- It is the 3rd time that the ministerial body has evaluated the initiative of Andes Iron.
- Allianz Humboldt, an alliance of national civil society organisations (1), together with local communities, announced that it would appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
Santiago, December 9, 2024.
In an unprecedented decision, the First Environmental Court of Antofagasta upheld Andes Iron's lawsuit (2) and ordered the Committee of Ministers to vote again on the Dominga port and mining project. In doing so, the court imposes a number of conditions that exceed its powers.
"We have the impression that this verdict is clearly unlawful and that the court has notoriously exceeded its powers. The Environmental Court does not approve the project directly, but issues a detailed order to force the approval of the Committee of Ministers. This is the same in practice and is a clear violation of the law," said Ezio Costa, Executive Director of FIMA (3). "The Environmental Court forgets its task, which is to verify whether the decisions taken by the Committee of Ministers are lawful or not. Instead, the court pretends that the way in which the court itself analyzes the professional background is the right one. This is inappropriate and a direct violation of Law 20,600, which created the environmental courts. We hope that the Supreme Court will hear the verdict and overturn it once and for all," added the lawyer representing the marine conservation organization Oceana in the lawsuit.
According to the ruling, the Committee of Ministers must make a new decision on the Dominga project within a maximum of 15 days, "assuming that sufficient background information has been provided and that the impact has been correctly assessed in terms of MPS emissions, water resources, AMERB (4), the marine environment, the tourist value and the synergy effect between the Dominga and Puerto Cruz Grande projects", and that "the decision will be taken with the involvement of ministers who are not affected by situations that affect their impartiality and administrative probity".
Alianza Humboldt criticized the verdict. The managing director of Oceana in Chile, Liesbeth van der Meer, said: "The court questions the honesty of the ministers who rejected the project. A bold statement that is outside the powers of the court." "If we look at honesty, it would have been good if the court had ruled on numerous cases in which the Dominga project was involved precisely because of conflicts of interest and corruption," she added.
Alejandra Donoso, director of Defensoría Ambiental, member of Alianza Humboldt, said: "We are concerned about the decision of the Environmental Court and believe that it is wrong on several points and consequently leaves the ecosystem of the Humboldt Archipelago and sustainable economic activities unprotected, activities that the members of the communities living there have always carried out". "We will file the corresponding lawsuits with the Supreme Court to ask the Court to review the decision of the Environmental Court of Antofagasta, which unfortunately is not in line with the law," the lawyer added. The lawyer represents the local communities that are resisting the port and mining project of Andes Iron.
Dominga: A Never-Ending Story
In 2013, the Dominga Port and Mining Project was included in the environmental assessment. The project consists of two open pit mines, a megaport, a desalination plant and a tailings dump for the extraction of iron and copper concentrate over a period of 22 years. In 2017, both the Coquimbo Environmental Assessment Commission and the Committee of Ministers rejected the Andes Iron port and mining project on the grounds that it was an inadequate baseline for the marine environment, underestimated the area of influence and did not describe the routes of shipping, endangering one of the most biodiverse marine ecosystems of the entire Humboldt Current. An ecosystem in which, as we remember, the most recent coastal protected area "Humboldt Archipelago" was created, with multiple uses.
Since then, Andes Iron has decided to obtain the approval of the project through legal channels, which has so far failed. In fact, Dominga was twice rejected by the Committee of Ministers. The Supreme Court has already reviewed the rulings of the Environmental Court twice. The first time, the Supreme Court found that the rejection of the project in 2017 was lawful, contrary to the company's application, and directed the Environmental Court to look into the technical aspects that had led to this rejection. On the 2nd time, the Supreme Court ruled that the case should be resolved at the administrative level, i.e. it left the decision to the Committee of Ministers, which rejected the Dominga project for the 2nd time, a decision that the company appealed again to the 1st Environmental Tribunal, whose decision has now been published.
Faced with this new scenario of uncertainty, local communities are once again the hardest hit. Rodrigo Flores, president of the Mesa Consultiva del Archipiélago de Humboldt (Humboldt Archipelago Advisory Board), said there is no support for the mining company in the community. "We have been working on sustainable tourism for decades and in our commercial areas we have a local economy that goes hand in hand with environmental protection. We are not prepared to destroy everything we have built in this area," Flores said.
For its part, the movement for the defense of the environment, Modema, assured that despite the long time it has already fought to defend this territory, it will continue to strive to stop the initiative of Andes Iron. "For years we have witnessed Dominga's irregularities in our municipality. Attempts are being made to bribe the population through licence fees. Dominga is one of the most controversial corruption cases in Chile in recent times. It is not possible to open the door to Dominga in an area that has a globally recognized ecological value," said Carolina Bahamondes, president of Modema, one of the local groups that are also part of Alianza Humboldt.
Alianza Humboldt Coquimbo Atacama, announcement dated 9 December 2024
translated from Erich Greiner
Note.
(1) Sphenisco is a founding member of Allianza Humboldt
(2) The company Andes Iron is the owner of the Dominga mining and port project
(3) FIMA is a non-profit Chilean NGO. It was founded in 1998 and advocates for the public interest and communities in Chile, especially in important socio-ecological conflicts. (4) AMERB refers to areas of benton management and exploitation of bentonic resources (Áreas de Manejo y Explotación de Recursos Bentónicos).
