7. Mining and communities

VOLA-7-6
Anti-MLP graffiti in Caimanes, Chile: ‘MLP – one of the most privileged copper mining companies in Chile – what safety measures have the inhabitants of Caimanes been notified of? We don’t know the likelihood of a natural disaster, living as we do in an earthquake zone, and with huge global changes taking place. We demand an early warning system that we can trust, covering the whole area. Power to the Comité de Defensa Personal!’ © Tom Gatehouse 2016
VOLA 7-5
The camp at Jáchal, Argentina: ‘Hands off Jachal’. © Tom Gatehouse 2016
VOLA 7-1
Camila Méndez. © Tom Gatehouse 2017
VOLA-7-2
Dried up river-bed in Caimanes, Chile. © Tom Gatehouse 2016

Anti-MLP graffiti in Caimanes, Chile: ‘MLP – one of the most privileged copper mining companies in Chile – what safety measures have the inhabitants of Caimanes been notified of? We don’t know the likelihood of a natural disaster, living as we do in an earthquake zone, and with huge global changes taking place. We demand an early warning system that we can trust, covering the whole area. Power to the Comité de Defensa Personal!’ © Tom Gatehouse 2016

The camp at Jáchal, Argentina: ‘Hands off Jachal’. © Tom Gatehouse 2016

Dried up river-bed in Caimanes, Chile. © Tom Gatehouse 2016

Abstract

Mining has grown exponentially in Latin America in the last three decades. Massive new mining projects have had major socioenvironmental effects, including pollution, appropriation and contamination of water supplies, division and co-optation of communities, and in some cases their forced relocation.

Communities are learning how to resist and some have successfully challenged government and company claims that large-scale mining projects can be safe, sustainable, and socially beneficial.

Index

News related to this chapter

Colombia: open-pit mine threatens municipalities near Bogotá

Mining November 16, 2023 0

In August this year, the owners of two fincas in the Gualivá province of Cundinamarca, just outside of Bogota, were sent expropriation orders by the national mining agency. An individual named José Elias Yañez Paez plans to install a huge open-pit gravel mine on over 25 hectares of this privately owned land. At present these farms are mainly used for silvopastoral cattle farming and conservation projects. They are situated in the municipality of San Francisco de Sales, known for its abundant natural springs, waterfalls, and flowing ravines. Yañez has already received a mining concession from the government and an environmental licence...

Ecuador: community vs the gold miners

Mining August 10, 2023 0

Indigenous communities in Azuay, Ecuador, are fighting Canadian gold mining company Dundee Precious Metals, whose Loma Larga mine threatens to pollute the Kimsakocha moorlands and its rivers.

Colombia: corporate claims vs human rights

Mining July 17, 2023 0

Glencore, owner of the vast Cerrejón coal mine in Colombia, is using the grotesque Investor State Dispute Settlement process to prevent the Colombian government from protecting its own citizens and environment. Jen Moore was part of an international delegation to study this problem.

Vale? Is it worth it?

Reviews June 14, 2023 0

Documentary film about artistic responses to Brazil's worst environmental crimes: the Brumadinho disaster and Mariana tailings dam collapses, for which megamining company, Vale, is responsible.

Ecuador: the Napo goldrush and the rise of the narco-garimpeiros

Mining May 12, 2023 0

When large mining companies such as TerraEarth withdrew from gold mining in Ecuador's Napo province, they paved the way for smaller scale illegal miners to move in in force, financed by cocaine money, with terrible consequences

Videos

The Amazon

Brazil: tread gently on the earth

November 22, 2022 0

Director Marcos Colón has made a remarkable film about the Amazon, charting how in three countries, Brazil, Peru and Colombia, 'modernity' means exploitation and destruction. He interviews indigenous leaders with a very different vision.

Mining

Brazil: illegal mining pollutes Tapajós

January 25, 2022 0

The explosion of mining in the mid-section of the Tapajós River is most likely the cause of the change in water color in Alter...

Latin America

Latin America at breaking point: a look back at two tumultuous...

April 1, 2021 0

Tom Gatehouse, author of Voices of Latin America: Social Movements and the New Activism and the upcoming The Heart of Our Earth: Community Resistance to Mining in Latin America, will then present ‘Latin America at breaking point: a look back at two tumultuous years’

Mining

Is sustainable mining possible?

March 30, 2021 0

At the Activism against extractive industries and performance activism conference, held by Latin America is Moving Collective in February, 2021, Sue Branford answers the million-dollar question, ‘Is sustainable mining possible?’

Indigenous Peoples

Pumé

June 21, 2019 8

The Pumé people (sometimes called Yaruro) live in the savanna plains of Venezuela, the Llanos, located west of the Orinoco River. Most Pumé communities...

About the Author

Tom Gatehouse is a writer and translator who has lived in Argentina, Spain and Brazil. He holds an MPhil in Latin American Studies from the University of Cambridge.

He has written for LAB and Red Pepper and his translations have appeared in Folha de S. Paulo, Agência Pública and Tales and Trails Lisbon, a recent collection of short stories and other writings. He lives in London.

Interviewees

Camila Méndez. © Tom Gatehouse 2017

Alfredo Gallardo and Esther González, Chile. © Tom Gatehouse 2016

Carina Jofré, Argentina. © Tom Gatehouse 2016

Lucio Cuenca (OLCA): interviewed in London on 23 May 2017 by Tom Gatehouse. Transcribed by Tom Gatehouse and translated by Chris Whitehouse.

Marcelo Giraud (Asamblea Popular por el Agua): interviewed in Mendoza, Argentina, on 17 November 2016 by Tom Gatehouse. Translated by Hebe Powell.

Esther González and Alfredo Gallardo (CDPC): interviewed in Caimanes, Chile, on 24 November 2016 by Tom Gatehouse. Translated by Francis McDonagh.

Angelo Herrera (Hotel manager): interviewed in Caimanes, Chile, on 25 November 2016 by Tom Gatehouse. Translated by María Boniface and Mike Gatehouse.

Carina Jofré (CONICET San Juan): interviewed in San Juan, Argentina, on 17 November 2016 by Tom Gatehouse. Translated by Tom Gatehouse.

Camila Méndez (COSAJUCA): interviewed in London on 30 November 2017 by Tom Gatehouse. Translated by Mike Gatehouse.

Rodrigo Péret (Churches and Mining Network) and Thiago Alves da Silva (MAB): interviewed in London on 19 October 2017 by Tom Gatehouse. Translated by Tom Gatehouse.

Oscar Roca (CAEP): interviewed in Huanuni, Bolivia, on 30 November 2016 by Tom Gatehouse. Transcribed by Alan Williams and translated by Rachel Toogood.

Constanza San Juan and Stefanía Vega (CTDG): interviewed in Santiago de Chile on 26 November 2016 by Tom Gatehouse. Translated by Matty Rose.

Rogelio Ustate (Tabaco community): interviewed in Hatonuevo, La Guajira, Colombia, on 7 January 2017 by Emma Banks. Transcribed by Elizabeth Pillares and translated by James Scorer.

Lucrecia Wagner (CONICET Mendoza): interviewed in Mendoza, Argentina, on 16 November 2016 by Tom Gatehouse. Translated by Tom Gatehouse.

References

NB: All web references were checked and still available in May/June 2018 unless otherwise stated.

Bebbington, A. and Bury, J. (2013) ‘Political ecologies of the subsoil’, in A. Bebbington and J. Bury (eds), Subterranean Struggles, pp. 1–26, University of Texas Press, Austin, TX.

Bebbington, A., Bury, J. and Gallagher, E. (2013) ‘Conclusions’, in A. Bebbington and J. Bury (eds), Subterranean Struggles, pp. 267–88, University of Texas Press, Austin, TX.

Brown, K. (2012) A History of Mining in Latin America, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM.

Bury, J. and Bebbington, A. (2013) ‘New geographies of extractive industries in Latin America’, in A. Bebbington and J. Bury (eds), Subterranean Struggles, pp. 27–66, University of Texas Press, Austin, TX.

Colombia Solidarity Campaign (2013) ‘La Colosa: a death foretold’, Colombia Solidarity Campaign, London

Galeano, E. (1971) Open Veins of Latin America, tr. C. Belfrage (1997), Monthly Review Press, New York, NY.

Gatehouse, T. (2017a) ‘Antofagasta: the Goliath which is crushing Caimanes’, Latin America Bureau (LAB)

Gatehouse, T. (2017b) ‘After the flood: two years on from the Fundão tailings dam disaster’, LAB

Greenpeace Chile (2016) ‘Greenpeace: El proyecto de Ley de Glaciares es malo y no protege a los glaciares’

Jamasmie, C. (2013) ‘Chile’s proposed glaciers protection law worries miners, investors’, MINING.com

McKinley, A. (2018) ‘El Salvador: first anniversary of the mining ban’, LAB

Miller, H. (2010) ‘Esquel community opposes to gold mining, Argentina, 2002–2006’, Global Nonviolent Action Database

Sankey, K. (2014) ‘Colombia: The mining boom: a catalyst of development or resistance?’, in H. Veltmeyer and J. Petras (eds), The New Extractivism: A Post-Neoliberal Development Model of Imperialism of the Twenty-First Century?, pp. 114–43, Zed Books, London and New York, NY.

Scott, P. (2016) ‘Review of Cerro Rico – the silver mountain’, London Mining Network

Thorp, R., Battistelli, S., Guichaoua, Y., Orihuela, J.C. and Paredes, M. (2012) ‘Extractives-based development and developmental outcomes’, in R. Thorp et al., The Developmental Challenges of Mining and Oil: Lessons from Africa and Latin America, pp. 168–211, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke.

Veltmeyer, H. and Petras, J. (2014a) ‘A new model or extractive imperialism?’, in H. Veltmeyer and J. Petras (eds), The New Extractivism, pp. 21–46, Zed Books, London and New York, NY.

Veltmeyer, H. and Petras, J. (2014b) ‘Theses on extractive imperialism and the post-neoliberal state’, in H. Veltmeyer and J. Petras (eds), The New Extractivism, pp. 222–49, Zed Books, London and New York, NY.

Latin America BureauNews, analysis and information on Latin America, its people, politics and society.