- Pollution and water scarcity from the Quellaveco mine in Peru’s Moquegua department have killed wildlife, hurt the local economy, and created health problems in communities, according to a new investigation by several advocacy groups.
- The mine is operated by Anglo American Quellaveco S.A., a subsidiary of British mining company Anglo American, and is expected to produce around 300,000 tons of copper on average until the end of the decade.
- Studies have found high levels of metals, arsenic and mercury in human testing and water assessments. The company maintains the readings don’t exceed the standards for drinking and vegetable irrigation.
A copper mine in southern Peru that took decades to complete environmental assessments has been contaminating local watersheds with harmful metals, critics say. In its first few years of operation, the mine has allegedly endangered wildlife, threatened the local economy, and created health concerns in communities.
Developers of the Quellaveco mine in Peru’s Moquegua department spent more than 20 years conducting and revising environmental assessments to responsibly extract copper and molybdenum, a metal used in industrial alloys. But after the mine started operating in 2022, the impacts from pollution, erosion and other issues became difficult to ignore, residents say.
“[The project] has exhibited the tensions that are typical of large-scale mining in the Andean south: disputes over water in fragile basins, distrust in environmental evaluation and enforcement procedures, promises of employment and local development that are difficult to verify,” said a recent investigation by several advocacy groups, including Red Muqui, a collective of 32 NGOs in Peru.
The mine is operated by Anglo American Quellaveco S.A., a subsidiary of British mining company Anglo American. The company received its first environmental impact assessment approval for the project in 2000, but then spent another two decades revising it and finishing technical permitting and negotiations with local communities.
More than half of Moquegua department is covered by mining concessions, some of them causing contamination and water scarcity. Residents around the Quellaveco mine said they wanted to avoid the problems that had emerged from earlier large-scale mining operations dating as far back as the 1970s, when regulations were weaker and many people didn’t understand the industry’s long-term impacts.
As discussions continued, Anglo American modified the environmental impact assessment at least four different times, altering the location and designs of mining infrastructure.
The mine is expected to be in operation for 34 years, producing around 300,000 tons of copper on average until the end of the decade, according to a company spokesperson. Copper and molybdenum are essential to renewable energy like wind and solar, serving as alloys and conductors.
All activities are supervised by Peru’s environmental authorities and involve a Participatory Environmental Monitoring Committee made up of regional and municipal authorities, community representatives, and civil society, the company told Mongabay in a written statement.
“We are extremely proud of our approach at Quellaveco — a blueprint for sustainable and responsible mining,” a spokesperson said in the statement. “This includes the meaningful relationships nurtured with local communities over many years of extensive dialogue which started well before [the] building of the mine and set the precedent for the robust environmental and social commitments which are in place at the operation today.”
But open-pit copper mining uses water in virtually every step of the extraction process, including spraying down dust and mixing ore with water to make it easier to separate the copper. Today, community leaders say the mine’s high water use has led to scarcity for everyone else. Landowners have started to sell their properties because there isn’t enough water to farm.
Officials also found high levels of metals across years of testing near the mine, in some cases exceeding what officials consider safe. There were also “fine materials” from runoff and concentrations of arsenic, copper, lead and mercury in the Asana River, a primary source of freshwater for locals.
Arsenic is commonly found in copper ore and the surrounding rock of mine sites.
“They’re in the reservoirs, in the areas that are supposed to have treated water for people, and where it’s stored before being distributed,” said Bladimir Martínez, a member of Red Muqui. “Unfortunately, in those areas where the water is stored, heavy metals have also been found.”
At the same time, the recent investigation noted there are no conclusive studies establishing a direct relationship between the high metal readings and the mine. A company spokesperson told Mongabay that testing by an environmental monitoring program didn’t exceed the standards for drinking and vegetable irrigation.
The mine also had to divert part of the Asana River to make room for the open pit and other infrastructure, and to ensure its flow was unaffected by the mine’s activities. The diversion resulted in the loss of approximately 7 kilometers (4 miles) of freshwater habitat, the Red Muqui investigation said.
In its statement to Mongabay, the Anglo American spokesperson said the diversion hasn’t resulted in contamination of the water and farmland. But the Red Muqui investigation argues that the decreased size of the freshwater habitat puts local species at risk, including the Peru water frog (Telmatobius peruvianus).
It also noted that the company left out the lesser grison (Galictis cuja) from its environmental assessment — a small, elusive, badger-like animal that was photographed in the area by a camera trap in 2021.
“Other species and ecosystems could have been omitted in [the company’s] surveys, which would have led to an underestimation of the mining project’s impacts,” the investigation said. “The situation contradicts [the company’s] image as promoter of conservation, and indicates the need for more rigorous and long-term environmental studies.”
In the statement to Mongabay, the Anglo American spokesperson said the lesser grison isn’t included in environmental assessments because the animal wasn’t recorded at the time the surveys were conducted.
It also said that within the Quellaveco operational area, flora and fauna relocation measures have been implemented to safeguard and preserve biodiversity.
Red Muqui and the other authors of the investigation said officials should strengthen environmental monitoring and evaluation of large-scale mining projects while conducting an independent reevaluation of flora, fauna and air quality, among other things.
It also said there needs to be more research into the impact on soil, crops and contaminants in rivers.
Legal action should also be considered for cases where mining concessions overlap with water sources used for human consumption, the investigation said. Any expansions or changes to the project should involve consultation with local communities.
“As long as scientific uncertainty on the sources of contamination exists, the state should apply a precautionary principle and evaluate preventive restrictions on large-scale mining operations, prioritizing public health and the human right to water,” it said.
Banner image: A woman in Peru examines the waters outside of the Quellaveco mining area. Image courtesy of Lucio Moquegua.
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