“Ecuador’s 20-Year-Old Mining Conflict” - 12 January 2015

The communities living in Intag Valley in northern Ecuador have been opposing attempts to introduce an open-pit copper mine for 20 years…As early as 1995, the region’s 17,000 inhabitants held firm against the Japanese mining company BishiMetals and, in 2008, managed to expel the Canadian corporation Ascendant Copper. But since 2012 they have been faced with a new adversary. Following the agreement concluded by the state-owned mining company ENAMI-EP and CODELCO, the Chilean copper giant, it is now the Ecuadorian government, headed by Rafael Correa, that wants to lay its hands on the precious metal…The community is divided into two camps, those in favour of the mine and those against it…[Javier Ramírez, president of the community] has been in detention since 10 April 2014 and is still awaiting trial. The state-owned mining company has brought charges of “terrorism, rebellion and sabotage” against him, accusing him of provoking acts of vandalism against ENAMI-EP employees wishing to enter the mining project area…The police stationed in the village are lodging with those who have chosen to support the project…On 28 November 2014, authorities approved the environmental impact assessment for the proposed mining project…which begins this year and will last between six and eight years…Diego Zambrano, the person in charge of presenting the assessment on behalf of the ENAMI-EP, recognises that: “All human activity has an impact on the environment. But this is a strategic choice that has now been made by the Ecuadorian state, which has already planned to invest US$5 million to improve the public infrastructure in the region.”…