Ecuadoreans burn clinic at Canadian copper mine - 'Outraged' Ascendant says staff assaulted

Ecuadoreans burn clinic at Canadian copper mine - 'Outraged' Ascendant says staff assaulted

Globe & Mail http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051214/RATTACK14/Business/Idx

14th December 2005

OTTAWA -- Dozens of Ecuadoreans opposed to a Canadian mining firm's copper venture burned down a building at the company's South American project site.

Ascendant Copper Corp. of British Columbia and a group fighting the mine put forward sharply differing accounts of the incident, which took place last Friday.

But both confirmed facilities were set ablaze at the Junin copper project, located about 135 kilometres northwest of Quito, Ecuador.

In a statement yesterday from Vancouver, the company said about 70 people stormed a medical clinic and demonstration farm used to provide community health services and teach agriculture classes, part of Ascendant's local assistance efforts.

The firm said its employees were physically and verbally assaulted, various articles stolen and the building set on fire, causing damages of up to $20,000 (U.S.).

The company, whose shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange, has requested a criminal investigation.

Ascendant is "outraged by this assault against company personnel and assets" dedicated to helping area residents, company president Gary Davis said in the statement.

"We are going to rebuild the medical clinic as soon as possible so that the local communities have access to the much-needed health care provided by our medical personnel."

Ascendant Copper, incorporated in British Columbia, has subsidiaries in Barbados, the U.S. and South America. The company began acquiring the mining concessions to the Junin property last year.

The attack was carried out by "a very small percentage" of the local population and "is not representative of the majority view" of regional communities, said Mr. Davis, who works from the company's Colorado office.

An environmental group, Defensa y Conservacion Ecologica de Intag, said more than 300 community members from about 20 villages in the Intag area of Ecuador recently voted at an assembly to burn down the facilities as a show of protest.

"In spite of the first distorted version of the event coming from company employees, no one was hurt, and company employees were allowed to take out valuables before the building was set on fire," the group, known as Decoin, said in a posting on its website.

It added the assembly also decided unanimously "for communities to start occupying land" associated with Ascendant Copper for distribution to people with little or no property.