Latin America Update
Published by MAC on 2006-07-08
Latin America Update
8th July 2006
Communities in the Intag region of Ecuador have been resisting for the last ten years Ascendant Copper's plans for large-scale copper mining. The organisation, DECOIN,and Friends of the Earth Canada are asking for signatories in support of a letter to the Ecuadorian president which highlights concerns about the peoples' human rights.
A court in Chile has ruled against Barrick Gold, in favour of competing mineral claims by a local miner. What does this mean for the future of the Pascua Lama project? Will it merely substitute one form of exploitation for another?
A Latin American correspondent asks whether current public "round tables" in Canada will succeed in imposing domestic standards on its mining companies - such as Barrick - as they forage overseas.
Although Peru's Congress recently approved a law, requiring mining companies with tax stability contracts to start paying royalties, the companies claim the move to be "unconstitutional."
What a cheek!