The Chilean Congress approved a law that allows the closure of the controversial Fundición Ventanas of the state-owned Corporación Nacional del Cobre (Codelco), a site that operates in the Quintero-Puchuncaví bay in the Valparaíso region and which has been involved along with other companies in the area in serious episodes of contamination and poisoning that have affected the inhabitants of the territory.
“We have taken a very important step to advance in the progressive closure of the Ventanas smelter and, in this way, fulfill the commitment of the President’s Government gabriel boric to eliminate the country’s slaughter zones“said the Minister of Mining, Marcela Hernando.
“Thanks to the approval of this bill, we are guaranteeing the small miners of Valparaíso, O’Higgins and Coquimbo that their production will continue to be treated in other facilities Codelco”, added the Secretary of State.
The authority stressed that the smelter, located in the area for almost six decades, is accused of being one of the main causes of multiple episodes of poisoning that have affected thousands of people in the bay, also losing the ability to operate at full capacity according to environmental plans, thus affecting the economy of the Chilean copper company.
the bay of Quintero-Puchuncaví160 kilometers northwest of Santiago on the Chilean central coast, was declared in 1993 as “environmental sacrifice zone”, territory abandoned to industrial deterioration and pollution permanently affecting human health and biodiversity.
It is one of the fivesacrifice zones” of the South American country, spaces wrapped daily in a toxic cloud of gases that cause acid rain and sicken its inhabitants up to four times more than the national average, with respiratory, cardiovascular and malignant tumors, according to a study by the Catholic University and the Sustainable Chile Foundation.
Once the law is published in the Official Gazette, the Government will have a period of 90 days to submit a report to the Legislative Branch with proposals aimed at increasing state copper smelting capacity, with an emphasis on safeguarding the health of the population and the environment.
Source: EFE
Source: Gestion
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