Political and Regional Upheaval Delays Conga's Rhythm

Comment

Comment by EPCM Admin on February 21, 2012 at 9:39am

Here are some of the comments posted on LINKED IN in response to this article! 

WHAT DO YOU THINK?  Post your comments below!

 

Claudio Mujica • It is great sadness that this type of manifestations concern projects that really bring development to the countries.

MAZANO MAUSHE • This is definitely an unfortunate development in the wake of such an exciting and forthcoming investment prospect.

Mohamed Boutazakhti • When I read the article I come out with the understanding that the issue at the heart of the problem is that the mining practice as it is now has an unacceptable impact on the environment and water resources. It is the company's failure to address these issues that brought about these street demonstrations after the government agencies failed to address them.
There weren't in the article any details regarding the actual environmental shortcomings of the project.
To assess whether these mining practices are acceptable it would be interesting to ask a test question: If Cajamarca were a location somewhere in USA or Canada for instance(let us accept the mining practices of the different regions of these two countries as being sound, just for this argument), would the pertinent authorities in these countries have allowed this mining company to run its operation with the same practices and technology they are using in Cajamarca Peru?
Just a way to sort out legitimate concerns regarding mining practices' impact on the environment from situations where mining projects fall victims to local politics.

Al Maiorino • Having run hudreds of grassroots campaigns for developers who face opposition to development, it is urgent that mining companies become more proactive early and run strong grassroots and educational campaigns to create groundswells of support for mining.

Hugh( Sid) Nielsen • Mohamed, In Canada and the US we have invironmantal groups that are paid to disrupt the process of application so that no mining can proceed. The pendulum has swung to far that way.
To be fair some mining company,s have created disasters in the past due to lack of engineering or in some cases neglegence, to make money. So a lot of the beurocrats are to frightened of the invironmental process to make a pro-mining decision. If the afor mentioned project was in Canada or the US it probably wouldn,t be off the ground yet. Do it right the first time and you won,t have to spend money to do it again, or have ligetimate opposition
-My thoughts and observations from Canada

Mohamed Boutazakhti• Sid, I would think that environmental activism, unions and community organizations (in latin america there would be for instance native communities,...) are more linked to political parties and political movements than they are in Canada for instance. And what appears to be an environmental claim (legitimate or not) is actually part of a bigger and deeper local political problem feeding on centuries of class segregation, resentement and poverty. It is easy to see that a mining project can get swept into these local issues.

I would assume mining companies incorporate these aspects of the local environment in their risk assessement and come up with means of mitigating their impact on the projects.
It is also probably common to have some mining companies thinking that they can get away with practices that are way bellow best practice standards in their industries just because the host countries lack the control structures that we have for instance and local politicians and public servants who are responsible for inforcing the law can be a tad more corrupt than in countries with better accountability structures, stiff anti-corruption laws and a strong independent and clean judiciary system.
In today’s world there are computers up in the mountains of south america and in dusty corners of the african desert.....activists, responsible citizens and people who are willing to find information will find it. People in these communities where foreign companies set up shop to mine ores go and look up the record of these corporations and the practices that enforced in the countries where they are headquartered. Sometimes they can just ask: " why is it that they are doing in country what they are not allowed to do in theirs? "
These are just general ideas regarding things that can land mining projects in trouble. It would be nice to know what the actual problems raised the residents of Cajamarca are. Is it access to water? is it an issue of sustainable use of water resources? is it effluent management? is it pollution of water resources due to mining activity?.....