Ecobreves – PERU: Demands for Guarantees from Mining Companies

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

LIMA, Jan 10 2005 (IPS) - The concession-holders of mining contracts in Peru will have to put forth financial guarantees — titles, shares or cash — to pay for potential environmental damage from their operations if a bill presented by Congressman Jaime Velásquez is passed. Since 1991, the mining contracts obligate the companies to develop environmental management programs to reverse the negative effects of their operations, but Velásquez said that 11 companies are behind in executing 40 such programs, and that his ''will cause serious health problems and ecological degradation.''

The lawmaker expressed his concern to Tierramérica, saying, ''when these companies exhaust the mines and leave the country, there will be nobody to hold responsible.''

The president of the central Peruvian region of Pasco, Victor Espinoza, estimates it would cost more than 200 million dollars to clean up Lake Junín, contaminated by mining companies that no longer operate in the country.