During the second week of October 2023, in northern Chile’s Coquimbo, Yasna Silva used social media to ask for help. She and her entire family had been sued by the Los Pelambres Mining Company. The reason? Neither she, nor the rest of the residents of her community, Pupío, had agreed to the expansion of a road that would allow the mining company to install two new pipelines: one that would transport 1,200 liters (317 gallons) of industrial water per second, and another that would transport copper concentrate away from where the company extracts it in the Andes Mountains in the Coquimbo region. Both pipelines would be fewer than 100 meters (330 feet) from her house, and the fear that a leak could affect her home led her to oppose the project. Even though there is already a pipeline in the area, it currently only transports 400 l (105 gallons) of industrial water per second. With the 2023 approval of the company’s new Operational Adaptation project, that pipeline will be able to hold three times its current capacity, and a separate pipeline for copper concentrate will be added. The mining company told Mongabay Latam that during some conversations with property owners, “it was not possible to agree on compensation for the rights-of-way,” (or, in other words, for the construction of the road required to install the pipelines). For that reason, the company said that “it was requested that an impartial third party determine a fair price to pay for the easements,…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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