Shuar people facing COVID-19 crisis due to mining company

Canadian mining company Solaris Resources has been criticised by multiple organisations for its irresponsible conduct in sending seven members of the Shuar communities of Warints and Yawi to the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) where they were exposed to COVID-19. Subsequently several members of their families have died, with many more sick.

Shuar Arutam President Josefina Tunki

Indigenous tribes are particularly at risk of pandemics. There have been waves of epidemics since the area was first colonised, killing up to 90% of the tribespeople. More recently, polio killed around two-thirds of the Waorani in the 1950s, and the Shuar did not fare much better. When mining operations are allowed to continue in areas where there are limited health resources, workers and local populations are put at grave risk.

What compounds the issues in this case is that the members taken were not officially elected representatives of the Shuar Arutam, which indicates the mining company was bypassing official Shuar authority over their land, a move that could have fractured the community, even without the threat of the virus.

Several attendees contracted coronavirus while attending the conference. PDAC put out a media statement here.

Official statement of solidarity below in English and Spanish.

Solidarity with the Pueblo Shuar Arutam Facing COVID-19 emergency | SOLIDARIDAD CON EL PUEBLO SHUAR DEL ECUADOR, EN EL MARCO DE LA CRISIS DE COVID-19

[español abajo]

We, the undersigned organizations express our solidarity and support to the authorities of the Shuar Arutam People (PSHA), to the Shuar People in general, and to all peoples and nations of the Ecuadorian Amazon, currently facing a possible outbreak of COVID-19, in their communities.

Background

On April 13, the Shuar Arutam People (PSHA) together with dozens of Ecuadorian allied organizations sent an alert to the President of the Republic of Ecuador, the Ministry of Health, and the IACHR demanding that urgent measures be taken regarding a possible outbreak of COVID-19 provoked by the irresponsible actions of a Canadian mining company, Solaris Resources (whose main shareholder is the Canadian mining company Equinox Gold).

In March, the PSHA leadership condemned the participation of seven members of the Shuar communities of Warints and Yawi, invited by Solaris Resources, to the annual conference of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC). Specifically, they condemned their participation because the seven indigenous people who participated in that conference were not duly elected representatives of the Shuar Arutam People's Assembly. The PSHA also noted that they were ignoring the assembly's decision to categorically reject mining in their territory. It is worth noting that in days before the conference in Canada several warnings were issued about the risks it posed to participants as a possible outbreak point for the COVID-19 virus. As expected, it was released after the event that the virus had been contracted by several participants, including the Burkina Faso deputy minister of mines. This then heightened concerns about a possible infection in the territory of the PSHA.

On April 2, the president of the PSHA received the news that the mother of one of the attendees died with symptoms similar to that of the coronavirus and asked the authorities to investigate the case, given its direct link with the conference, a known transmission point. After ridiculing the statement of the Shuar leader, the Governor of the province of Morona Santiago affirmed, without any evidence, that the death was not related to the PDAC conference or COVID-19, and rather congratulated the mining company Solaris Resources. Then, one more person died, this time the father of another of the attendees, and 8 other members of the Warints and Yawi community have presented symptoms similar to those of COVID-19.

As organizations and individuals of the international community,

We express our profound concern about the lack of attention and response by the Ecuadorian authorities to this serious health emergency. Furthermore, we are concerned that the Ecuadorian government has allowed mining and oil companies to be exempt from quarantine controls imposed nationally, which puts workers and populations living in the vicinity of their operations at greater risk. These peoples already face limited access to health to deal with the pandemic.

We condemn Canadian mining company, Solaris Resources’ permanent interference in Shuar indigenous territory as well as its disdain for the decisions of the self-determination of the PSHA, the same government who, March 30, 2019, in a general assembly, declared its territory free of mining and demanded the immediate exit of extractive companies from the territory. The actions of this company and its subsidiary in Ecuador (Lowell Minerals) constitute serious threats to peace and health in the Amazon region as a whole. If the cases of COVID-19 are confirmed in the Shuar communities of Warints and Yawi, this is because the company exposed them to the risk of contracting the virus.

We condemn the ongoing destruction and risks to the public health of these communities caused by foreign mining companies Aurania Resources (Canada), CRCC-Tongguan (China), SolGold (Australia), Luminex Resources (Canada) - BHP (Australia), Lundin Gold ( Canada) / Newcrest (Australia), Fortescue Metals Group (Australia) and Solaris Resources (Canada) in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Their activities are causing irreparable damage and putting the indigenous social fabric and the Amazonian ecosystems in all their mega-diversity, at grave risk. Their mere presence in the region, due to the possibility of coronavirus transmission, may exacerbate these impacts. Similarly, we condemn any attempt by these companies to wash their image by taking advantage of the crisis to position themselves by offering social and sanitary works.

We condemn the permanent militarization of the indigenous territories of the Ecuadorian Amazon. The presence of military personnel not only represents an immediate threat due to the possible spread of COVID-19, but represents yet another attempt to impose a development model that is both destructive and violent.

We stand in solidarity with the government of the Shuar Arutam People and with the other Indigenous and traditional peoples living in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Their self-subsistence food and economic activities are already negatively affected by mining and oil extractive activities, making them even more vulnerable to a possible outbreak of COVID-19.

We support the call of the PSHA to demand that immediate attention be paid by the relevant government authorities and we demand the immediate exit of the extractive companies from the territory of the Shuar Arutam People and from the other Amazonian indigenous territories so that the epidemic of COVID-19 does not continue to spread, thereby increasing the likelihood of these vulnerable populations, to become infected.

[This statement has the official approval of the Shuar Arutam Peoples government (PSHA)]

SOLIDARIDAD CON EL PUEBLO SHUAR DEL ECUADOR, EN EL MARCO DE LA CRISIS DE COVID-19

Las organizaciones abajo firmantes expresamos nuestra solidaridad y apoyo a las autoridades del Pueblo Shuar Arutam (PSHA), al Pueblo Shuar en general y a todos pueblos y nacionalidades de la Amazonia ecuatoriana, los mismos que actualmente enfrentan un posible brote de COVID-19, en sus comunidades.

Antecedentes
El 13 de abril, el Pueblo Shuar Arutam (PSHA) junto a docenas de organizaciones aliadas ecuatorianas enviaron una alerta al Presidente de la República del Ecuador, Ministerio de Salud y a la CIDH, exigiendo que se tomen medidas urgentes con respecto a un posible brote de COVID-19, provocado por la irresponsabilidad de una compañía minera canadiense, Solaris Resources (cuyo accionista principal es la empresa minera canadiense Equinox Gold).

En marzo, la dirigencia del PSHA condenó la participación de siete miembros de las comunidades Shuar de Warints y Yawi, invitados por la empresa mencionada, a la conferencia anual de la Asociación de Prospectores y Desarrolladores de Minas de Canadá (PDAC). Concretamente, la censura se dio por cuanto los siete indígenas participaron en esa conferencia por no ser representantes debidamente elegidos por la asamblea del Pueblo Shuar Arutam y por desacatar la decisión de la asamblea de rechazar categóricamente la minería en su territorio. Vale destacar que en días anteriores a la conferencia, en Canadá se generaron varias advertencias sobre el peligro de llevarlo a cabo por el riesgo de ser un punto de contagio para el virus COVID-19. Tal como se había previsto, se dio a conocer después del evento que hubo contagio del virus de varios participantes, incluyendo el viceministro de minas de Burkina Faso, y ahora ha generado preocupación ante una posible infección en el territorio del PSHA.

El 2 de abril, la presidenta del PSHA recibió la noticia de que la madre de uno de los asistentes murió con síntomas parecidos a lo del coronavirus y pidió a las autoridades investigar el caso, dados los contactos con la conferencia, un punto de transmisión conocido. Luego de ridiculizar la declaración de la dirigenta Shuar, el Gobernador de la provincia de Morona Santiago afirmó, sin evidencia alguna, que la muerte no estaba relacionada con la conferencia PDAC o COVID-19, y más bien felicitó a la compañía minera Solaris Resources. Luego, otra persona más murió, esta vez el padre de otro de los asistentes, y otros 8 miembros de la comunidad de Warints y Yawi han presentado síntomas parecidos con los de COVID-19.

Como organizaciones y personas de la comunidad internacional,

Expresamos nuestra preocupación por la falta de atención y de respuesta por parte de las autoridades ecuatorianas ante esta grave emergencia sanitaria. Además, nos preocupa que el Estado ecuatoriano haya permitido que las empresas mineras y petroleras estén exentas de los controles de cuarentena impuestos al nivel nacional, lo cual pone en mayor riesgo a los trabajadores y las poblaciones que viven en las cercanías de sus operaciones, y que ya enfrentan un limitado acceso a la salud para enfrentar la pandemia.

Denunciamos la injerencia permanente de la empresa minera canadiense Solaris Resources, en territorio indígena shuar así como su desdén por las decisiones del autodeterminadas del PSHA, el mismo que el día 30 de Marzo del 2019, en asamblea general, declaró a su territorio libre de minería, a la vez que exigió la salida inmediata de las empresas extractivistas del territorio. Las acciones de la empresa y su subsidiaria en Ecuador (Lowell Mineral) constituyen serias amenazas a la paz y a la salud de la región amazónica en su conjunto. De confirmarse casos de COVID-19 en las comunidades Shuar de Warints y Yawi, éstas estarían relacionadas con la empresa que les expuso al riesgo de contagio.

Denunciamos la destrucción y riesgos para la salud de las comunidades que están provocando las empresas mineras extranjeras Aurania Resources (Canada), CRCC-Tongguan (China), SolGold (Australia), Luminex Resources (Canada) - BHP (Australia, UK), Lundin Gold (Canada)/ Newcrest(Australia), Fortescue Metals Group (Australia) y Solaris Resources (Canada) en la amazonía ecuatoriana. Sus actividades están causando daños irreparables y poniendo en riesgo al tejido social indígena, al ecosistema amazónico y su megadiversidad. Su mera presencia en la región, por la posibilidad de transmisión de la coronavirus, puede exacerbar estos impactos. De igual forma, denunciamos cualquier intento por parte de estas empresas de lavar su imagen, aprovechando de la crisis para posicionarse con trabajos sociales y sanitarios.

Denunciamos la permanente militarización de los territorios indígenas de la Amazonia ecuatoriana. La presencia de efectivos militares no solamente representa una amenaza inmediata por el posible contagio de COVID-19, sino que representa un intento más de imponer un modelo de desarrollo destructivo y violento.

Nos solidarizamos con el gobierno del Pueblo Shuar Arutam y con los demás pueblos Indígenas y campesinos que viven en la Amazonía ecuatoriana, cuyas actividades de auto-sustento alimentario y económico ya se encuentran negativamente afectadas por las actividades extractivas mineras y petroleras, haciéndoles más vulnerables aún, a un posible brote de COVID-19.

Apoyamos el llamado de la PSHA a exigir la atención inmediata de las autoridades gubernamentales competentes y exigimos la salida inmediata de las empresas extractivas del territorio del Pueblo Shuar Arutam y de los demás territorios indígenas amazónicos a fin de que la epidemia del COVID-19 no se incremente en estas poblaciones vulnerables a la infección.

[este pronunciamiento tiene el aval del Gobierno del Pueblo Shuar Arutam (PSHA)]

Signed:

Accion Ecologica (Ecuador)
Asociación para la Promoción y el Desarrollo de la Comunidad CEIBA
AID/WATCH
AmazonWatch
Beyond Extraction (Canada)
Bios Iguana A.C (Mexico)
Brod Ecological Society-BED
Caminantes - Ecuador
CDHAL (Canada)
CEDENMA
Centro de Documentación en Derechos Humanos "Segundo Montes Mozo SJ" (CSMM) (Ecuador)
Christian Peacemaker Teams Canada
Climate Action Hobart
Collectif Causse Méjean - Gaz de Schiste NON
Colectivo de Geografía Crítica Ecuador
Colectivo Lluviacomunicacion
Colectivo Voces Ecológicas- COVEC
Comision Ecumenica de Derechos Humanos - CEDHU (Ecuador)
Comité para los derechos humanos en América Latina (CDHAL)
Common Frontiers (Canada)
Community Empowerment and Social Justice Network (CEMSOJ)
Consejo Shipibo Konibo Xetebo
CooperAcción (Peru)
DesBorde Ec
Earth Thrive
Earthworks (USA)
E-Tech International
European Network on Indigenous Peoples
Extinction Rebellion Tasmania
Forest Network
Fundacion ALDEA (Ecuador)
Fundación UVIA (Ecuador)
Friends of the Earth Australia
The Gaia Foundation
Gobierno Territorial Autonomo de la Nacion Wmapis
Grupo Kanaka
Grupo de Pesquisa e Extensão Política, Economia, Mineração, Ambiente e Sociedade (PoEMAS)
ICCA Consortium
Igapo Project
Institute for Policy Studies - Global Economy Project
International Accountability Project

The International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL)
Jubilee Australia
KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives
Kohtuus vaarassa (Finland)
London Mining Network
Melbourne Rainforest Action Group
Mineral Policy Institute
Mines, minerals & PEOPLE (mm&P)
Mining Injustice Solidarity Network (Canada)
Mining Justice Action Committee (Canada)
MiningWatch Canada
Natures Heart Intentions (Australia)
North East Dialogue Forum (NEDF)
Observatorio Latinoamericano de Conflictos Ambientales- OLCA (Chile)
Otros Mundos AC/Chiapas, México
People & Planet
Philippines Australia Union Link
Plenty Canada
Procesos Integrales para la Autogestión de los Pueblos
Red Eclesial Panamazonica. Ecuadored Mexicana de Afectadas/os por la Minería (REMA)
Rainforest Information Centre (Australia)
Rights Action (Canada)
Salva la Selva
Save Our Sperrins (SOS)
Servicios en Comunicación Intercultural- Servindi (Peru)
Students for Mining Justice (UBC, Canada)
TerraJusta (former project of The Democracy Center)
Terra Nuova
TreeSisters Australia
UBC Environmental Law Group
UNIMOS (International)
Unite Community
The United Church of Canada
War on Want (UK)
Yasunidos Piñas (Ecuador)
Yes to Life, No to Mining- Regional Coordinators

HPPL offer for Llurimagua

Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd. (HPPL) put in an offer in 2017 to buy ENAMI stake in the Llurimagua project in northern Ecuador, according to Via Minera.

Full article here (in Spanish) with explosive commentary on situation at Llurimagua as well as information on issues with ENAMI/Codelco partnership, the collapse of copper, and interest from both BHP and Chinese mining companies in the project. Below is an excerpt from the Via Minera article.

Garry Korte, CEO of Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd., HPPL, sent a letter on October 16, 2017 to then-Enami CEO Raúl Brito, saying that he wanted to buy the Ecuadorian state-owned company's stake in the Llurimagua project. HPPL has a long history of working with governments to establish and grow mining industries, exploring and carrying out mining projects through development and operation, the letter said in its opening lines.

At some point the local press circulated a story that Hancock wanted to partner with Enami to make the Llurimagua project a reality, but the truth differs. Hancock wanted to get Enami out of Llurimagua, buy their 51%, and ally  with Codelco. It is also not true that Rinehart was willing to pay US$400 million for Enami's share of the project.

Image credit: Via Minera

That is clearly written in the documents. Hancock boasted a lot of financial capacity and offered to pay not only what they considered Llurimagua to cost, but to buy, almost in cash, all the concessions that the Ecuadorian state mining company had at that time.

"Although HPPL does not yet have the initial exploration data on which to accurately base a bid, HPPL is pleased to make this formal bid to acquire all (Enami's) interests under a multi-tiered compensation structure, starting with a baseline of US$102 million based on the results of drilling completed to date, plus additional payments if increased resources are demonstrated.”

In other words, HPPL what it offered in 2017 and continues to offer, as we will see later, is a first payment of $102 million.

In addition, the letter indicates the willingness of HPPL to allocate US$5 million annually in each of the six Enami projects, up to a total of $30 million; and to pay a royalty of 2% of the net profit after taxes. It also explained that the basic offer for 51% of Enami, of $102 million, has been formulated on the basis that Llurimagua contains 10 million metric tons.

In the first letter to the president of Enami, HPPL indicated that in the event of an agreement, the purchase would be made by its Ecuadorian subsidiary, Hanrine Ecuadorian Exploration Mining. Hanrine insisted on the purchase again in March last year. President Lenin Moreno was addressed directly and, simultaneously, to other authorities, in almost the same tone, that is, boasting of its economic strength. The proposal, pointed out by experienced people, if received, jeopardizes the country's credibility as a partner of foreign companies to which it is attracted by ensuring legal stability.

It is not just a matter of prestige as they generate discomfort, the fact is that Codelco has achieved the signing of Enami and could demand compliance with the agreements, here or in some international court.

Read the full article here.

 

Australian company offer for controversial Llurimagua project

A major Australian company has reportedly put in a US$420 million offer for the controversial Codelco-ENAMI Llurimagua project in the Intag region of Ecuador according to mineral expert lawyer.

Minerals expert lawyer Stevie Gamboa Valladares said in Prensa Minera on April 10: "Llurimagua is a mining project located near the Intag forest, an area of enormous conflict. It is a strategic alliance between the National Mining Company of Ecuador ENAMI and CODELCO, which is the National Copper Corporation of Chile. This project, which is part of a binational agreement, has been suspended for several months as both countries have failed to define the appropriate conditions for their alliance and association."

Twenty three reasons why Codelco should stay out of Intag

By Carlos Zorrilla | Nov 11, 2019

Originally published here.


This then, is an attempt to draw attention to some of the hurdles Codelco, or any mining company, would face if they tried to open up a mine in Intag.

Cloudforest. Image credit: Carlos Zorilla

Studies and more Studies

To justify their existence in certain projects, mining companies, when  they can afford it, hire hot-shot NGO’s to carry out interviews and studies to ascertain popular perception on mining, identify key players, and confirm that they are loved. Then they actually go ahead and base their decisions on the study’s results!  Even though they know they are lies at worst, or at best, written to please the funders.  As if an area’s complexity and attitudes could be studied in a few days or weeks.

A Brand New Century

If there’s anyone interested in investing in Intag’s mining project reading this, you probably know- or should know- as all responsible mining companies can attest to (as well as key players like the World Bank), that support from the Executive Branch of government is not nearly enough guarantee a project’s success. You need genuine (not manufactured or self-delusional) social license issued freely, without pressures or intimidation.  In fact, national government support is no guarantee at all the project will succeed. So, do NOT bank on the government’s enthusiastic endorsement.  You’ll lose. Big time.

I am positive that if most INVESTORS were find out about all the risks and obstacles facing mining in this corner of Ecuador, they would pull out.

This, then, is one more attempt to try to inform of the reality behind the lies and distortions being generated around the Junín mining project, and just 21 of the reasons why this project, as BN Americas pointed out, is bound to fail (click here).

 IMPACTS

Equipment installed in Junin by Codelco.

A. Based on the Bishi Metals Environmental Impact Assessment of mining in Intag, and on a small (450,000 ton) copper mine (a couple of years later they inferred the existence of 5x more copper)

1. Intag is no like the Atacama desert, where Codelco has its copper mines. Besides being super biodiverse, there are communities all over the place. According to the Study, the mining project would relocate hundreds of families from four communities.  Afterwards, the Japanese found more five times more copper, which could increase the number of communities affected by two- at the very least. Relocation of communities is more than enough to stop most extractive projects.

2. It would impact primary cloud forests.  What’s so special about cloud forests?  Less than 2.5% of the world’s tropical forests are cloud forests. They are not only exceptionally biologically diverse- as well as severely threatened-  but they play an outsize role in protecting important headwater watersheds.

3. The project would cause massive deforestation (in the words of the experts preparing the Study). The small mine would directly impact 4,025 hectares.

4. The deforestation, according to the Japanese, would lead to drying of local climate, affecting thousands of small farmers (the EIA used the word desertification). You think communities will let this happen once they truly get the picture???

A rare frog from the Intag region. Image credit: Carlos Zorilla

5. Intag’s forests belong to the world’s top Biodiversity Hotspot; the Tropical Andes. The scientist working on the study identified 12 species of mammals and birds facing extinction that would be impacted by the project, including jaguars, spectacled bears, mountain tapirs and the brown-faced spider monkey. (Based on incomplete studies, Decoin identified more than 30 species of threatened or endangered plants and animals, and there could be dozens more).

Every year new species are found in Ecuador’s cloud forests, and this includes the spectacular Prince Charles frog, as well as the only carnivore discovered in the Western Hemisphere in the last 35 years.  In addition, the area has several other endemic species, such as the recently discovered Shape-shifting frog (Pristimantis mutabilis), and the Black-breasted Puffleg Hummingbird, which exists in only two patches of high altitude cloud forests- one of them located in Intag.

6. There are pristine rivers and streams everywhere within the concession.  The EIA predicted they would be contaminated with lead, arsenic, chromium, cadmium and other toxic substances.

7. The project would, unquestionably, destroy pre-Incan Yumbo archeological sites.  This is one of the least studied cultures in Ecuador.

8. It would impact the Cotacachi-Capayas Ecological Reserve (one of the world’s most biologically diverse protected areas and the only large one in all of western Ecuador).

Besides these very worrying impacts identified in the Study (for a mine a fraction of what it could end up being)…  there are other significant hurdles.

B. Legal hassles

9. Large-scale mining would violate the legally-binding Cotacachi County Ecological Ordinance created in 2000.  Only the Constitutional Tribunal can rule on the validity of the Ordinance in light of the new Constitution. And the Tribunal has not.

10.  Ecuador’s new Constitution demands that communities be consulted before any project impacting their social or natural environment takes place; a Constitutional guarantee that has been disregarded from day one. The Constitution also grants nature rights, and the people right to Sumak Kawsay, or a Good Life (also translatable as Harmonious Life) .  Good luck trying to convince a decent government and world opinion that open pit mining will not violate these two fundamental rights (no matter how obscenely the government decides to define the indigenous concept of a “Good Life”).  Just because a government does its best to distort the Constitution does not mean a future one will do the same.

Waning political support

11.  One of the things the government likes to underline is that it has the area´s political support. As of February 2014 this is no longer true, as the president’s party, Alianza País, lost badly in local government elections in Imbabura province, site of the mining project.  In fact, Imbabura was one of the provinces where Mr. Correa’s party lost more municipalities (5 out of 6) than anywhere else in the country. One of those Municipalities is the Cotacachi, which encompasses the Llurimagua mining concession. The new Mayor, Jomar Cevallos, is firmly opposed to mining.

Protests in the capital, Quito. Image credit: Carlos Zorilla

C. Opposition

There is widespread opposition to the Intag mining project. This includes:

12. The Parish township governments the concession is located at, plus County-wide indigenous and campesino organizations. The new threat has actually mobilized more organization at the local, county and national level, than ever before.

Community Opposition. Most communities surrounding the mining project are still, after all these years, opposed to the project. Eighteen years of resistance has honed their skill in resisting (the right to resist is now a right protected by the Constitution). In fact, on November 2013 the government tried to carry out an environmental impact study were stopped by the communities- in spite of heavy police presence, and military in the area..

D. Human Rights

13. After years of stopping dozens of attempts by government and private companies of accessing the mining concession that overlap communal land in order to carry out the environmental impact study and begin exploration, the government and Codelco only succeeded in carrying out the study in May of 2014 with the help of hundreds of police that terrorized the area for two months and violated rights, such as the right to freely circulate. To intensify the intimidation, a month earlier Javier Ramírez, president of the Junín community was arrested and jailed under highly irregular circumstances, which have been denounced by human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, and The International Human Rights Federation, as well as several national human rights groups. Javier was released after being sentenced in February of 2015 but only after serving 10 months in jail. His brother Victor Hugo remains in hiding accused of sabotage, the same criminal offense as his brother, for putting up resistance to the presence of Enami employees in their territory.

14. 90% of NGO’s in Cotacachi County and Intag oppose the project. In late 2012, the most important civil society organizations in Intag wrote a letter to Chile’s president to make sure he understood that the organizations would again rise to defend the area if Codelco or anyone went ahead and tried to revive the project.  .

Looking at contaminated waterfalls. Image credit: Carlos Zorilla

E. Exaggerated Copper Claims

15. In 2007, Micon International, the entity contracted by Ascendant Copper to evaluate the Junin copper deposit, said that it could not confirm their earlier estimates due to degradation of samples. Copper Mesa had been saying all along that the Junin copper deposit had four times more copper than what the Japanese inferred after years of exploration.   In all, 2.26 million tons were inferred by the Japanese, which is a little less than 1/10th of what the world consumes annually (and it would take decades to mine it all out).

The pristine waters of Intag, under threat. Image credit: Carlos Zorilla

F. Further environmental challenges

16. The area receives between 3000 and 4000 millimeters of annual rainfall. Heavy rainfall, abundant underground aquifers, and heavy metals in the ore make for a deadly mix.  Not only that, but they raise the price of mining considerably, while greatly increasing the risks of man-made disasters, such as landslides.     For an idea of what a landslide can do in an open pit mine, go here:

17. The ore contains toxic heavy metals and sulfur (which will cause Acid Mine Drainage).

18. There is a superabundance of underground water (according to Japanese EIA). This is bad news for mining companies and even worse news for the environment.

19. The area where they found the copper is exceptionally steep and mountainous, making mining much more difficult and expensive than most mines.

20.  There are clear indications that Junín’s copper is very deep, making mining much more environmentally destructive and economically risky.  Emphasis on Economically risky.

21. The Toisan Range has many geological faults, posing significant earthquake risks.

22 & 23. The 2019 discovery of the two endemic frogs (see above) that will, without a doubt, become extinct if mining is permitted. An issue ripe for the equivalent of the Supreme Court to decide if it violates the Constitutional Rights of Nature.

There are, in fact, more than 23 reasons for Codelco to stay out of Intag. But these should suffice for any company that considers itself responsible and to realize that Intag’s forests and inhabitants should be a no go zone.  https://youtu.be/QRinnhejBIw

Further Reading

BnAmericas article here http://www.bnamericas.com/news/mining/codelco-enami-exploration-project-in-ecuador-faces-bumpy-future-possible-failure

www.codelcoecuador.com

www.decoin.org

www.codelcofueradeintag.blogspot.com

Mining camps in Ecuador potential breeding ground for coronavirus

Despite mining companies saying they are suspending operations in Ecuador due to Covid-19, on the ground work continues to take place, angering at-risk local communities and indigenous groups.

Image credit: Acción Ecológica

The Rainforest Action Group is concerned that miners moving through the region are putting locals at risk. Four miners located at Rocafuerte, the operational base for Solgold's Cascabel concession in northern Ecuador, have apparently tested positive for the virus.[1] On Monday 30th March, the entrance of a hostel in Ibarra was blocked with dump trucks out of fears authorities were transferring COVID-19 patients to the hostel,” says Ms Liz Downes, a member of the rainforest Action Group.

Indigenous groups and local communities are furious that mining employees are continuing to enter their communities despite the risks of coronavirus. It also appears that mining companies are taking advantage of curfews to install machinery at controversial sites without resistance,” says Ms Rebekah Hayden, another member of the Rainforest Action Group.

On March 18, environmental group Acción Ecológica denounced Codelco and ENAMI for capitalising on the state of emergency to put in machinery at Cotapaxi, south of Quito.[2]

Chinese mining companies TerraEarth S,A., and Ecuacorriente have also been denounced for continuing operations despite the high risk to local Indigenous groups. A camp in the San Carlos Panantza mining complex was intentionally set on fire and destroyed.

Many of the Indigenous tribes in Ecuador have already been devastated by epidemics, such as polio which wiped out around two-thirds of the Waorani in the 1950s. Another epidemic in the region would decimate these groups further,” says Liz Downes.

The surge in mining activity is also putting water sources at risk. The residents of the northern area of the Esmeraldas province stated on April 4th that mining activities have intensified since the announcement of the state of emergency, contaminating the rivers that constitute their drinking and washing supply[3],” Liz Downes says.

The government’s inability to act effectively should crisis hit is apparent at Ecuador’s main port, Guayaquil, where bodies were piling up in houses and apartments. At least 550 bodies were not collected for up to eight days. Inhabitants were forced to make posts of their plight on social media in an effort to draw the government’s attention to the situation,” Liz Downes says.[4]

Mining and petrochemical companies in Ecuador are deemed essential services and are exempt from the suspension of normal work. Fruta del Norte has reduced its workers from 1,080 to 400-500, and Mirador is working with 800 from a usual 2400.[5] At the Mirador mine in south-east Ecuador, Ecuacorriente is constructing their massive tailings dam rather than continuing with mining operations as local authorities have suspended general mining activities to avoid transportation of ore and movements on and offsite.

Although SolGold and Lundin Gold have announced employees would be largely working from home, this appears to largely refer to professional-level employees. On the ground, it appears that many contractor companies are continuing with usual operations, while a reduced number of employees are working onsite,” Rebekah Hayden says.

Soldiers have effectively trapped an undisclosed number of miners in the mining camp at Mirador. Whether they are able to isolate effectively is not clear. This was as a result of a move by local Emergency Operations Committee (COE) of the canton El Pangui on March 19 to restrict the movement of miners,” Rebekah Hayden says.

As MiningWatch Canada has pointed out[6], mining camps are often congested and located far from adequate medical facilities and often have reduced access to clean water. Managing and containing coronavirus under these conditions is very unlikely. The risk to locals from soldiers who may have contracted the virus, or any employees entering or leaving is very high. Mining activities should not be allowed to continue at this time,” says Rebekah Hayden.

To download media release click here.

[1] https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2020/03/31/nota/7800594/comuneros-imbabura-carchi-rechazan-llegada-posibles-infectados?fbclid=IwAR0xRcvDrlEMszvg88LTE-E170WsrHRhWqgQdOAmT6csck08omoAZix6A-A

[2] https://twitter.com/AcEcologica/status/1241481792584105989

[3] https://ddhhecuador.org/2020/04/04/documento/denuncia-publica-01-poblaciones-de-san-lorenzo-denuncian-contaminacion-en-sus

[4] https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2020/03/31/nota/7800594/comuneros-imbabura-carchi-rechazan-llegada-posibles-infectados?fbclid=IwAR0xRcvDrlEMszvg88LTE-E170WsrHRhWqgQdOAmT6csck08omoAZix6A-A

[5] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-ecuador/ecuadors-largest-gold-and-copper-mines-scale-back-as-coronavirus-cases-rapidly-grow-idUSKBN21912K

[6] https://miningwatch.ca/blog/2020/3/31/covid-19-mining-companies-putting-workers-and-communities-greater-risk

Cornerstone Resources illegally exploring at Rio Magdalena?

Cornerstone Capital Resources announces high potential Porphery targets at Espejo and Rio Magdalena, but fails to mention that Rio Magdalena is subject to a stop work order issued by the Provincial court in Imbabura in June 2019 due to the area's high environmental significance.

N. manduriacu, an endemic glass frog threatened by drilling at Rio Magdalena. Image credit: Jose Vieira

For the past eight months, local environmental groups have been denouncing ongoing operations by ENAMI and Cornerstone employees on the Protected Forests covered by Cornerstone Resources' Rio Magdalena concessions. Judges had revoked the environmental license for the companies to explore in June last year, ruling that there had been a violation of mining-impacted communities' right to be consulted. The judges had also forced the Ministry of Environment and Water to publicise the ruling and formally apologise to the impacted communities.

Despite the court order, employees continued to explore illegally in the species-rich area, as Cornerstone's latest news proves.

Ecuador environmental group OMASNE denounced Cornerstone's announcement that it would start to drill in the second half of 2020, saying, "It is outrageous to see the vulnerability to which nature, communities and territories threatened by extractive activities are subject. On June 19, 2019, the Provincial Court of Justice of Imbabura hosted the Protection Action in favor of the Los Cedros Protective Forest, verifying the breach of the right to environmental consultation of the communities. However, since the ruling of the sentence, little or nothing have been done by the state institutions 'competencies', to repair the damages and comply with it."

"We reject the disrespect for human rights, national laws and international agreements as well as the sovereignty of Ecuador by the mining company CORNERSTONE S.A. of Canadian capitals, which despite having been withdrawn the environmental license by order of the judge of the Provincial Court of Justice of Imabura for its operation on the Rio Magdalena mining project that occupies 60% of the Los Cedros Protective Forest - Intag, has not stopped its activities within the forest and communities surrounding the project."

Los Cedros Biological Reserve is an internationally famous scientific reserve, consisting of 17,000 acres of premontane wet tropical and cloud forest in Northwestern Ecuador. It is home to over 297 species of bird, 900 species of moth and thousands of other species, many endemic to the area.

Developing a mine in this sensitive area would destroy forever one of the most biologically diverse and endemic habitats on the earth.

The news illustrates the impunity with which international mining companies continue to operate in Ecuador, with no concern for legal or environmental constraints.

BHP’s divide and conquer

First published in The Ecologist
By Liz Downes

21st February 2020

BHP is putting pressure on vulnerable ecosystems and communities in a mega-biodiverse region of Ecuador despite flaunting its commitment to environmental sustainability.

Toisan Forest. Image credit: Elizabeth Downes

The world’s biggest mining company is publicly committing to a clean, green transition: promising to shift from one of the world’s biggest carbon polluters to a top provider of resources for the renewable energy sector.

Andrew McKenzie, BHP’s CEO, proudly unveiled the company’s new climate investment program in July 2019: a US $400 million commitment to reduce Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. Shareholders at their 2019 London and Sydney AGMs were regaled with reports of how well BHP is sticking to its coal reduction targets, and with its investment plans in copper to meet the world’s growing demand for renewables.

What BHP left out of these reports is where all this copper is going to come from, and how the mining of it will impact on some of the world’s most vulnerable ecosystems and communities.

Illegal

BHP is currently reliant on production from the world’s largest copper mine, Escondida in Chile, and from other big projects including Australia’s Olympic Dam. But it is also interested in ‘greenfields’ explorations in one of the world’s emerging copper hotspots, Ecuador.

This small country is one of the world’s most biodiverse.  The Andes runs like a spine down the middle, creating a diversity of altitudes, rainfall patterns and temperatures where endemism is unparalleled. These mountains are the primary source of water for the Amazon and Pacific Coast river systems. They are actively volcanic, high-rainfall and prone to frequent earthquakes. Ecuador is the last place anyone with any sense should put an open cut copper mine.

Unfortunately, over 2 million hectares of the country are plastered with mining concessions, predominantly owned by transnational companies. This land covers protected forests in the megadiverse Tropical Andes Biological Hotspot and almost a million hectares of indigenous territories.

Concessions were sold by the Ecuadorian government in 2016-2018 with zero public consultation, in a bid to save the country’s stalled economy following an irreparable downturn in crude oil investments and diminishing reserves.

Now companies are beginning to explore the country’s mineral assets. But they are meeting organised resistance from communities who are not only angry about the violation of their constitutional rights to consultation, but concerned about forced relocation, impacts on food production, water contamination, environmental damage and increased threats of illegal mining and organised crime.

Rock samples

In the northwest of the country, tensions are escalating as BHP’s subsidiary Cerro Quebrado aggressively pushes into the long-embattled rural region of Intag, in efforts to begin copper exploration on schedule.

BHP owns five concessions in these parts: Santa Teresa 1 and 2, and slightly west, Sabaleta 1, 2 and 3. These cover agricultural communities, headwaters systems, and the last remnants of the megadiverse Chocó Andean cloud forest belt. The Sabaleta blocks take in part of two protected forest reserves, Los Cedros and Cebu, while the Santa Teresa concessions cover sections of the Toisán mountain range. In the region’s forests, 279 species of  animals in danger of extinction have been reported.

Ken MacKenzie, the chairman, was questioned at the AGMs about their activities in Intag - given the region’s extreme ecological and social vulnerability. He assured shareholders that explorations were in early, low-impact stages in Ecuador and that the company was following the law and due diligence with regard to community consultation and environmental risk.

In August 2018, BHP shut down the website and social media pages of local activist Carlos Zorrilla. He accused the company of taking part in activities in Intag which were not properly or fully explained to shareholders through the Canadian Stock Exchange. The company denies Zorrilla's allegation. 

In October that year, two unmarked cars were seen driving into the community of Puranquí. When pulled up by locals, the occupants of the car said they worked for Cerro Quebrado and were there to take rock samples. They said they had spoken to the community president. This was denied by the staunchly anti-mining president.

Threatened

In the same community, one year later, a signed letter from BHP’s Ecuador operations manager, Benjamin Mace, was delivered at a closed-door meeting. Most of the community, including the president, were not invited. Only a few pro-mining residents even knew about the meeting. The letter indicated that a license had been granted by the State Water Secretariat approving the commencement of explorations in the area. Under Ecuadorian law, a water license requires no environmental impact assessment.

In September 2019, a regional assembly of 1,500 people unanimously rejected mining in the area.  In December, despite the assembly’s outcome, BHP attempted to hold a closed-door meeting in the community of Cazarpamba. Some concerned residents of nearby communities found out about it and attended. On seeing the visitors, the BHP representatives promptly packed up and left.

In mid-January, community residents of Cazarpamba and Irubí, both situated in BHP’s Santa Teresa 2 concession, got fed up with unauthorised night-time access by BHP vehicles and installed a chain across access roads into the communities. They prevented the entry of three BHP employees who arrived unannounced in the company of thirty police. The blockade remains in place, and police have vowed to return with reinforcements.

At a regional assembly on 18th January, representatives from the six communities in BHP’s Santa Teresa 2 concession drafted a formal document of resolutions. This declares the Intag zone free of mining, demands the immediate exit of mining companies and their representatives, and requests support for development of local economies such as ecotourism and sustainable agriculture in place of mining.

A couple of days after these resolutions were passed, the Ecuadorian Vice Minister of Mines, Enrique Gallegos-Anda, invited the Apuela Parish government council to Quito to discuss the mining situation. During this meeting the Vice Minister allegedly threatened to take the Apuela and Cazarpamba presidents, president, Nelson Vetancourt,and Christian Gomez respectively, to court for ‘opposing the development of the nation’.

Embattled

Residents have vowed to continue preventing blockading roads against BHP until their voices are heard and all resolutions are addressed. But there are fears that militarisation of the region may be inevitable, as the government arms up to force mining companies in.

People in Intag know what it’s like to live in a militarized zone. The region has a 25-year history of opposing mega-mining projects. Their peaceful resistance is possibly the longest in Latin America. In 1997 they kicked out Japan’s Bishimetals, and in 2010, Canadian Copper Mesa had to quit, stopping what would have been Ecuador's first open pit mine. But more companies kept coming.

Local leaders such as Carlos Zorrilla, who helped found the grassroots environmental organisation DECOIN, have lived through times where death threats and attacks on activists and their property were a regular occurrence. They anticipate the same things happening again as the mining crisis escalates.

“It’s a David versus Goliath-on-steroids situation,” Zorrilla says.

In the next couple of years, a major copper mine, Llurimagua, is set to open for business in the embattled area of Junín, unless it is stopped. Llurimagua is jointly operated by state company ENAMI and Chilean copper giant Codelco. The project’s history is riddled with conflict.

Money

In 2014, the companies began exploring in Junín, in forests where locals were running a successful ecotourism project and had resisted mining for fifteen years. They were escorted to the mining concession by hundreds of special police units and military personnel. Ecuador's government imposed a de-facto state of emergency on the entire Intag region.

Over the next several years, communities denounced violations of permits, licenses and the environmental impact study, and presented evidence of serious human rights violations, contamination of the Junín river, illegal logging, unauthorized land-use, and impacts to the community tourism business. Authorities, with their hands in corporate pockets, rejected or ignored the denunciations.

In early 2019, an investigation by the National Ombudsman produced a damning report of the project. It found deficiencies in regulation and control of the mining operations by government entities, resulting in serious long-term environmental consequences. Using this evidence, locals are now preparing for a legal battle against Codelco, based on violations of constitutional laws around prior consultation and the rights of Nature.

With all this going on, it is not surprising that communities are resisting newcomers like BHP.

BHP could learn from Llurimagua’s history and the impending legal showdown if it really wanted to. A failure to ‘socialise’ resistant communities isn’t the company’s only problem in Intag. It could repeat Codelco’s mistakes in Junín, if it decides to follow the money rather than be accountable to its own environmental policy.

Forest

All five of BHP’s concessions lie within the Cotacachi-Capayas Ecological Reserve Buffer Zone as identified in Ecuador’s national 2007-2017 Management Plan for National Parks. But due to weakened environmental laws, the Ecuadorian Government does not explicitly prohibit mining in these parts or in any other concession that covers protected areas.  

BHP should though. The company’s environmental policy states that it will not explore or extract resources within or adjacent to the boundaries of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Protected Areas. That is, unless a substantive plan is implemented “that meets regulatory requirements, takes into account stakeholder expectations and contributes to the values for which the protected area is listed.”

In other words, if they can work around the laws, they will. But accountability still applies: if anything goes wrong in a protected area, such as a contaminated waterway or a species extinction, they are not only required by law to tell their shareholders, but are exposed to litigation based on Ecuadorian constitutional laws.

BHP also declares it will “not operate where there is a risk of direct impacts to ecosystems that could result in the extinction of an IUCN Red List Threatened Species in the wild.” In spite of this promise, the company is at risk of demonstrating just how easy it is to eliminate a species in Ecuador.

In 2018, a new frog was discovered in Intag: the Manduriacu glass frog. Its only known habitat is a few square kilometres in the Río Manduriacu river catchment, a piece of remnant cloud forest close to the biologically intense Los Cedros Protected Forest, and Cotacachi-Cayapas National Park. BHP’s Sabaleta 1 and 2 concessions overlap this area, and rock sampling is already taking place there. Citing the mining risk, scientists recommended the frog be IUCN-listed as critically endangered.

Collateral

The area is the only home for another critically endangered amphibian, the Tandayapa Andean Toad. To highlight the area’s extreme vulnerability, in the nearby Llurimagua concessions, two other endemic frogs were recently discovered. One of these, the Longnose Harlequin Frog, was deemed extinct until its unexpected rediscovery. The other, the Confusing Rocket Frog, is so rare the IUCN does not even list it. Even preliminary mining exploration activities have been found to pose serious risks to species with such limited range.

At the 2019 AGM in Sydney, members of the Rainforest Action Group spoke to a BHP board member about the perilous situation of the two amphibians living near the Sabaleta 1 and 2 concessions. The board member admitted that BHP can’t always easily access this kind of information from the ground.

The problem with this statement is that information about both species is easily accessed through published scientists’ reports, and in the case of the toad, a glance at the IUCN Red List. It is not hard to seek information if a company is truly concerned about its accountability.

The same criticism applies to BHP’s socialisation process in Intag. The OECD’s corporate guidelines lay out best practice standards for multinational corporations with regard to community consultation. If a company is only able to enter under the protection of military police, this indicates that consultation process has failed to follow best practice protocols.

When it comes to mining, local communities and environments are stakeholders; they should not be collateral damage in the race for profits. BHP needs to not just tell its investors it is doing the right thing by people, climate and the environment; it needs to prove it.

About this author

Liz Downes is a member of the Rainforest Action Group who is running a campaign investigating Australian mining companies’ involvement in social conflicts and environmental damage in Ecuador. The Ecologist contacted BHP for comment at 9am on Thursday, 20 February 2020 but there has not been a response as yet.

SolGold pushes ahead in Awá territory despite opposition

Communities barricaded a bridge in Chical, close to the Colombian border, on January 17 to express their frustration with mining companies continuing to explore despite community opposition. The event took place around 5 kilometres from SolGold’s Chical concessions, where they announced significant deposits last year.

From a video still by Nelson Muepaz. Chical community members resist ENAMI exploration attempts.

The blockade was the latest in a series of measures by El Pablo community members to protest ongoing exploration attempts by SolGold subsidiary Carnegie Ridge Resources and ENAMI (part-owned by Canadian company Cornerstone Resources). ENAMI’s Espejo concessions cover more than 90% of the Cerro Golondrinas Protective Forest which forms the headwaters of five rivers,” says Ms Rebekah Hayden, a member of the Rainforest Action Group – a group investigating the actions of Australian mining companies in Ecuador.

SolGold has a cluster of concessions in northern Ecuador that overlap or border on territory held by the Indigenous Awá Federation. Indigenous territories have added protections in Constitutional law to protect them from mineral and oil extraction.

The Awá community of El Tigre is on SolGold’s Chical 1 concession in Carchi, while Awá community El Baboso overlaps the border of the Blanca concession.

The Awá Federation has consistently held a united front against mining since 2016, resolving to ban all mining on Awá lands, and demanding absolute transparency about the concessions. Despite 6% of their territory being covered with mining concessions (down from an initial 40% in 2017), they claim there has been a complete lack of consultation or information on the progress of the projects,” Ms Rebekah Hayden says.

Awa President Jairo Cantincus talking at the assembly on January 19-20

The Awá’s anti-mining stance was reiterated with a formal statement on mining at an assembly of 450 people on January 19-21, and president of the Federation of Awá Centros of Ecuador Jairo Cantincus was re-elected, a sure sign that the Federation will continue to fight against mining.

SolGold started exploration on its Chical concession despite a lack of consultation with the community, and powerful community resistance. Exploring without their full and informed consent is against their Constitutional rights, and could be contested in court,” Ms Rebekah Hayden says.

When Roberto Taicús, president of the Awá community El Baboso went to speak to SolGold at a meeting in September 2019, they denied the community was affected by their concessions, despite maps showing it to be the case.

On other SolGold concessions, El Cielito leaders have said that SolGold has divided its inhabitants and blocked the roads to their farms. The Santa Cecilia community in SolGold’s flagship Cascabel concession, is also under threat, with Solgold buying up land en masse, and forcing community members out,” Ms Rebekah Hayden says. [read more on this here]

Roberto Taicús was quoted by Ecuadorian journal PlanV saying community members, “have become stripped of their own territories”.

SolGold's El Chical concessions (outlined in yellow). Note overlap with Awa territory (in green), and Los Gonlondrias Protected Forest (in purple). Image Credit: Rainforest Action Group and Forest Network

The Awá Federation has repeatedly sought information on mining projects, but Solgold only refers them to the Government, who refuses to give them any details. The Awá are currently conducting baseline water studies to determine contamination from exploration and mining,” says Ms Rebekah Hayden.

All this comes at a time when the homicide rate in Ecuador has soared, with InsightCrime stating it has grown by a faster rate than crime capitals such as El Salvador, Venezuela and Brazil. This is the case particularly near the border with Colombia, where criminal groups and ex-FARC rebels compete to move cocaine along Ecuador’s ‘cocaine superhighway’. This area is only 20 kms from Solgold’s Cascabel concession,” says Ms Rebekah Hayden.

Illegal and legal miners have inundated the region, threatening townspeople and attempting to bribe leaders. The Ecuadorian army was sent in to the area to secure the area, after miners were moved on from their illegal occupation at Gina Rinehart’s Imba2 concession in July. The Awá have already seen how illegal mining has affected Awá tribes in Colombia, polluting rivers and destabilising social groups, and they do not want to see the same thing happening to their communities in Ecuador,” says Ms Rebekah Hayden.

It seems unfathomable that SolGold is continuing to explore in a region so powerfully anti-mining, and against Ecuadorian law and OECD requirements that they conduct consultation with affected communities. Additionally, attempting to build a mine in a region where organised crime and homicide rates are soaring does not sound like good business practice,” Ms Rebekah Hayden says.

With InsightCrime stating that this might be the early stages of a sustained increase to Ecuador’s murder rate, the Rainforest Action Group is concerned that SolGold’s efforts to establish a mine in the region will only amplify the unrest further,” Ms Rebekah Hayden says.

Timeline of BHP’s divide-and-conquer tactics in Intag, Ecuador

Tensions are escalating quickly as BHP aggressively pushes into communities in the farming and rainforest region of Intag, Ecuador, in their efforts to begin gold and copper explorations on schedule.

RAINFOREST ACTION GROUP BHP CONCESSIONS NORTH ECUADOR
BHP concessions in Intag in North Ecuador. Image credit: Rainforest Action Group

BHP owns two concessions (Santa Teresa 1 and 2) in this region of northwestern Ecuador. These concessions were granted by the Ecuadorian Government with zero public consultation in 2017, along with others covering nearly 2 million hectares. A total of 129 concessions across Ecuador are owned by Australian companies.

BHP is currently asserting to its shareholders that “explorations are in very early, low impact stages in Ecuador” and “we are following all relevant laws and due diligence with regard to community consultation and environmental risk.” (statements taken verbatim from BHP’s AGM in Sydney, November 2019).

Below is a timeline of events and community resistance since October 2019, based on extensive communication with, and reports from, residents living within the Santa Teresa concessions.

Oct 2019: A letter from Benjamin Mace, BHP’s Chief of Operations in Ecuador, was delivered at a closed door meeting in the small community of Puranquí. Most of the community, including the mayor, were not invited to this meeting – in fact, only known pro-mining community residents even knew about it. The letter indicated that a water license had been granted by the State Secretariat of Water (SENAGUA) for the imminent commencement of explorations in the area. This licence, under Ecuadorian law, requires no environmental impact statement.

23 Nov 2019: A massive regional assembly of 1500 people in Apuela unanimously rejected mining. Read more...

15 Dec: BHP held a meeting in Cazarpamba community. Some people from surrounding affected areas attended. On seeing the visitors, the BHP representatives promptly packed up and left. Read more here and here.

17 Dec: BHP representatives tried to do the same thing in the neighbouring community of Irubí, but the residents wouldn’t let them leave. So they were forced to present their spiels. They offered ten jobs to residents, without specifying details; they also offered support from an apocryphal “foundation” which they wouldn’t name and which still is yet to be identified. Finally, they left bags of ‘Christmas presents’ for three pro-mining residents and their families.

27 Dec: BHP-affected communities travelled to nearby Junín, the site of a highly controversial and contested gold mining project owned by Codelco and state company ENAMI. They toured the site and witnessed evidence of environmental destruction caused by exploration and construction stages of the mine.

11 Jan 2020: Representatives from six communities in BHP’s Santa Teresa 2 concession met up in Cazarpamba to support residents who, fed up with unauthorised night-time access by BHP employees, had installed a chain across the road. At the meeting, BHP was unequivocally denounced: “¿Cuantas veces no BHP?”

Image Credit: DECOIN. Police attempt to force communtiies to allow BHP to enter

14 Jan: Cazarpamba residents prevented the entry of three BHP employees who arrived unannounced in the company of 30 police. Later residents heard that police were waiting for reinforcements to push through to Irubí. More roadblocks were subsequently set up at Irubí, with support from surrounding communities, and company representatives and police were again repelled. Read more...

16 Jan: A combined community forum was held for Apuela and Cazarpamba. Again, there was unanimous rejection of BHP by those attending (over a hundred).

18 Jan: A regional assembly was held for all six mining impacted communities in Santa Teresa 2 at Cazarpamba. 320 people attended. Again, there was unanimous rejection of mining. Local environmental organisation DECOIN's report with photos is here.

20-25 Jan:  the Ecuadorian Vice Minister of Mines invited the Apuela Parish government council to Quito to “discuss” the mining situation on the ground. The invitation included several council persons, but excluded the vice president, who is staunchly anti-mining. Only the president of the Parish government showed up to the meeting.

26 Jan: The Apuela president met with the president of Cazarpamba and told him that the Vice Minister of Mines had threatened “to take them both to court for opposing the development of the nation”, based on obstructing BHP’s plans to begin exploration.

More developments are expected in coming weeks as the Vice Minister has made it clear that he plans to meet with all community presidents in the area. Meanwhile residents have vowed to continue blockading and preventing company representatives from entering.

The full list of resolutions made at the assembly at Cazarpamba, 18th January, is now available for distribution to any interested parties who wish to support Intag residents and local organisations with regard to human rights and environmental issues posed by BHP’s actions. See below for the Spanish version (English will be available shortly).

RESOLUCIONES DE LA ASAMBLEA DE COMUNIDADES AFECTADAS POR LAS CONCESIONES MINERAS REALIZADA EL SÁBADO 18 DE ENERO EN LA COMUNA CAZARPAMBA, PARROQUIA APUELA

Cientos de Comuneros y Comuneras de las Comunidades Afectadas por las Concesiones Mineras ilegalmente entregadas por el Gobierno Nacional del Ecuador a la Empresa BHP Billiton – Cerro Quebrado, de las parroquias Cuellaje, Plaza Gutiérrez y Apuela, reunidos en Asamblea el sábado 18 de enero de 2020 en la Comuna de Cazarpamba, considerando los atropellos, amedrentamiento a la comunidad e intento de ingreso por la fuerza con la complicidad de la Policía Nacional, y ante el inminente riesgo de afectación a las fuentes de agua de consumo humano y la alteración de la paz social y los sistemas de producción y de vida familiar comunitaria, en forma legal y legítima, ejerciendo su Derecho a la Resistencia, consagrado en el Artículo 98 de la Constitución Política, Códigos y Leyes Vigentes del Ecuador, tomamos las siguientes Resoluciones, para ser entregadas a las autoridades e instituciones competentes, así como a los medios de comunicación locales, provinciales y nacionales:

  1. Solicitarle al Municipio de Cotacachi aplicar las ordenanzas vigentes que protegen el agua, bosques y comunidad; incluyendo la Ordenanza que declara a Cotacachi Cantón Ecológico; la Ordenanza del Área de Conservación y Uso Sostenible, Manduriaco - Intag; La Ordenanza de ríos y riberas; y que asuma su competencia de uso y regulación del suelo en todo el Cantón para prohibir la minería metálica.
  2. Apoyar incondicionalmente las medidas de hecho adoptadas por las comunidades afectadas por las concesiones mineras, y responsabilizar de cualquier consecuencia negativa a los Directivos de las empresas mineras y a las Autoridades que permitan o faciliten el ingreso a nuestras comunidades.
  3. Crear y fortalecer el Sistema Intercomunitario de Vigilancia y Coordinación Inmediata para evitar el ingreso de las Empresas Mineras a las ilegales concesiones o para el Desalojo de sus Campamentos si fuera necesario.
  4. Solicitar y exigir mediante oficio, un Pronunciamiento y Resolución Oficial de las Autoridades, Parroquiales, Cantonales y Provinciales sobre la Minería Metálica en todas sus fases dentro de sus Jurisdicciones; para lo cual se invitará al Consejo del Gobierno Provincial y al Concejo Municipal en pleno, para que se trasladen a la Zona de Íntag y Sesionen formalmente en el mes de febrero de 2020, a efectos de que en el orden del día o agendas se trate, se debata y se concrete sus pronunciamientos sobre los temas ambientales y mineros.
  5. De ser necesario, se promoverá y organizará una marcha masiva al Municipio de Cotacachi, Prefectura Provincial y Gobernación de Imbabura, con el apoyo y solidaridad de las organizaciones sociales de Cotacachi, Imbabura y el País.
  6. Gestionar e Impulsar de manera indispensable un Programa de Comunicación Radial y Educación Ambiental sobre los impactos de la minería en las Comunidades afectadas.
  7. Fortalecer, ampliar y complementar la Organización Zonal de Íntag para la defensa íntegra de todo el territorio frente a la amenaza minera, para presionar el abandono de ENAMI, CODELCO, BHP, Cornerstone y otras empresas, incluyendo el desalojo si fuera necesario.
  8. Exigir a todos los niveles de gobierno (nacional, provincial, cantonal y parroquial) la priorización de la inversión y desarrollo de actividades agropecuarias, turísticas y emprendimientos productivos sustentables.
  9. Exigir al Gobierno Nacional la revocatoria de las concesiones mineras en la Zona de Íntag, en razón de haber sido entregadas incumpliendo la Consulta Ambiental de las comunidades, derecho consagrado en el Artículo 398 de la Constitución.
  10. Respaldar la representatividad de la Vocera actual de la Asamblea de Unidad Cantonal dentro del Concejo Municipal, con el legal y legítimo derecho a voz y voto.
  1. Proponer al Municipio de Santa Ana de Cotacachi, que en cumplimiento de su responsabilidad de Gobierno Autónomo del Territorio, realice la consulta popular a nivel Cantonal, para que el pueblo ratifique la posición antiminera tomada en el cantón desde 1996 a través de sus asambleas parroquiales, zonales y cantonales .
  2. Exigir la eliminación de cualquier de cualquier forma de extractivismo minero metálico en los Planes de Desarrollo y Ordenamiento Territorial (PDOT) y PUGS Provincial, Cantonal y Parroquiales, en atención a innumerables resoluciones parroquiales, zonales y provinciales de rechazo rotundo a la minería y en concordancia con la Ordenanza de Cantón Ecológico, Ordenanza de Riveras, Ordenanza del Área de Conservación y Uso Sustentable Municipal – Íntag Toisán y otros cuerpos legales y Resoluciones Municipales.
  3. Impulsar la elaboración y aprobación de una Ordenanza Municipal Específica para declarar al cantón Santa Ana de Cotacachi Libre de Minería Metálica.
  4. Ratificar el compromiso personal, familiar y comunitario de cuidar y conservar EL AGUA FUENTE DE VIDA, priorizando su uso para el consumo humano y prohibiendo su utilización en procesos o actividades mineras.
  5. Exigir a la Gobernación y diferentes entes nacionales que desistan de utilizar la fuerza pública como guardaespaldas de las empresas mineras.
  6. Crear una organización zonal para de manera más directa enfrentar y buscar alternativas a la minería metálica

Police and BHP use aggressive tactics against community in Cazarpamba

Ongoing resistance to BHP’s attempts to explore for copper and gold in its Santa Teresa 2 concession came to a head on Tuesday 14th January when police attempted to dismantle a community blockade so BHP employees could pass. A subsequent community meeting on 18th January voted for the immediate call for revocation of all mining concessions in the Intag region.

Image Credit: DECOIN. Police attempt to force communtiies to allow BHP to enter

The blockade on January 14 was the latest in a series of measures by community members to protest the company’s ongoing attempts to explore in the area.

Community members have been dealing with increasingly aggressive tactics by BHP subsidiary Cerro Quebrado to divide the community and explore for minerals on their land for the last two years. Exploration permits for the Santa Teresa and Santa Teresa 2 concessions were granted to the company in contravention of the constitutional rights of communities to be consulted,” says Ms Rebekah Hayden, spokesperson for the Rainforest Action Group.

The Rainforest Action Group is a research, education and advocacy group that calls for corporate accountability, particularly when forests and Indigenous rights are threatened.

Also violated were the rights of local and county governments to be consulted on activities that will have consequences for the areas under their jurisdiction. Nine communities are affected by these concessions, along with thousands of hectares of primary forest and pristine rivers,” says Ms Rebekah Hayden.

Locals are gravely concerned at the potential impact of exploration and mining on agriculture, forests and waterways in the region, as well as the effects on local rural and urban communities,” Ms Hayden says.

Despite OECD requirements that BHP respect the rights of affected communities, BHP continues to contravene these with increasingly militarised tactics now that police have been engaged to force the community to back down,” says Ms Rebekah Hayden.

Image Credit: DECOIN. The assembly in Cazarpamba

As a result of the clash between police and community members, an assembly was held on January 18 with 320 people attending from 16 communities.

Elected officials from the parish council governments of Apuela, Cuellaje, and Plaza Gutiérrez attended along with delegates from the Cotacachi mayor´s office and the president of Cotacachi’s Assembly for County Unity. The assembly voted unanimously to end to the presence of mining companies in Intag. They also called for government authorities to prioritise investment in agricultural, livestock and tourism activities, and take effective measures to stop mining activity in the Intag region,” says Ms Rebekah Hayden.

The assembly warned authorities that they would take measures to eject mining companies from their territories if they continued in their attempts to divide communities and violate their Constitutional rights,” Ms Hayden says.

The communities also unanimously denounced the use of police and the military as bodyguards of mining companies, and demanded government and national entities to desist from this.

The resistance comes in the wake of an Ecuadorian Constitutional Court ruling on January 12 that communities “have the right to hold public referendums on whether or not to allow a mining project to go forward”. This ruling gives greater power to communities resisting mining in their area, and indicates that any legal case brought against BHP in the area is likely to succeed.

The Rainforest Action Group is concerned that BHP shareholders do not know the extent to which it is contravening both OECD international guidelines for corporate practice and the Constitutional rights of communities in its attempts to explore for gold and copper in Ecuador,” Ms Hayden says.

Despite being warned by the Rainforest Action Group at their AGM in November about the potential risks in Ecuador, BHP is continuing to conduct explorations there,’ Ms Hayden says.

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Complete list of resolutions agreed on by the assembly:

1) To request the Municipality of Cotacachi to apply the current ordinances that protect water, forests and communities; including the Ordinance that declared Cotacachi an Ecological Canton; the Ordinance of the Conservation and Sustainable Use Area, Manduriaco-Intag; the Ordinance of Rivers and Riversides; and to assume its competence for the use and regulation of the soil in the whole Canton to prohibit metallic mining.

2) Request the revocation of all mining concessions in Intag for not carrying out the Environmental Consultation of the communities, a right enshrined in Article 398 of the Constitution.

3) To request local, sectional and national governments to prioritise investments in agricultural and tourism activities.

4) To request the Municipality of Cotacachi to draft and approve an ordinance declaring the  Cotacachi County free of metal mining.

5) Support the community controls to prevent unwanted individuals from entering communities.

6) Create a support and rapid reaction organisation in defence of communities affected by mining.

7) Demand the government and different national entities to desist from using the public forces as bodyguards of mining companies.

8) To demand that the members of the Parish, Cantonal and Provincial governments express their opinion on metal mining within their jurisdictions.

9) Create new tools to protect water resources, and to prioritise its consumption for human use, and to prohibit it for the use of mining activities.

10) Carry out a popular consultation at the Cou9nty level, so that the people can decide if metal mining should be definitively prohibited, in all its phases, within the Cotacachi Canton.

11) Undertake education and training programs on the impacts of mining.

12) To create a Intag-wide organization to, in a more direct way, face and look for alternatives to metallic mining.

13) Warn the mining companies of the unwavering will of the citizens of the Intag area to evict the mining companies if they continue to violate their rights.

BHP reps flee after community members oppose closed-door meeting

A closed-door meeting held to recruit employees from the Cazarpamba community in Imbabura ended unexpectedly for BHP representatives who fled in embarrassment after community members decried the company’s presence in a region which overwhelmingly voted to reject mining at a parish assembly on the 23rd November.

It is alleged that BHP representatives only invited members of the Cazarpamba community they believed to be sympathetic to mining to the meeting held on December 10. The company had planned to present their exploration plans for the area, but suddenly abandoned the meeting without presenting anything when representatives from environmental group DECOIN and local Parish government members arrived.

A video (in Spanish) shows BHP representatives being upbraided for their secrecy by community representatives, who asked the company "What are you afraid of?" "What are you hiding?".

Community members questioned the legality of BHP’s actions, not only in this socialisation attempt, but in their continued efforts to explore in the Santa Teresa concessions despite community rejection of mining in the region,” says Mr Anthony Amis, a member of the Rainforest Action Group.

Given the Constitutional requirement that BHP must consult with communities before undergoing explorations, the decision for BHP representatives to leave the meeting was fatal, with those present at the meeting believing their hasty retreat meant they were indeed acting illegally in the region,” Mr Anthony Amis says.

The environmental license for initial exploration for the Santa Teresa and Santa Teresa 2 concessions was given to BHP 23 months ago, yet the company has been stymied in its exploration efforts due to the community’s strong anti-mining stance. The recent developments follow on from BHP’s announcement of a $22 million increase in their stake in SolGold on 24 November.

The meeting at Cazarpamba was not BHP's first attempt at conducting business by excluding community members who are anti-mining. In October this year, residents of a nearby Intag community, Puranquí, filed a complaint that BHP had set up a meeting without knowledge of the community Mayor or Council, who are predominantly anti-mining, and had held the meeting in secret with members of two pro-mining families,” Mr Anthony Amis says.

After BHP employees left the Cazarpamba meeting, DECOIN and local Parish government members talked about the illegalities and risks associated with the project and BHP’s negative conduct in the region, which allegedly includes intimidation to people opposing mining, and conducting mining activities in protected and environmentally fragile areas.

Despite BHP’s stated commitment to biodiversity conservation, there are 4,200 hectares of community and Parish government-owned watershed reserves within the 9,246 hectares that make up the two Santa Teresa concessions.

BHP Think Extinction Manduriacu Frog. Image credit: Rainforest Action Group

The company is insisting on starting exploration in the region despite an unusually high number of animals on the IUCN Red List within the Santa Teresa concession, including the critically endangered Black-breasted Puffleg Hummingbird, the rare Black and Chestnut Eagle, and an extremely rare frog species on the brink of extinction which is only found in the area of one of these concessions,” says Mr Carlos Zorilla, environmentalist and co-founder of DECOIN.1

Members of the Rainforest Action Group earlier raised concerns regarding BHP’s selective community socialisation and complaints of their conduct at BHP’s AGM on 7 November. BHP Chairman Ken MacKenzie had this to say in response: “We are talking to communities and can assure you that we are following FPIC (free, prior and informed consent) and all local laws; we have strict standards for consultation and our conduct when entering new areas."

In June, judges in the provincial court of Imbabura shut down exploratory activities in two mining concessions belonging to the Canadian Cornerstone, just west of BHP’s Sabeleta concessions and within the same Cotacachi County. The court ruled that ENAMI/Cornerstone had broken Constitutional Law by not consulting with the community in regards to their Rio Magdalena concessions, and their environmental license to conduct explorations was revoked.

The Magdalena concessions for which environmental licenses were revoked border on BHP’s Sabeleta concessions. The concessions cover part of a world-renowned remnant of the original Western Andes cloud forest, which contains species that exist nowhere else in the world, and provides drinking water for hundreds of communities,” says Mr Anthony Amis.

Although BHP has not yet been taken to court for activities on the Sabeleta concessions, locals claim that BHP has similarly not consulted with community and employees have wreaked damage in its exploration efforts, including threatening an endemic frog population which is only found in the concession," says Mr Anthony Amis.

Despite BHP’s attempts to smooth-talk shareholders and promote itself as a green company, the reality on the ground is very different. We are concerned that the company is minimising possible risks to the project,” says Mr Anthony Amis.

BHP, as well as all other mining companies in Intag, are keeping from investors obstacles such as the land-use municipal ordinance approved in 2018, which protects all of the Intag area from mining. Ecuador's Constitution unequivocally gives sole responsibility to local governments for land use,” says Mr Carlos Zorilla.2

Community consultation is safeguarded under the Constitution and several cases have been won this year by communities against mining and oil companies on those counts.

It is clear to the Rainforest Action Group that BHP is acting at odds to Ecuadorian Constitutional Law, and is keeping investors in the dark as to the ecology on the concession. Shareholders deserve to know the extent of BHP’s conduct on its concessions,” says Mr Anthony Amis.

1. From internal email. Permission to use quote.
2. From internal email. Permission to use quote.

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