Not sure what this means for Promesa, if anything, but feel it...

Not sure what this means for Promesa, if anything, but feel it is somewhat relevant given closeness of location. It could turn out to be advantageous if it means that companies like Newmont have to turn their attention on to Promesa (assuming it has the community on its side)


Construction of New Conga Mine in Peru Halted

Roman Baudzus
Published 11/30/2011
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Yesterday protests against the construction of the Conga mine in Peru turned violent. More than 10 people were seriously injured during street fights and arson attacks. Protesters occupied the Cajamarca local airport and managed to completely halt all airport operations. As a result, the American mining giant Newmont Mining has decided to suspend construction of its new Conga mine. Peru's new president Ollanta Humala had initially supported construction of the Conga Mine. But in the face of these vehement protests Omala can't continue ignoring his people's wishes.
The government at Lima and the management of Newmont Mining have agreed to suspend construction work at the site. Newmont Mining had intended to extract mostly gold and copper in the region of Cajamarca, located some 560 miles (900 km) north of Peru's capital, Lima. Experts deem the Conga project – situated over 12,000 feet (3,700 metres) above sea level – very promising, with large amounts of gold discovered at shallow depths. After years of prospecting activities Newmont Mining had decided to extract these gold and copper ore reserves through open pit mining. In comparison to deep pit mining, this is a low-cost method. Newmont Mining's stockholders were very pleased with this idea – until protests started escalating last week.

For years now, Newmont Mining and its partner Buenaventura have been operating the Andean Yanacocha mine. This mine is currently South America's biggest and most productive gold mine. Conga mine is located 43 miles (70 km) south of Yanacocha and was supposed to start production in 2015, since lately gold reserves in Yanacocha have started to dwindle. Conga has the potential to balance and even outrival production at Yanacocha mine. Local citizens stepped up their protest against the construction of this mine because it intended to tap water from four Andean seas through pipes to huge water tanks – tanks that would be at the mine's sole disposal. But in the previous three years the region has suffered from extended draught-periods that have had an impact on farming.

Last Monday José de Echave, Peru's vice-minister for the environment, resigned and claimed that the official environmental studies that were carried out for the construction of the Conga mine were supposedly unreliable. Now that protests in Cajamarca have turned violent, president Humala has chosen to back the local protestors. Hitherto, the government had favored the construction of the Conga mine in hope of gaining significant tax revenues. According to a statement from Newmont Mining, the company and the government in Lima have agreed to halt all construction at the site, and will seek talks with opponents of the mine to try and resolve their differences.