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LATIN AMERICA |
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Bolivian Government Bars Mining on Peak of
Cerro Rico
LA PAZ – The Bolivian government ordered a
U.S.-owned mining company to cease
operations on the summit of Cerro Rico,
responding to protests by residents of the
nearby city of Potosi that the activity was
damaging the distinctive conical shape of
“rich mountain,” which has been producing
silver for 464 years.
Deputy Mining Minister Gerardo Coro told Efe
that Empresa Minera Manquiri S.A., a
subsidiary of Coeur d’Alene Mines
Corporation, has already begun removing its
equipment from Cerro Rico’s peak, which
rises 4,702 meters (15,416 feet) above sea
level.
Manquiri workers were on the summit to
collect thousands of tons of surface
residues rich in silver.
From now on, Manquiri will not be allowed to
operate above 4,400 meters, a restriction
long observed by the roughly 30 mining
cooperatives active on Cerro Rico.
Coro said Manquiri had already completed 97
percent of what it planned to do on the
summit and he dismissed fears of a landslide
on the storied mountain.
Environmental activists and members of the
Potosi Civic Committee organized a general
strike Monday to demand that the government
revoke Manquiri’s mining concession on Cerro
Rico.
The mountain is a national monument and a
tourist attraction whose image is part of
Bolivia’s coat of arms.
Development of the Cerro deposit began in
1545 and over the centuries millions of
Indians and African slaves worked under
conditions of forced labor, producing tens
of thousands of tons silver for the Spanish
Empire. Tin and zinc extracted from the mine
became important in more recent times.
Currently, some 10,000 miners – mostly
descendants of those initial workers – toil
below ground, using dynamite to create
tunnels and extracting at least 2,000 tons
of mineral-laden earth per day.
Conditions remain brutal, with most of the
miners dying of pneumonia in their 40s, and
mine drainage takes a devastating toll on
the environment, making Potosi one of the
world’s most polluted cities.
The chairman of the Potosi Civic Committee,
Celestino Condori, said he and others in the
city don’t trust Manquiri to stop mining on
Cerro’s summit.
He said the only way to ensure the
mountain’s preservation is to revoke
Manquiri’s concession.
Bolivian engineers have found cave-ins and
fractures and recommended that preservation
efforts be carried out, although they say
there is no danger the mountain will
collapse due to the intense mining activity.
They say the collapse of such a mass of
solid rock is only possible in the event of
a major earthquake, although the mountain
does have a total of 90 kilometers (56
miles) of perforations and galleries,
according to a recent study of the mine’s
structural deterioration.
Those same engineers have determined that
Cerro Rico contains almost 1.22 billion tons
of mineral wealth, most of it silver. EFE |
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