The dumping high in the Andes of some 55 million tons of mining waste is fueling a bilateral dispute, with Argentina asserting that the material, deposited on its side of the border by a Chilean open-pit operation several years ago, is polluting watercourses. Material from Los Pelambres, a copper and molybdenum mine in Chile owned by the Chilean-Japanese company Antofagasta Minerals, was deposited across the border in Argentina during 2007-11 on the land of a separate copper- and molybdenum operation. The latter mine, called El Pachón, is run in Argentina’s San Juan province by the Swiss company Glencore. Though Glencore in 2011 protested to Argentina’s foreign ministry and filed a complaint in Argentine federal court, the matter did not begin receiving public attention... [Log in to read more]
