[Excerpt translation from Spanish to English provided by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

"Minera Shougang continues to operate and unleashes spill at Marcona" - March 17, 2020

Disrespect. The Chinese mining company Shougang Hierro Peru S.A.A. continues to operate in the district of Marcona (Ica), despite the supreme decree approved by the Executive that declares a State of National Emergency and forces at national level the social isolation for 15 days to counteract the contagion of COVID-19 that so far reached 117 Peruvians... According to the Shougang Workers Union, the Chinese state company forced them last Monday to continue with their work. Images spread by the same group of workers show that the workers were transferred in a truck to the mine for the extraction of iron, and to the area of San Nicolas, where the minerals are processed and shipped for export...In the middle of the contempt, approximately at 6:30 in the afternoon of Monday, a mineral spill was unleashed in the San Nicolas dock after the fall of the conveyor belt that brings the processed iron to the ships bound for China. According to the Gran Angular website, no workers were affected but there was environmental damage, such as the presence of hydroids, oils and fats in the sea off the coast of Ica...