Los Glaciares De Barrick Gold
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Barrick’s Glaciers Technical Report on the Impacts by Barrick Gold on Glaciers and Periglacial Environments at Pascua Lama and Veladero Toro 1 Glacier, completely covered by dust and debris from activities at Pascua Lama at the end of 2012. In the lower portion of the image explosives in the extraction process are shown to be the cause of the debris cover. Source: Anonymous; Photo location: 29°19'54.73" S 70°01'06.88" W Version: May 20, 2013 English Translation (Original: Spanish) By Jorge Daniel Taillant Center for Human Rights and Environment (CEDHA) [email protected] Of the Mining and Glaciers Series Center for Human Rights and Environment (CEDHA) May 2013 Córdoba, Argentina Jorge Daniel Taillant Center for Human Rights and Environment (CEDHA) © From the Glaciers and Mining Initiative [email protected] Original version: Spanish Photo: The Pascua Lama Project and the Los Amarillos, Amarillos and Guanaco Glaciers. Source: R.Posch; see: 29°19'36.04" S 70°01'11.74" W This report is possible with the generous contributions (past and present) from: Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) Patagonia Wallace Global Fund, and The Digital Globe Foundation 2 Acknowledgements We’d like to thank the expert glaciologists, Juan Pablo Milana, Alexander Brenning and Mateo Martini, who are always available to address our inquiries and respond to complicated aspects about the content of our research. We also thank our illustrious instructors, Cedomir Marangunic (Geo Estudios, de Chile), Juan Carlos Leiva (IANIGLA), Benjamín Morales Arnao (Patronato de las Montañas Andinas, Peru), and Bernard Francou (IRD), who have served as our professors at UNEP’s yearly glaciology course (2010, 2011, and 2012). Cedomir, Juan Carlos, Benjamín, and Bernard have been very patient in answering our many questions on the recognition of glaciers through satellite imagery as well as our inquiries on the function and vulnerability of glaciers and periglacial environments. They have donated much of their personal time to long technical conversations concerning our work and research. We’d like to thank Gabriel Cabrera and Lydia Espizua, who have been particularly attentive and responsive to our questions regarding their research on some of the issues we raise in this report regarding Veladero and Pascua Lama. Also, special thanks to Dario Trombotto Liaudat, who has responded to many inquiries regarding the periglacial environment which we have used in this and many of CEDHA’s other reports. To Stephen Gruber, of the University of Zurich who shared his permafrost model with us and with whom we’ve maintained several communications to discuss the particularities of his global permafrost mapping tool. Special mention goes to Marta Maffei, the mother of Argentina’s National Glacier Protection Law, along with her legal advisor Andrea Borucua of ECOSUR. Their contribution to glaciology and to the protection of glaciers around the world has been paramount and will survive for many generations to come. Without their visionary legislative work, today we would not be so far along in our societal effort to protect this very crucial and vulnerable natural resource. We’ve interviewed both Marta and Andrea during our research in the preparation of this report. In San Juan, we’d like to thank Silvia Villalonga of the Fundación Ciudadanos Independientes (FuCI) and Diego Seguí, who both offered us valuable information on the history of the early stages of legal debates and filings in the courts to protect glaciers. Through our various social networks we’ve also met many individuals who have helped with the research of this report, offering information, pictures, videos and other material that we’ve been able to utilize. Gustavo Manrique, Marcelo Scanu, Fernando Berdugo, Fredys Espejo and Rudolf Posch, are a few of the contributors. We’d also like to thank many individuals (many of which are working in the mining sector and in the scientific community) who for personal reasons have decided to keep their contributions anonymous. In Chile, we owe special gratitude to the President of the Diaguita Indigenous Community, Sergio Campusano, who opened his community’s doors so that we could visit and learn first hand about their lands, their glaciers, and their wonderful mountain environment. We thank Gustavo Freixas of the Dirección General de Aguas of the Coquimbo Region who has shared his vast experience working with glaciers and Javier Narbona Naranjo, Chief of the Hydrological Department who has been unwavering in his support for the yearly UNEP glaciology course we’ve taken each year. We all are indebted (as a society) to Rodrigo Polanco Laza, Sara Larrain, Roxana Bórquez and Juan Carlos Urquidi, for having begun this technical debate in Chile on the need to protect glaciers and for having drafted the first Glacier Protection Bill ever. Also a thank you goes to José Luis Rodriguez of the Fundación Huilo Huilo who has helped with our research and provided critical technical input. We’d also like to thank the constructive engagement we’ve had with BGC Engineering (Pablo Wainstein, Mattias Jakob and Lukas Arenson). BGC is a consulting firm hired by Barrick Gold to carry out glacier studies. While we maintain some significant differences with their academic conclusions, they’ve also been very forthcoming and open to exchange views and provide technical input to our inquiries. We appreciate this constructive openness. We’d also like to thank those that have financially supported CEDHA’s work, including the Wallace Global Fund (at an earlier stage), the UUSC, and Patagonia. We must also recognize the contribution in kind by the Digital Globe Foundation, who provided us with key satellite images from January of 2013, without which much of our analysis would have been impossible given that Argentina’s own public satellite image agency remains closed to civil society consultation. We’d finally like to thank CEDHA’s staff, and especially Romina Picolotti, who has inspired this and many other environmental causes. - Jorge Daniel Taillant 3 TABLE of Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................ 3 I. What’s in this Report? ......................................................................................... 6 II. Executive Summary ............................................................................................ 7 III. The History ..................................................................................................... 12 IV. The National Glacier Protection Law ............................................................... 26 The Barrick Veto .............................................................................................................................................. 28 V. The Provincial Glacier Protection Laws ............................................................ 30 VI. Barrick’s Reaction to the National Glacier Protection Law .............................. 31 VII. Which are Barrick’s Glaciers? ........................................................................ 33 The Glacier Inventory .................................................................................................................................... 35 What will Barrick Gold say of this inventory and our analysis? ................................................. 40 The Glaciers on the Access Road .............................................................................................................. 41 a) Glaciers on Barrick’s Access Road from Tudcúm (San Juan Argentina) to Veladero ... 43 b) Barrick’s Glaciers in Chilean Territory ............................................................................................. 59 IIX. The Study by Lydia Espizua of the IANIGLA .................................................... 64 IX. What is the impact of mining activity on glaciers? .......................................... 69 a) Impact due to Removal of Ice at the Pascua Lama Pit ................................................................ 70 b) Impact due to Rock Piles on Glacier Surfaces ................................................................................ 70 c) Impacts due to Depositing Sterile Rock on Periglacial Environments ................................ 72 d) Impact due to Severing of Glaciers and Rock Glaciers .............................................................. 73 e) Impact due to Dust, Debris and Atmospheric Contamination ................................................ 76 f) Barrick’s Impacts to Periglacial Environments ............................................................................. 85 X. Barrick Gold and the Chilean Authorities .......................................................... 92 XI. Barrick Gold and the Argentine Mining Authorities (and the control of the mining sector) ...................................................................................................... 95 Conclusions ........................................................................................................ 106 ANNEXES: Before/After Images .......................................................................... 108 About the Author ............................................................................................... 120 ONLINE Glacier Bibliography / Mining Impacts ................................................... 121 4 “In the case of Pascua Lama, there are no glaciers in the areas around Pascua Lama nor around