Re: Next bump GRZ ruling/EZ
in response to
by
posted on
Apr 13, 2013 02:36PM
Crystallex International Corporation is a Canadian-based gold company with a successful record of developing and operating gold mines in Venezuela and elsewhere in South America
With so much geo-political risk for miners even in countries that's traditionally mining friendly Chile and Puru and many others, could see a supply shortage in coming years imo, with central banks and ETF's holding tonnes that not in the market would expect higher prices coming soon, who knows at these level could well be a gift
Barrick's Pascua-Lama mine setback signals larger shift in Chile
PAV JORDAN
RTGAM
A ruling from a Chilean court to halt work on the world's most ambitious gold
project marks a growing backlash against the industry in one of the world's most
mining-friendly jurisdictions.
The Pascua-Lama gold and silver project straddles the Andes mountain range
between Chile and Argentina and is slated to go into production this time next
year, if project owner Barrick Gold Corp. can convince an appeals court in the
northern town of Copiapo - population 167,000 - that it isn't polluting the
water supplies of indigenous communities.
The ruling represents a rare injunction against a mine that has been more than a
decade in the making, having cleared regulatory hurdles including environmental
permitting in Chile and Argentina. It's also the latest instance of a Chilean
court hearing a complaint against a project already cleared by environmental
authorities.
Chile has long been viewed as a miner's Utopia, complete with some of the
richest mineral reserves on the planet as well as one of its most
mining-friendly, stable governments, but some say it has become so saturated
with projects that its infrastructure is straining at the seams and communities
are becoming alarmed. The shift comes amid a growing wave of resource
nationalism, which has touched most of the world's mining jurisdictions.
Chile hosts operations owned by the world's largest miners, including the likes
of Australia's BHP Billiton PLC and Rio Tinto PLC, London-listed Anglo American
PLC, Switzerland's Xstrata PLC and Canada's Teck Resources Ltd.
"For years, the courts had reserved judgment and not heard cases of projects
already approved by environmental authorities. I would say that that changed two
or three years ago," Natalia Fernandez, an environmental lawyer for Chile's
Oyarzun Abogados law firm, said in a telephone interview from Santiago.
"These days they are getting involved and they are ruling against the decisions
of environmental authorities, leaving environmental authorizations without
effect. They are revoking environmental licences where they believe a nearby
community is being impacted by a project."
Almost exactly a year ago Chile's Supreme Court upheld a ruling by a lower court
revoking the environmental permit on El Morro, a $3.9-billion copper-gold
project owned by Vancouver-based Goldcorp Inc. and like Pascua-Lama also set in
the Atacama desert. The original approval was issued on March 14, 2011.
It's not clear how long the suspension announced this week will last on
Barrick's $8.5-billion Pascua-Lama project, but experts like Ms. Fernandez say a
resolution will likely take at least four months to reach.
"The Appeals Court should take at least a few months to rule (in April or May)
but the results can be appealed again by parties to the Supreme Court, which can
also take a period of time of no less than two months," she said.
Critics complain that a regulatory vacuum is emerging in Chile as a growing
number of communities use the court system to challenge massive mining and
energy projects.
In Chile's verdant south, a popular destination for global eco-tourism, protests
from environmental groups have left a giant, $3.2-billion hydroelectric project
known as HydroAysen stalled for years.
Barrick says it's too early to tell what it will all mean for Pascua-Lama, which
is already a year overdue and billions of dollars over budget.
The company says work will continue on the Argentine side, and likely as well on
water management jobs deemed necessary for environmental protection in Chile.
"When you get a project of this magnitude interrupted, everyone is going to sit
up and take notice how the authorities deal with it," said Sander Grieve, a
partner and head of mining at the Bennett Jones law firm in Toronto.