Conga Project

Conga Project is a gold mining and copper mining project in Cajamarca Region of Northern Peru. It is a project of Minera Yanacocha, a company mainly owned by Newmont Mining Corporation.

Overview

The Conga Mine is a project of Minera Yanacocha, a company mainly owned by Newmont Mining Corporation and Buenaventura, a Peruvian mining company, and the International Finance Corporation, the private-lending arm of the World Bank.[1] It was expected to yield 680,000 ounces of gold and 235 million pounds of copper per year for the first five years.[2]

History

The Conga Environmental Impact Assessment was originally approved in 2010.[3] It was suspended in November 2011. In April 2012, President Ollanta Humala, who had been elected after promising to place "water over gold",[4] said that the project needed a number of changes to proceed.[5] Protesters expressed concerns about perceived impacts of the project on the local water supply.[6]

Farmers protested against the project.[2] Demonstrations ceased after President Ollanta Humala on December 4, 2012 granted the country's armed forces extra power for 60 days, including the right to make arrests without warrant.[2] Opponents of the project pointed to risks for ecosystem and water resources.[7] The conflict had the result that several of President Ollanta Humala's ministers resigned.[8] It also resulted in the death of several Peruvians.[9] This was the first crisis of the Humala administration.[8]

In April 2016, Máxima Acuña received the Goldman Environmental Prize for her environmental advocacy and peaceful resistance regarding the Conga Mine Project.[10]

In 2016, the project was abandoned, in part due to the environmental concerns.[4][11]

Notes

  1. ^ Ben Hallman (12 February 2015). "One Peruvian Woman Is Standing Up To A Gold-Mining Goliath". Huffington Post. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  2. ^ a b c Liezel Hill (27 February 2012). "Newmont Says Too Early to Call Conga Project Amid Review". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  3. ^ "Newmont Suspends Construction at the Conga Project in Agreement with the Government of... -- DENVER, Nov. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --". Archived from the original on December 1, 2011. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
  4. ^ a b Walton, Brett (21 April 2016). "Conga Mine in Peru Halted by Water Concerns, Civic Opposition". Circle of Blue. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  5. ^ "Peru Activists: Newmont's Minas Conga Project Remains Unfeasible | Fox Business". Fox Business. Archived from the original on April 25, 2012. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
  6. ^ "Protests Shut Down Conga Project in Peru". Engineering & Mining Journal. Mining Media International. 20 January 2012. Archived from the original on 26 April 2016. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  7. ^ D. Raiser (18 April 2012). "Cajamarca: Bergbau-Gutachter mahnen Verbesserungen am Conga-Projekt an". INFOAMAZONAS. Magazine Premium. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  8. ^ a b "Latinominería". Archived from the original on 2012-08-29. Retrieved 2012-05-01.
  9. ^ "Peru anti-mining protests escalate during state of emergency".
  10. ^ Jim Carlton Recipients of the Goldman Environmental Prize to be honored. Wall Street Journal, 18 April 2016 (subscription required)
  11. ^ Jasamine, Cecilia (18 April 2016). "Community opposition forces Newmont to abandon Conga project in Peru". Mining.com. Retrieved 21 November 2017.

6°05′03″S 78°21′42″W / 6.0842°S 78.3616°W / -6.0842; -78.3616