Some Latin American populations are standing up to the mining transnationals, regardless of their government’s stand. That’s increasingly the case in Peru. Five people were killed by police during the first week of July at protests against the multi-billion dollar Conga gold and copper project, which would be the largest mine in Peru’s history if it goes ahead. The project’s owner is the U.S.-based Newmont Mining Group. Area residents do not want the Conga mine, saying it will damage local water supplies. A string of protests against mining projects have occurred in Peru in recent years.
In Chile, similar concerns over water supply and quality as well as the effects of mining on electrical supply are driving protests. The Council of Canadians released a detailed report in March 2012 looking at recent developments and concerns in Chile’s Patagonia region [3]. The U.S.-based Sustainable Development Strategies Group wrote in a 2010 study on mining in Chile, “If social movements in opposition to mining are now part of the landscape, and if mining is creating increasing intense competition for water and energy, the real question now is how, institutionally, politically, and legally Chile will accommodate the citizen voice in mineral development.”
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