Visiting the Mine

The Yanacocha operations and the facilities of Porcón Farm were visited by students of the Technological Institute "Pedro Ortiz Montoya” from Celendin as well as primary students from the 5th class, teachers and parents of some educational institutions in villages near the Conga project, with the purpose of clearing up any doubts and fears about the environmental and social work carried out by modern mining in Cajamarca.

Visitors

"Our visit is really rewarding because students have learnt that it is possible for the agriculture, the livestock and the mining to live in harmony. Now I have realised that Yanacocha is a friendly- environment mining company.”

Walter Altesana Yallop, Teacher in the Institute of Technology.

"This visit is extremely important due to the information we receive regarding the mining operations, now we know how Yanacocha operates and how they care for the environment."

Mirzan Chávez Malaver, Student

"We are proud for everything we have seen in Porcón Farm. We have listened to those who say that mining damages the environment, but it is not true because here we have seen animals of all kinds and also trouts. I will take this message to my village so they come and see that mining does not hurt anybody.”

Salomón Cruzado Huaman, deputy Mayor of Huasiyuc hamlet.

"I thank the role of the authorities from our village and the goodwill of the Conga project who have made this visit possible for students, teachers and parents. We are happy because this trip allows our children to visit places they have never been able to visit before"

Eloy Quintana Ramos, President of Parents Association Huasiyuc IE.

Read more...

New business ideas for Celendin

Young people is in charge

The first competition on Business Ideas was carried out under the project: Training Program for Young Entrepreneurs Celendin (PFJEC for its acronyms in Spanish). This competition brought together young people from different secondary schools as: Jesus de Nazaret, Coronel Cortegana, Nuestra Señora del Carmen, Manuel de Pierola Castro, Jose Cabellos, among other educational institutions within the area.

This program aims to encourage a culture of success among Celendin youth, providing them with the abilities to develop skills which will facilitate their integration into working life and business.

How was the competition achieved?

• First, it began with the distribution of business ideas workshops in schools within the area.
• There was a call to young secondary students.
• Young people presented their projects
• Friday, November 19, finalists were evaluated by a jury, who were members of the Andes of Cajamarca Association (1), the UEGEL Celendin (1) and the Junior Achievement Peru (1).
• After the evaluation, 10 finalists were selected out of 103 submitted projects.

Each group (of two pupils each), achieved a presentation of ten minutes, and then responded to questions from the jury.

The winners

The winners were the participants of the Project “Coffee made of sweetened cereals to boil”, Edgar Pereyra y Wilman García, pupils of the secondary school Pedro Paula Augusto Gil; both received a scholarship to attend the International Forum of Entrepreneurs FIE 2011 (in Cordoba, Argentina)

The Project “Company of Ecotourism services”, whose participants were Nilson Fidelia Hoyos and Sanchez, pupils of the same school but from a different class, received a digital camera and a MP4 player.

The awards

The awards ceremony was held on the 29th of November at the Municipal Auditorium and included the presentation of the speaker Fernando Escudero Espinoza.

The commitment of institutions as the Association Los Andes de Cajamarca and Yanacocha – Conga Project, which is supported by the UGEL Celendin and the implementation of Junior Achievment Peru, made possible this type of educational initiatives which improve the development of Celendin.

Read more...

And beyond ..

Conga Cattlemen in action

We believe that through the sharing of livestock experiences with other farmers in Conga, we will achieve to fortify our capacities as well as our knowledge and technical production skills. That's why the project is still encouraging Conga Livestock internships in dairy basins of Jequetepeque in La Libertad, Lurin in Lima and Majes in Arequipa.

The goal is to make a total of 870 small livestock producers s to visit various stalls so in the future they could increase their production and profitability by joining stocked-up companies like Nestle and Gloria.

During the internship, they emphasize issues such as alternative power systems, technical and production management, genetic improvement and innovative systems to manage the productivity of dairy cattle.

This is the way Farmers win:

"“I feel very happy of learning new things about this internship. Congratulations to Yanacocha which through Conga makes the effort to help its villages. We have seen how other regions had moved forward and indeed we could do the same if we worked together”.

Ebert William Idrogo Jambo (Hamlet of Quengorío Alto)

"I feel very happy and grateful about FONCREAGRO and the Conga Project because my colleagues and I can see a beautiful cattle. I wish we could improve the breed of our houses. It would make a great change"

Mesías Cabrera Lozano (Hamlet of Huangashanga)

"I praise the efforts of this mining project and I make a call to farmers to take advantage of this opportunity. The best recommendation I could give you is to gather together to do business as this is the only way to succeed."

Arnulfo Paredes Pacheco, (Majes Agricultural Producers Association)

Read more...

Building a Future

An agreement

The Executive Director of the Asociación Los Andes de Cajamarca (ALAC) and District Mayor from Huasmin, province of Celendín , signed an inter-institutional cooperation agreement in order to finance jointly the construction of classrooms in three educational institutions in the villages of: Chilac N ° 08, Coñicorgue and El Lirio, which belong to the district of Huasmin.

This initiative is part of the combined efforts of ALAC, the Conga project and local government. With this agreement we can improve not only the schools infrastructure, but also the life and safety of many children.

District Mayor Huasmin expressed satisfaction with the signing of the agreement and emphasized that "the only way to achieve meaningful development results in the villages is by working together the public and private institutions."

Read more...

Beyond Cajamarca

As part of the Livestock Development Project, 41 producers from 16 villages in the area of influence of Conga did an internships in La Libertad, Lima and Arequipa.

With the aim of improving livestock production, participants received training on topics such as dairy cattle management, pasture production, animal health and milk quality.


Do you want to know more about this experience?

Read more...

Better stoves, better quality of life

The kitchen is one of the most important places in our house, because the daily menu for the family is prepared there and most of the housewives, in company of their children, spend a lot of hours of the day there.

In the kitchens of Celendin, people traditionally cook with firewood maintaining in this way the delicious and characteristic smoked taste of our Andes. But this also causes respiratory complications, pollution with toxic smoke, burns and other problems because of the bad conditions of some stoves in Cajamarca.

What does Conga suggest?

Improve the family economy and give more security to the families of Celendin without losing their tradition.

For that we have given till today 243 improved firewood stoves to the families participating in the project which thwart the lack of firewood, avoid the smoke, and reduce the time of cooking and the most important things: provide commodity and hygiene to the families.

An excuse

On 27^th of September, at the Primary Educative Institution of Quengo Rio Bajo, we organized a kermesse so that benefitted families and volunteers could fraternize. Likewise, the construction of stoves became an excellent opportunity to interact and have a good time knowing each other between the workers of the Mine Yanacocha /Conga Project and our neighbors.

Read more...

Conga´s recipe for dialogue

How to communicate with people?

In Conga we have designated days for dialogue: on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in Huasmín, Celendín and Sorochuco respectively.

These meetings attract hundreds of citizens to discuss issues of interest, such as those related to environmental work of modern mining in Cajamarca.

Citizens of the three districts have supported openly this dialogue initiative because it allows them to obtain information regarding mining issues, but also of initiatives to lay the foundations for sustainable development.

In these meetings participate:

Ramon Marchena Ortiz, a resident of Sorochuco:

"Because the information we receive is satisfactory for the knowledge of all of us"

Quiliche César Bolaños, a resident of Sorochuco:

"This is how the mining propose new alternatives for the development of its people. By the dialogue of settlers and mining representatives, both parts are satisfied”

Read more...

Mistura and native potato

Last week our colleagues from ADERS, attended Mistura´s food fair.

In a preferential location as the main product, more than 800 varieties of native potatoes from different regions of the country were displayed.

The producers of La Chorrera, Antonio Alaya Ortiz and Juan Tacilla Bolaños, were blissful to confirm that their product it´s in great demand and of their participation in the project of "Production of the commercial native potato "

This same project is being implemented in partnership with ALAC in the districts of Huasmín, Sorochuco and Encañada.

In the coming years, the producers within the Conga project will take part in MISTURA.

Read more...

More education

The quality of education not only depends on teachers, but of the commitment and coordination of all of us. Therefore, we have been promoting volunteerism with youth from different schools within the country.

In July, 10 young people from Markham school from Lima participated in this volunteer program along with other 13 students from Davy´s school from Cajamarca.

Together, students, parents and teachers, helped shoulder to shoulder in the repair and improvement of the infrastructure of a school in the hamlet of Agua Blanca, in the district of Sorochuco.

After extensive hours of work, the facade, doors, windows and the interiors of each of the classrooms looked restored. The access to the school as well as the sanitary facilities and drainage for rainwater were improved.

Reading for pleasure

Reading means more than just studying, it is a recreational activity. Thanks to all the volunteers we were able to renew the Educational Resource Centre with new textbooks, which will be useful to promote reading sessions under the name of "Reading for pleasure."

Authorities, teachers and the community in general, emphasized the team work, recognizing that actions like this should be replicated in other areas of the district.

Read more...

Could a mine promote development before starting to operate?

We have been working for the sustainable development in communities, despite the fact we have not become a mine yet. Why? Because we have a social and environmental commitment with Cajamarca.

We believe that sustainable human development is an approach which promotes fundamental skills of the people (education, health, income, civic participation, among others) and at the same time, train citizens to acquire high levels of autonomy.

There are a lot of cases we could share. At this time, we will introduce the case of the famous milk from Cajamarca.

Case 1: Healthy Cows = rich milk = quality dairy products.

We decided to work with dairy farmers in Cajamarca because they need more training and technical assistance. The aim is to improve the skills of dairy farmers in order to optimize their income and quality of life.

With this project, "Training and Employment Promotion in Dairy Cattle in Cajamarca", we have been able to train more than 8300 dairy farmers in the watershed of the Encañada, Cajamarca,Tumbaden and Conchan, also in the provinces of Cajamarca, San Miguel and San Pablo.

Thanks to the Fondo de Crédito para el Desarrollo Agroforestal (FONCREAGRO) which we are supporting, 870 families benefit from improved health conditions of livestock and plant improved pastures, among other services.Since the cows are the main source of milk produced in Cajamarca, we have implemented a preventive vaccination campaign and we have also boosted the registration and earrings of cows to optimize production.

Since the cows are the main source of milk produced in Cajamarca, we have implemented a preventive vaccination campaign and we have also boosted the registration and earrings of cows to optimize production.

Conga´s formula

How to contribute to human development for the dairy farmers to produce more milk of better quality?

• A strong and committed partnership with local actors
• A rich Credit Fund for Agroforestry Development (FONCREAGO)
• Intense training for dairymen
• Essential care for the cows (registration, vaccination and veterinary services)
• Good Pastures
• A lot of quantities of work committed to a long-term vision

Read more...

For the hamlets to produce more and better

Conga´s Teams of Social Development and Community Relations make the effort every day to visit neighbouring communities and share productivity methods with them. In the city of Cajamarca, more than 800 families from 38 hamlets in the towns of La Encañada, Sorochuco and Huasmin have already begun to experience positive changes through development projects which we carry out within the area.

Partners for Development: From left to right: Inés Pando Salazar, Conga Project Social Development Coordinator; Miguel Lacsa Fuentes, potato farmer of Uñigan Pululo Hamlet and Nicolas Caballero Bardales, Specialist in Productive Development of Asociación Los Andes de Cajamarca (ALAC).

Seven options to produce

Nicolas Caballero Bardales, a specialist in the productive development of Asociación Los Andes de Cajamarca (ALAC), tells us that within the next 3 to 5 years, seven projects will be implemented.

“At the moment we are developing programs such as: the native potato, dairy livestock and we are about to start the productive project of ground berry (aguaymanto). Next year we will implement a bio-commercial programme as well as a milk processing plant”.

Future Kings of the native potatoes

Thanks to the projects "Production of commercial native potato" and "Production and marketing of quality potato seed”, Miguel Llacsa Fuentes, potato producer of the hamlet of Uñigan Palulo, is learning to maximize his farmland by preserving the environment and getting trained in business management.

"We want to become great negotiators of potatoes and have a fixed market. Thus we could resolve our work and make a profit from it."

The project is implemented by the Asociación para el Desarrollo Sostenible del Perú (ADERS Perú).

The future king of native potato: Miguel Llacsa Fuentes, potato producer of the hamlet of Uñigan Palulo wants to become a great negotiatior and have a mixed market. Thus he could solve his work and “makes a profit from it”.

Cajamarca: Delicious, fresh milk

There are currently 870 families participating in the competitive development project of dairy livestock run by the Fondo de Crédito para del Desarrollo Agroforestal (Foncreagro) (FONCREAGRO, Credit Fund for Agroforestry Development) The goal is to optimize the quality of milk by improving sanitary conditions of the livestock, pasture, among others.

Communities with forward-looking approach.

In addition to these programs, in Conga we integrate an institutional network that promotes the creation of Community Development Committees (Codeco) as a strategy for community empowerment.

Consuelo Sanchez Cortez, vice president of Codeco in the hamlet of Uñigan Pululo tells us:

"Thanks to Codeco there has been a mass participation of people in the community. We have carried out many initiatives such as Improved Stoves, the creation of the Educational Institution “Uñigan Pululo” and, for 2011, we have planned a program of technical irrigation’

Ines Pando Salazar, Coordinator of Social Development in Conga Project says:

"These projects endeavour to improve the living conditions of farmers in neighbouring areas within the scope of the Conga project. The idea is to make our neighbors incorporate into their daily lives better tools and techniques in agriculture and livestock management, and thus gain more income”

Read more...

People first

In Conga, we are convinced that the social investment must be focused in a long-term vision. So, it is very important to work together with the development specialists and representatives of the populations to be close to the people, their families, custom and needs in order to recognise new alternatives to encourage the local and regional development.

With this in mind, we launched an important initiative: To set up the Alianza por el Desarrollo de Cajamarca y contra la Pobreza (The Alliance for the development of Cajamarca and reduction of Poverty). On February 11th, 2010 we subscribed with enthusiasm our Deed of Constitution. This Alliance involves habitants from 38 communities of the high Andes located in the border of the provinces of Cajamarca and Celendín. It is an inter-institutional platform composed of several collective efforts with a common goal: to seek sustainable development through innovative social, integrated and participatory projects that stir capabilities.

Thus, we can make individual and collective changes in the families of Conga, by improving their quality of life and reducing the poverty.

Who makes up the Alliance?

The heart of the Alliance is made up by 38 villages of the area of our Conga project. A number of public and private organizations and institutions specialized in sustainable development also takes part in this initiative. Such as:

• The villages of Agua Blanca, La Chorrera, Unigen lily, Unigen swarm Cruzpampa, El Tingo, Tablacucho, Faro Low, Santa Rosa de Huasmín (La Victoria), Huangashanga, Pampa Verde, El Alto No. 8 Chilac No. 8 Coñicorgue , Jerez, Shanipata, Quengorío Alto, Quengorío Bajo, El Tambo, Jadibamba Baja, alum, Namococha, Las Lagunas de Combayo, El Porvenir, Quinuapampa, El Valle, San Juan and Yerba Buena Yerba Buena Chica.
• The Regional Department of Health of Cajamarca.
• The Regional Management of Social development of Cajamarca.
• Minera Yanacocha - Conga Project.
• Los Andes de Cajamarca Association.
  
• PREDECI (Programa de Reducción de la Desnutrición Infantil).
• PRIE – IPAE – Empresarios por la Educación.
  
• Funder Perú.
• G y C.
• ADERS Perú.
• CEDEPAS Norte.
• Programa de Voluntariado de Minera Yanacocha.
• FONCREAGRO.
  

Different specialized institutions join the initiative of 38 communities from the Conga Project area in order to stop poverty and find the path to the sustainable development.

Read more...

Shilicos from Trujillo are well informed

People from Celendin who live in Trujillo city expressed their points of view about the Conga Project in the program Visión Informativa, Channel 33:

"The mining set up in Celendin is going to be an alternative of progress and improvement for our population. Investment is a sign of progress so I ask to all my fellow countrymen to support this project, because it will bring progress and opportunities to Celendin. We should stop being negative and start accepting our responsibilities to make progress".

Javier Camacho Sánchez

"The good mining based on concerted action brings positive results and provides resources to implement projects which benefit the areas of education, health and transport. We should not lose this opportunity. Those people who don´t share this view, must realize that there are places where mining and agricultural activities co-exist without predation and environmental contaminants which damage the ecology (…) By agreements and dialogues, we can solve several problems of the province, such as the 68% of infant malnutrition, illiteracy, lack of health centres. For solving these problems we need to get into an agreement with the authorities and mining companies", he explained.

Álvaro Bazán Cabellos

"This is a good opportunity. What we should do with buried richness which is useful for nobody? That is greedy! With a responsible mining we can have a great economical opportunity to build hospitals, schools and roads. For this reason, it is important that all the people from Celendin must support this project without being selfish which only causes damage to the progress. Conga officials as well as Celendin authorities, and the interested party too, must explain the project to those who don´t still believe in it".

José Bazán Silva

Read more...

Minas Conga will require a 3000 million dollars investment

Newmont’s Senior Official, Guy Lansdown said, "We are engaged with Peru and willing to make a 3 million-dollar investment to create sustainable development"

After having obtained the social license at the Public Audience of Cajamarca, with the aim to develop the project which will add half-million tons of copper to the national production, Conga Project, represented by Executive vice-president Guy Lansdown, had an important participation at the XI International Symposium of Gold.

In this event, the participation of Conga project was considered one of the most important gold-copper projects from Compañía de Minas Buenaventura and Newmont Mining Corporation. Conga operations will be managed by Yanacocha Peruvian Unit, the most important gold mining company in Latin America.

Newmont is planning to start Conga Peruvian project by the end of 2014 or at the beginning of 2015, so the decision about the advance of the project would be taken at the end of this year. Guy Lansdown said that the future project will require a strong investment of around 2,500 or 3,000 million dollars.

He also mentioned that the investment in Peru is favorable and competitive comparing with other countries of the region such as Chile, Mexico, and Brazil. "Keeping this investment environment is the key for which Peruvian economy is open, we are so pleased with the environment we have for gold investment."

Conga is an innovative mining project that wants to set up a new environmental and social management model for its influential area. The one will work on the construction of sustainable development of Cajamarca by generating direct and indirect jobs as well as social and economical contributions.

More related information:

• Diario El Comercio Perú
• Diario Gestión
• Andina Agencia de Noticias
• Sociedad Nacional de Minería, Petróleo y Energía
• Reuters Agencia de Noticias
• Yahoo Noticias

Read more...

EIA, Audience and Citizen Participation

(Originally published in the blog “Grupo de Diálogo")

“EIAs AND THE CITIZEN PARTICIPATION”, UNAVOIDABLE DEBATE IN THE SECOND MEETING OF GDMDS

On April 27, it was carried out the second meeting of the year: “EIAs, AUDIENCES AND CITIZEN PARTICIPATION: An unavoidable review”. More than a hundred of people took part with great interest in this meeting organized by THE MINING AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT DIALOGUE GROUP(GDMDS).

After almost ten years of uninterrupted work, the GDMDS still brings together different participants involved in the mining and sustainable development issue. In this occasion, the meeting started at 9:30 am with the participation of leaders from NGOs, mining companies, regional governments, municipalities, communities, consulting firms among others. In the section “Reports”, the local participants, who arrived from different parts of Peru, informed about the Southern Peru mining projects: The Chancas in Apurimac, Tía María in Arequipa, Anglo American Quellaveco in Ilo and Compañía Minera Volcán in Cerro de Pasco. The compensation of the mining companies operating in Huallanca district – Ancash was also mentioned.

The main subject started with Clara Garcia’s analysis, Senior Advisor of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, who raised questions in order to facilitate the citizen participation procedures: Should we start going through the inclusive procedures at the exploration stage?, Do we need more workshops about mining projects?, Do we need to build a baseline with the participation of the civil society?, At which stage do we have to encourage the formation of participating monitoring committees and technique tables?

Gerardo Castillo from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú expressed his concern over the topic beyond the legal approaches, and emphasized the main role of the key participants specially the Government who has to guarantee the access to information as well as take it as part in a continuous process. He thinks that the Corporate Social Responsibility approach is insufficient, and it needs the Government intervention in order to guarantee the co-responsibility between company and community.

Dario Zegarra, External Affairs Manager of the Conga Project of Yanacocha shared his experience in the Conga Project (Cajamarca), where in view of the uncertainty and distrust of the local community, they decided to inform the population about the common social opportunities by pointing out that the local representatives with social legitimacy would participate in training, monitoring, and controlling activities. He said, “By building trust we build citizenship that is the way”

Julia Cuadros from CooperAcción said that the citizen participation should strength the representative democracy: „One thing is to bring the Government closer to the citizens to let them decide and other thing is to try to legitimize - through the citizen participation- decisions made a priori by the administration, giving to them a cloak of collective decisions showing the feeling of the community, but that in the practice it represents the Government feeling”. Since the auto regulation is insufficient, a stronger Government with enough resources and mechanisms to supervise the transparency of the process is required
Humberto Olaechea, from the Committee de Lucha para el Desarrollo de Arequipa (Fighting Committee for Arequipa Development), agreed that as soon as a concession is granted, the Government must start communicating the concession to all the interested parties and assigning responsibilities to the pertinent authorities. He also said that although the agreements of this meeting are important, the personal compromise to generate the required changes is needed.

Clara Garcia thanked for all the received suggestions and recommendations, and emphasized the importance of this meeting. Finally, with the objective to have a short-term proposal about the subject, it was established the working group: Participation, advisory and EIAs. The commission is integrated by Alicia Abanto from Ombudsman's Office; Ada Barrenechea from B&R Asociados; Iván Ormachea of Prodiálogo; Alonso Ortiz from Labor Ilo; Ángela Chávarri, environmental and social matter consultant; Armando de la Flor, lawyer from the PUCP; Jorge Carbonell from Río Tinto Exploraciones; Darío Zagarra from Proyecto Conga Yanacocha; Sandra Carillo and Lenny Merinno, professors from the PUCP; Anel Huaripata from CEDEPAS; Cresenciano Guzmán; Jennifer Peréz from Labor Moquegua; Humberto Olaechea from the Comité de Lucha de Arequipa and Sandro Venturo from Toronja Comunicación Integral.

Lectures and reports:

• Environmental Impact Assessment – Extension of open pit Raúl Rojas – L Plan Work Center Pasco
• EIAs – Public Audiences and CP – Humberto Olaechea
• EIAs – and Citizen Participation – Julia Cuadros
• Southern Perú en Tapairihua
• Citizen Participation and EIAs– in the Peruvian mining – (Gerardo Castillo)

More information about the Conga Project:

• Conga Project – Environmental Impact Assessment
• Conga Project – Social Impact Assessment
• Video: Conga Project – Public Audience

Read more...