Chile: Riesco Island on high alert

Lives and labour rights are being threatened by a government-backed coal mining project in Patagonia, Chile.

The Riesco Island mining project involves five opencast mines with grade B and C sub-bituminous deposits of coal, which has a low heating capacity and a high concentration of heavy metals, such as mercury.

Four sample bags taken from one of the mines (Mina Invierno) were found to contain levels exceeding international standards. Further analyses were requested, but were never conducted.

Mina Invierno is expected to produce six million tons of coal a year. Operations have been launched and production capacity is growing by the day. Copec (Angelini) and Ultramar (Von Appen) have managed to dig their claws deep into the heart of Patagonia, with the blessing of the President Sebastián Piñera of Chile.

But grave social and environmental consequences loom, as the interests of private individuals take precedence over the collective interests of the people.

“The threat of water pollution was denounced in February of this year. We sent a report to all the environmental and sectoral authorities. Contaminated water is being pumped out of the mine and poured untreated into the River Chorrillos. We are still waiting for an answer,” Ana Stipicic, coordinator of the Alerta Isla Riesco environmental group, told Equal Times.

“Action has also been filed with courts in Santiago, dating back to 2012, suing the Environment Minister and the Mayor of Punta Arenas as the authorities who approved the Mina Invierno project. The case is still pending but has been delayed by the stalling tactics being deployed by the State Defence Council, which is why the core issue is still to be discussed, that is, the need to withdraw environmental approval and to hold a new environmental impact assessment for the Mina Invierno project," added Stipicic.

The Riesco Island project plans to exploit four additional deposits: Adela, Río Eduardo, Elena and Oeste.

The Mina Invierno project alone has become the biggest in Latin America, with an investment of US$180 million.

Mina Invierno is currently directing 30 per cent of the coal to the thermoelectric power plants in the north of Chile and is selling the rest to China. It is also holding talks with other countries, which leads Stipicic to point out that “the argument used to back the mining project at the time was that ’Fuel from the Magallanes for Chile’ would be the solution to our fuel crisis and would reduce our coal imports.

“That argument was fallacious, as the coal will go wherever the best deal is, including of course to the electric power plants where Copec and Ultramar are linked with AES Gener.”

It has emerged that President Piñera, who holds 785,609 shares in Copec (owned by the Angelini family, which is one of the wealthiest families in Chile), is also involved in the multi-million dollar business.

The Antofagasta Minerals group, linked to the Luksic family, is also soon expected to join the shady business arrangement, with a project involving reserves of close to 500 million tons.

 

Environmental damage

With the launch of the Riesco Island operations, Chile now ranks second in terms of per capita CO2 emissions in the region. The appeals and reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other organisations – warning that global warming is the main threat facing humanity and, more specifically, that coal heads the list of fossil fuels responsible for this phenomenon – are seemingly being ignored.

Given that Mina Invierno is an opencast mining project, the pollution in terms of coal dust in the air will ultimately affect the soil and water, contaminating the habitats of numerous species with mercury.

The company’s reports also fail to mention the presence of winds in excess of 100km/h and endangered species like the huemul, one of Chile’s national animals. Other species at risk include the giant petrel, the common sea lion, dolphins, whales and penguins.

The nearby Cerro Palomares is also home to a colony of condors and is the only nesting place by the sea in Chile.

As the president of the National Committee for the Defence of Flora and Fauna (CODEFF), Bernardo Zentilli, points out, destroying the habitat will have a negative effect on the wildlife. He explains that many of the animals will die because of the impact on their ecosystem, the arrival of new diseases and the introduction of other species, especially dogs.

Finally, as Stipicic explains, there are three dimensions to the project’s environmental impact: "the local impact on Riesco Island and the Magallanes; the national impact of the power plants in the north of the country; and the worldwide impact of Chile’s carbon footprint and the rise in global CO2 emissions."

"We know that the environmental regulations are very basic in Chile and that, in addition, none of the laws and regulations have been conceived with ecosystems as complex and fragile as those of Patagonia in mind, and especially those of an island," adds Stipicic.

 

Anti-union practices and government collusion

In addition to the environmental damage, the Angelini-Von Appen project has also been problematic for the 800 workers who moved onto to Riesco Island to carry out the preparatory works for the opening of the mine.

Five stoppages have been staged thus far, in support of demands for better pay, productivity bonuses providing a share in company profits and better health and safety in the "mines" sector.

"The health and safety requirements are not being met. The paths are not wide enough, there are collapses and it is a question of luck whether the trucks manage to reach their destination. The working conditions are very dangerous because of the weather conditions and they fail to comply with Decree 132 governing this type of work," underlined Miguel Bravo, president of the Mina Invierno workers’ union, during his visit to the Chilean capital some months ago.

The workers say the company is making a mockery of the legislation, slicing up the company into separate entities with different tax codes (multiRUT) so as to undermine union organising. "This is one and the same company, but it is using the "multiRUT" multiple tax code system to fragment the workforce," explained the union leader, denouncing the company’s anti-union practices.

The longest strike to date lasted 22 days. To make their voice heard, the workers made an official trip, travelling over 3,000km from Punta Arenas to Santiago, to denounce the company. They were supported by the Copper Workers’ Confederation, which believes that the government is colluding with the company to block the workers’ demands.

In addition to the Copec shares held in a blind trust by President Piñera and Andrés Chadwick, the Minister of the Interior and head of National Security, also has interests in the company.

According Miguel Santana, head of the CTC, “There are photos and videos in which the workers reveal that national police officers were spending the night in the company’s premises, eating there and acting as private security guards. Moreover, the police’s radio patrol car was used to transport employees who, as noted by the Labour Inspectorate, had been hired illegally. In other words, the police were operating a radio taxi service for the company.”