- The Cerro de Pasco mine in Peru’s central highlands has caused years of environmental and public health issues due to heavy metal pollution, a new lawsuit says. The mine contains silver, copper, zinc and lead, among other metals.
- The mayor and public prosecutor for the municipality of Cerro de Pasco want operators to admit responsibility for the pollution and revise their mining practices. They also want the companies to conduct health studies and pay for medical treatment for residents.
- Although Cerro de Pasco has been repeatedly recognized as an extremely contaminated zone that gravely affects vulnerable populations, measures so far have not improved outcomes for local communities and the environment.
A mine that has been operating for decades in the Peruvian Andes continues to contaminate the soil, water and air for thousands of people living nearby, according to a lawsuit filed last month. The contamination has displaced farming and livestock, the lawsuit said, while causing cognitive issues in children, among other public health concerns.
Companies working at the Cerro de Pasco mine, located in Peru’s central highlands, need to be held responsible for the pollution and public health issues that have affected more than 100,000 people, according to Cerro de Pasco Mayor Julio Rupay Malpartida and public prosecutor Darwin Alejandro Ramón Yalico, who filed the injunction petition on behalf of the municipality.
“[The] environmental contamination is on such a scale that it’s present in every corner of the city,” the lawsuit said, “a consequence of the accumulation of heavy metals and toxic substances.”
The area has been home to mining activity since at least the 16th century, when the Spanish discovered silver deposits during colonization. More recently, the private company Volcan Compañía Minera took over the mines in 2000 and has overseen underground and open pit operations to extract silver, copper, zinc and lead, among other metals.
The lawsuit also lists Volcan subsidiaries Óxidos de Pasco, Empresa Administradora Cerro and Empresa Minera Paragsha as defendants.
Some of the operation is located in the center of the city, with a population of more than 74,000. As a result, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide are emitted into the same air that residents breathe, the lawsuit said. Heavy metals are also discharged into the soil and water, with some readings coming back multiple times higher than what is considered safe by environmental and public health standards, according to the lawsuit.
“Recent studies have shown a direct correlation between the presence of metals in the bodies of boys and girls and certain illnesses, as well as reduced brain development,” said a statement from Flaviano Bianchini, director and founder of Source International, which has been studying Cerro de Pasco for nearly two decades. “We have even found toxic metals in the meat of the animals that the local population relies on for food.”
Some readings showed there was 7,750 times more manganese, 120 times more iron and 91 times more zinc than is considered safe in local waterbodies, the lawsuit said.
Volcan didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story.
“We grew up in this city of Cerro de Pasco, completely normalizing everything,” Mireya Sosa Navarro, a member of the activist group Red Interquorum Pasco, told Mongabay. “…As children, we didn’t understand the real problem. But as we grew up and saw the environmental studies done by different organizations, including state agencies, we have come to understand that our health is being compromised, as well as our rights.”
This isn’t the first complaint about mining in the area. In 2008, Congress passed a law implementing measures to reorganize much of the town of Cerro de Pasco and relocate “the most affected people or populations.”
In 2017, the government declared a 90-day sanitary emergency that was then extended for another 90 days, with an emphasis on children and pregnant women who had been exposed to heavy metals.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) also published a report in 2019 saying more than 4,085 children in Peru aged 0 to 11 had been exposed to heavy metals, mainly in Cerro de Pasco and Junín.
In 2022, a United Nations report included Cerro de Pasco on a list of “sacrifice zones,” defined as “extremely contaminated areas where vulnerable and marginalized groups bear a disproportionate burden of the health, human rights and environmental consequences of exposure to pollution and hazardous substances.”
However, these measures haven’t led to substantive change for people and the environment around the mine, the lawsuit said.
“Just because we’re a developing country, does that mean we don’t have the right to live with dignity and health among mining or any other activity?” Sosa Navarro said. “I believe it calls for stronger government oversight and raising standards so that no citizen in the world has to suffer these types of human rights violations.”
The plaintiffs asked the court to acknowledge that the mining companies had violated peoples’ right to a healthy environment, health, personal integrity, life and access to food.
They also want the companies to explain how their mining operations work — including financial records, permits, the metals extracted and chemicals used — so the community can understand the health and environmental implications.
The companies should also develop an action plan for addressing environmental and public health damage in the community, according to the lawsuit. This would include health studies to determine who needs medical attention.
The companies would cover the costs of the medical tests and treatment, the lawsuit said.
The plaintiffs also want the companies to revise their mining practices so that similar environmental and health impacts don’t repeat themselves in the future. Until that happens, they said there should be no permits or concessions granted to the companies.
Because there has been such a lack of action in the past, Sosa Navarro said activist groups like Red Interquorum Pasco are prepared to continue to combat the mine even if the lawsuit fails, stalls or some of the court’s decisions aren’t complied with.
“We understand that this is a process of resilience, time and effort,” she said.
Banner image: Kathy Ramos, 17, carries her son Edson near the Patarcocha lagoon, which is used as a dump for sewage and human waste, in the mining town of Cerro de Pasco, Peru. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)
See related from this reporter:
Peru’s Quellaveco mine tied to water scarcity, contamination, investigation finds
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