Yanacocha - Environmental and Social Issues

Environmental and Social Issues

Local environmental activists claim that the mining operations, which use large quantities of a dilute cyanide solution, have contaminated the water sources, leading to the disappearance of fish and frogs, illnesses among cattle, air pollution, and loss of medicinal plants. An independent environmental audit by a Colombian consultancy firm {Ingetec S.A. Ingenieros Consultores: Auditoría Ambiental y Evaluaciones Ambientales de las Operaciones de la Minera Yanacocha en Cajamarca - Perú 2003} may have found some water contamination above permitted levels, and did recommend many improvements to Yanacocha's environmental management practices. However, the study did not examine claims of impacts on wild life, plants, or livestock,. Yanacocha did undertake to act on the 309 Ingetec recommendations. Based on an Ingetec review in April 2006, Yanacocha had fully implemented 137, made significant progress on 111, and had started to address an additional 45 of the recommendations - representing progress on 90% of the recommendations in advance of the agreed 2007 completion date.

In 2004, more than 10.000 people living in the Cajamarca area protested the expansion of Yanacocha onto nearby Cerro Quilish, a mountain that supplies water to Cajamarca. In response to public outcry, Newmont announced that further exploration would be suspended.

Newmont has also been involved in an ongoing conflict over damages resulting from a mercury contamination. On June 2, 2000, 151 kilograms of the toxic metal were spilt while being transported by a contracted truck from Yanococha to the Pacific coast, contaminating the town of Choropampa and two neighboring villages. According to government estimates, more than nine hundred people were poisoned.{Anaya, R. (2001). "Acute elemental mercury poisoning in three locations of the department of Cajamarca-Peru. In: Toxicology, Volume 164, Issue(1-3): p. 1-266, p. 69}. After losing a three-year fight to keep the lawsuit out of US courts, Newmont announced at the end of 2004 that it would participate in settlement talks before two retired Colorado judges. But the mediation talks failed to produce a settlement and the plaintiffs, eleven hundred campesinos, announced they would go ahead with their suit in Denver district court. The parties in the Denver cases agreed to binding arbitration and as of April 2009 all matters in the Denver cases were settled. In 2008 the Peruvian Supreme Court upheld the validity of settlement agreements reached with some of the plaintiffs in the remaining Peruvian lawsuits prior to the filing of those suits and by the start of 2010 Newmont reported that claims of approximately 200 plaintiffs remain unsettled.

The mercury spill also led to two separate complaints to the Compliance/Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) of the International Finance Corporation (IFC)/ Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MGIA). Starting in 2001 the CAO held a series of meetings with local stakeholders at which both concerns regarding the impacts of the mine were raised, and also suggestions made that a forum for transparent dialogue between the community and Yanacocha was needed. Out of the continuation of this process a Mesa (roundtable for dialogue) was formed. The CAO sponsored the 2003 water study, and continued funding the water monitoring program until 2006. In February 2006 the CAO published an "Exit Report" at the conclusion of its involvement. This report included a table summarizing progress made against the original concerns raised by the community in 2001.

In the beginning of August 2006 protests broke out against the expansion of the company's Carachugo pit, building a dam (El Azufre) near in the village of Combayo. Inhabitants of Combayo blocked the roads leading to the dam, protesting against possible contamination of water supplies and expressing their disappointment in sharing in social and economical benefits of the mining project. The protests ended in clashes between Police and private Yanacocha security guards (FORZA) on the one hand and local farmers on the other. The clashes resulted in several wounded and one local farmer, Isidro Llanos Canvar, was shot dead. At the end of August 2006 Carachugo II was temporarily closed down for three days as local farmers blocked the entrance roads to the pit demanding clarification of the death of Isidro.

On 2 November, Edmundo Becerra Corina, an environmentalist and an opponent of Yanacocha’s gold mining project, was shot dead in Yanacanchilla, Cajamarca province. He had reportedly received several death threats because of his opposition to the expansion of the mining company’s activities in the region. The attack took place days before he was due to meet with representatives from the Ministry of Energy and Mines.

The Peruvian NGO GRUFIDES, an environmental organization with a strong anti-mining stance, investigated the killings and provided support for the families of those protestors that were injured and killed in the demonstrations in August. In November 2006 two members of Grufides, Father Marco Arana and Mirtha Vasquez reported receiving several (death) theats and were followed and filmed both at work and at home. An investigation by the Peruvian press uncovered that individuals with ties to the security firm FORZA, which Newmont hired to provide security at Yanacocha, were involved in the surveillance of the GRUFIDES staff members. Newmont however has denied any involvement in the harassment or surveillance. In response to the threats Amnesty International issued an urgent action stating that “their lives, and those of others associated with GRUFIDES, may be in danger.

On the 15th of June 2007 several local farmers, under which two minors, were injured and taken into custody by public and private police forces paid by Yanacocha in the village of Totoracocha. The farmers were occupying heavy machinery of the mining cooperation as they were protesting against an absence of payment for construction work they had been carrying out for Yanacocha.