"Warnings of possible environmental disaster in Ecuador’s largest copper mine", 29 October 2023

...A group of environmental organizations and human rights defenders presented technical studies that indicate a possible risk of collapse and bursting of the tailings dams of the Mirador copper mine, the largest in Ecuador.

The possible rupture or collapse of the two dams would cause an environmental disaster that experts compare to the Brumadinho disaster in Brazil in 2019.

According to the authors of the study, Mirador’s two tailings dams, called Quimi and Tundayme, are at risk of collapse due to the high seismicity of the area and the weak soils beneath them.

There are also risks due to high precipitation, high topographic relief, proximity to surface water, dam height, and large volumes of tailings.

According to the study’s projections, in the event of a rupture, a wave of toxic material would destroy everything in its path for several kilometers, including various nearby indigenous communities, which would have only a few minutes to try to evacuate.

Engineer Noemí González, of Hydraulic Projects – Riada Engineering, warned that the mass of mining waste could leave several towns and communities buried under thirty meters of tailings, in addition to contaminating the Quimi River basin...

...[T]here are “gigantic and enormous risks to human life and to the integrity of ecosystems, biodiversity and Ecuador’s cultural heritage...

For this reason, he hopes that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) will intervene in defense of the fundamental rights of the Ecuadorian people...