Metminco denies Chilean farm contamination claimsThursday, 16...

Metminco denies Chilean farm contamination claims
Thursday, 16 August 2012

AUSTRALIAN explorer Metminco has dismissed farm contamination allegations by a Chilean agricultural company as ‘ridiculous’. By Matthew Ogg in Chile
Agrícola Bauzá CEO Lorenzo Bauzá told local media actions by the company’s subsidiary Minera Hampton on its Mollacas project had led to the deterioration of orchards.

In an interview with MiningNews.net, Bauzá said Hampton was legally allowed to conduct operations on his land but had gone beyond what was permitted, damaging walnut crops in the area.

“When you trespass the space further than what is legally authorised, that is an abuse of the law and the servidumbre [mining right] that has been given,” he said.

“In addition, they declared they would have 10 drills before SERNAGEOMIN (National Geology and Mining Service) when they were given the permit, but the reality is that they have 48, and some of them are outside the authorised area.

“Now they are in the stage of exploration and the damage is already irreparable, so what can be expected for the next stage of exploitation and developing the mine?”

Bauzá said the miner had destroyed plants, the topsoil and the fertility of land, in damages his company calculated to be in the range of US$20 million.

“There are trees that have been destroyed and trees that have been affected in their formation because of the traffic with machinery and trucks, and drilling in the area.

“Remember that this is land that is apt for the cultivation of fruit, in a zone where the right weather, soil and water are difficult to find, but these farms have the three variables that make for agricultural profitability.”

Metminco managing director William Howe told Miningnews.net there were no fruit trees on the site when the company arrived.

“When we came here this was barren land, there was nothing there and in essence there still isn’t, but what Bauzá’s done is come along and planted trees all over the area to try and stop us,” Howe said.

“From when we did the deal in 2006 until now, we’ve had many complaints and claims from Bauzá, five of which have gone through court proceedings and we’ve won every case – they all have been shown to be false, misleading and of no consequence.

“My view is that it’s all about compensation. He wants a big number and we’re not prepared to give him the sort of number that he wants.”

Metminco originally tried to cut a deal with Bauzá but he wasn’t interested, so it obtained the exploration licence through the courts.
“In essence his (Bauzá’s) modus operandi is I don’t want to do a deal with you, I’m going to stop you. We’ve been patient.

“The original application just covered the pit area – that has been granted and we can go and mine there as long as we had an approved EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment).

“What we’ve since done is made a bigger application, including a slightly bigger area, and that’s because we require a place to put waste dumps.”

He added there were no signs the application would not be granted, while the assertion that the company had exceeded geographical or drilling limits was false.

Regional ministerial secretary for mining Jocelyn Lizana confirmed Minera Hampton had all the required permits for exploration given by SERNAGEOMIN.

Bauzá said he would take the issue to the Supreme Court if he had to.

“For the time being my company is the most affected, but there is collateral damage that could affect neighboring people, and the company hasn’t made any declaration of its environmental impacts.

“This damage up until now is imminent and something that scares and worries the locals, because they have seen the damage that has affected Agrícola Bauzá.

“A united community will never be beaten, and that’s what’s happening here.”

Howe said surveys conducted by Hampton’s community relations officer, who is based in the area’s largest town Monte Patria, showed there was very little knowledge about the company’s presence at all.

“The survey we did about a year ago suggested there was quite a low level of understanding that we were in the area, because we kept a low profile, and there was not detrimental view of the company in the area at all.”

He had no doubt that Bauzá. would continue his claims, but was confident the project would go ahead, while there were no signs the application for a larger land permit would not be granted.

“You have to be careful in Chile because if he makes a claim, and it doesn’t matter what that claim is, it has to be processed, so there have been times when we’ve actually not had access until the claim was heard.

“There will be delays because of it, but eventually we will get there and we will develop this mine and go on with it.”

Metminco recently announced an updated mineral resource estimate for the Mollacas copper leach project of 15.5 million tonnes containing 79,111 tonnes of leachable copper and 61,650 tonnes of soluble copper.

Howe said the goal was to finish a feasibility study for the leach project and submit an EIA next year, with operations to start in 2015.