to solve this peacefully and that explains why we have decided to suspend operations,” he added.

As it is recalled, the origin of the protests by the residents that generated a strike against the Antamina mining company last Sunday, after an alleged illegal usurpation of land and some other breaches.

Consequences of protest

As established by the Antamina mining company, work has been stopped as part of the provisions to be taken into account, in order to avoid any possible conflict to the detriment of the physical integrity of workers or infrastructure. “We do not want to wait for events to occur that put anyone’s physical integrity at risk. Nor are there any incursions that affect the goods of third parties or our facilities, ”the document reads.

“We are going to strengthen the measure of protest against Antamina mining for the abuses committed to its neighboring towns for more than 20 years and we ask that a high-level dialogue table be set up with the president, premier and their competent ministers of state, ”explained the president of the peasant community of Aquia, Adam Gamarra.

In this regard, the company rejected being accused of usurpation of land, since they considered that the road that leads to their headquarters “is a national public highway” that they built and handed over to the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

On October 7, the Aquia community affected by the Antamina operation addressed this letter to the president. The social conflict between the two groups appears since 2010 in the Defensoria reports.