Chile: Environmental watchdog has laid three charges against Anglo American for breaches at its El Soldado copper mine
"Anglo American’s El Soldado mine faces charges for environmental breaches in Chile", 09 December 2024
...Chile’s environmental watchdog has laid three charges against Anglo American for environmental breaches at its El Soldado copper mine, located 125 km north of the capital Santiago.
The Superintendency of the Environment (SMA) labelled the charges as “serious,” the second of three levels of offenses, and said Anglo American Sur, the local arm of Anglo American, faced the possible revocation of its environmental permit, closure or a fine of more than 12 billion pesos ($12.4 million) if it did not address the issues...
Anglo American told Reuters that it has been working on issues related to SMA’s findings and has informed the agency about its efforts. It added that it has requested a meeting with environmental officials to determine how to proceed.
“We are committed to working continuously with the authority to comply with all our environmental commitments,” the company said in a statement Monday...
The first charge is related to the poor implementation and operation of the infiltration interception and water injection system, the second charge, the environmental watchdog said, is due to the owner’s failure to comply with the early warning plan.
The third charge is related to the partial execution of the mitigation measure of rescue and relocation of fauna, regarding 3,867 individuals of the amphibian rulo toad — whose category of affectation at the date of evaluation was “vulnerable” — since the marking of the specimens was not carried out nor were subsequent monitoring carried out...