Pascua-Lama

- 29.319444444444 - 70.019166666667Koordinaten: 29 ° 19 '10 " S, 70 ° 1' 9 " W

The project Pascua Lama is a planned mining project in the South American countries of Chile and Argentina in the vicinity of places Pascua Lama and the Valle de Huasco in the Atacama region 660 km north of Santiago de Chile. The nearest major town is Vallenar with 44,000 inhabitants in 150 kilometers away.

On the border between the two countries with greater reserves of gold, silver and copper are suspected under different glaciers. The Canadian company Barrick Gold, up to now the third largest gold producer in the world wants to degrade in an open pit, together with its subsidiary Empresa Nevada erode parts of the glaciers Toro I, Toro II and Esperanza and build again at a different location. The Chilean Environmental Commission Comisión Nacional del Medio Ambiente ( CONAMA ) had made such a move as part of its environmental impact assessment a condition for approval. The mining area is about 80 % in Chile and 20 % in Argentina.

Under the ice are the basis of satellite images 17.6 million ounces of gold ( at $ 550 per ounce, more than 9.5 billion U.S. dollars), 635 million ounces of silver ( $ 6 billion ) and 5,000 tonnes of copper (25 million dollars) suspected. The gross value of deposits so is around 15 billion dollars, but with currently very high commodity prices. Barrick calculated with an investment of $ 1.6 billion.

Environmental groups fear a serious impact on the Huascotal by arsenic, in the run 70,000 small farmers irrigated agriculture. In addition, many residents complain, especially members of the Huascoaltinos, descendants of the Diaguita, the land for themselves.

Despite protests by environmental groups and the inhabitants of the region, the Chilean environmental authority has now given the green light for the project. From the year 2013 a production of approximately 36 million ounces of silver is expected.