Caimanes
Since the Antofagasta AGM in London on 18 May the dangers posed by its El Mauro tailings dam have been covered on Russia Today TV’s Going Underground programme, along with London Mining Network’s views on what the UK Government needs to do to pressure London-linked mining companies to clean up their act.
Around the time of the company’s London AGM, Antofagasta announced that it had signed an accord with the community of Caimanes that has long-opposed the tailings dam at its Los Pelambres flagship copper mine in Chile to bring their protests to an end, but not all the protesters said they were on board.
An article in the New Internationalist asked What is Antofagasta hiding from its investors? pointing out that since 2013 Antofagasta has ignored or dodged no fewer than three major legal judgements, including two from Chile’s Supreme Court.
And Chilean community representative Marcela Mella Ortíz appealed to the British Public in a short video asking for an end to British complicity in the investment infrastructure that enables Antofagasta and for support for her community and the city of Santiago in keeping their water and land from privatisation and exploitation in the name of “public interest”.