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. 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. 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. "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.

6.0842°S 78.3616°W / -6.0842; -78.3616

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