Because mining takes a heavy toll on the environment, mining companies and the communities that occupy the region where the resources are extracted should engage in dialogue to attempt to come to agreements regarding the extractive activity. In reality, the communities whose territories are explored, mined and exploited many times do not realize what the companies are doing; yet, they have to suffer the negative environmental consequences that result. This is why the values of sustainable development and natural resource extraction should consider the earth as a habitat for life and not just a marketplace. It is therefore necessary for stakeholders to exchange opinions in order to avoid conflicts and natural disasters.
A prime example of a conflict between rural communities and mining companies over mining activities is found in the department of Cajamarca. In 1994, the Yanacocha gold mine opened for business. Slowly, three of their main gold mines (Yanacocha Norte, Maqui Maqui and Carachugo) have been exhausted. In order to keep production, the company needs to explore new areas and they have selected Cerro Quilish and Cerro Negro. Yet, these areas have been declared as protected areas by the municipality of Cajamarca.
Cerro Quilish
The municipality of Cajamarca created the Cerro Quilish Reserved Zone as part of the ordinance, \”Protected Reserved Zone of Cerro Quilish and the sub-watersheds of the Quilish, Porcon and Grande Rivers.\” (1) The Municipal Board of Cajamarca and the regional government are responsible for carrying out the ordinance, which protects the environment, natural resources, and life and health of the residents.
In 2003, the Yanacocha Mining Company contested the ordinance with a \”Stop Action,\” questioning the constitutionality of the ordinance. In response, the residents of the area then protested the company\’s attempts to mine the protected areas. The residents\’ protests were valid, because in addition to the regional governmental protection, the National Natural Protected Areas Law legally supports these protected areas.
In response, Yanacocha began a dialogue with the communities; they held public meetings in order to understand the residents\’ point of view. The also wanted to share with the residents the results of the environmental impacts studies they had conducted. It is hoped that gold will be extracted following the legal environmental guidelines and that the company will live up to its social obligations and responsibilities. In other words, it is hoped the company will respect the natural resources that could be affected such as the Quilish, Porcon and Grande Rivers (2).
Cerro Negro
The San Pablo Municipality of Cajamarca declared the Cerro Negro and Huayquishongo zones (1000 hectares) municipal conservation zones (Ordinance Number 088-2003-MPSMP). The ordinance prohibits mining prospecting, exploration, and exploitation. The director of the National Coordination for Peruvian Communities Affected by Mining (CONACAMI), Miguel Palacin Quispe, supports the ordinance. He said that the zone is highly fertile where communities have planted pasture for cattle ranching. The region is a milk-producing zone, and if mining begins there, contaminated rivers and pastures will threaten this activity. Nonetheless, when the ordinance was passed, Yanacocha Mining Company was already conducting preliminary activities for their \”Cerro Negro\” Project, including environmental impact studies and mining development studies.
The company wants to develop the gold mine at Cerro Negro to make up for lost production at other exhausted sites. Calculations estimate that Cerro Negro will only provide gold for two years since the gold vein is relatively small. But, the company still wants to exploit Cerro Negro. With Cerro Negro in operation, Yanacocha can continue to control one of the most productive gold mining areas of the Latin America, producing 2.9 million ounces per year (3). Wayne Murdy, Executive with Newmont Mining Corporation (company with 54.6% ownership of Yanacocha Mining Co.) considers Yanacocha mines within the top five most productive gold mining areas of the world. He said that they [the company] would remain in Cajamarca for at least three generations mining gold (4).
CONACAMI have publicly denounced Yanacocha Mining regarding the Cerro Negro Project. They have requested that Yanacocha remove the mining camps and that they respect San Pablo\’s ordinance that Cerro Negro is a protected zone.
Collaboration between Ramada and Yanacocha
Since the Cerro Negro Project began, Yanacocha has entered into a conflict with a community called Ramada, which is 4 kilometers from Cerro Quilish. According to the residents, the mining company closed off an irrigation canal that supplied water to 160 farming families within the Ramada Canal in the zone of Cerro Negro-Porcon. Allegedly, three years ago, Yanacocha Mining Company prohibited the campesinos from maintaining the canals. Engineer Jorge Gonzalez, General Manager of Community Relations for Yanacocha says that the canals that they were going to clean and maintain had previously been declared inactive in 2002 by a legal resolution and in addition, the same canal had never provided water to the Ramada Community.
The rural farmers filed a complaint to the Regional Direction of Water Administration (within the Ministry of Agriculture); nonetheless, a resolution issued in 2002 allowed Yanacocha free access to the zone to carry out its mining. Mr. Gonazalez explained that Yanacocha purchased the Cerro Negro land from the Regional Direction of Water Administration. At the moment of that land transaction, the National Institute of Natural Resources (INRENA) did not comply with the municipal ordinance of Cajamarca that declared the area as a conservation area because, \”the zone was not among those listed on the national registry of natural protected areas.\”
When the company conducted its environmental impact studies, and when they held the public meetings to talk with the local residents about the Cerro Negro Project before they actually begun mining, no one said anything. The conflict with the Ramada community began a few months after Yanacoch\’s Quima Mine contaminated the water supply of the Quishuar and Encajo communities and subsequently compensated them. This situation, explained Mr. Gonzalez, all of a sudden lead to claims and expectations in Ramada: \”It is a conflict of created interests and there are several actors involved, such as environmental organizations and politicians. The community is just the means to accomplish other goals.\”
The community of Ramada has submitted a petition of the mining concession. Apparently, this petition was submitted without the public\’s knowledge and it is written to actually benefit the Yanacocha Mining Company. In response to the petition, the company has begun an open dialogue with the community but without intermediaries. They would like to determine how much work was invested to clean and maintain some of the canals. Then, after they reach a determination, they will work with the community to discuss a compensation package.
ParksWatch-Peru, June 2004
By: Inés Vera
__________
Notes
1 Agreement N° 003-2003-CMPC, Municipal Ordinance N° 012-200-CMPC of October 5th, 2002 published in the Sociedad Nacional de Derecho Ambiental Pulication in May 2004.
2 \” Yanacocha explotará depósito de Cerro Negro\”, May 7, 2004. By, Tania Mellado correspondent of REUTERS in Lima.
3 \” Yanacocha inicia explotación de yacimiento Cerro Negro en 2004\”, www.portalminero.com , web page of mining activities
4 \” Una Puna Bañada en Oro: El Imperio Yanacocha\”, by Marco Zileri. In the magazine, CARETAS, May 2, 2002.