Town in motion

A GREAT DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY
The Conga Project of Yanacocha organizes a public audience with great success.

The small village of San Nicolas of Chalhuagon was the scenery of a historic activity for the people from the villages of Huasmin, Sorochuco and La Encalada of the provinces of Celendin and Cajamarca on Wednesday, March 31.

The results of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the Conga Project were put forward in the Public Audience held on March, 31.

From 9 am different delegations arrived on foot, by trucks and buses, some with their community authorities, others with their majors and deputy governors. The scenery was massive. A four thousand country people attended, but only 3,094 were registered and participated officially in the audience.

In that event, all the doubts and questions were answered by technicians of Yanacocha, who presented the main features of the Conga Project, and also by specialists of the consulting company in charge of the Environmental Impact Assessment.

Darío Zegarra, External Affairs Manager of the Conga Project, said: „We are very grateful with our neighbours because we have the same interest; this mining project is a great opportunity because it will generate four reservoirs which will provide more water for the agriculture activities in dry seasons”.

As it is known, a lot of critics have been surprised because they thought that Conga project steals water from the agriculture activities. This surprise lies in the construction of 4 reservoirs done by Yanacocha which will work before the mine operates and compensate fully to the affected lakes.

The representatives of the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) and the Regional Direction of Energy and Mines of Cajamarca led the audience. OMBUDSMAN and the Public Ministry officials as well as deputy governors, provincial and district majors, local authorities and the community in general attended the audience.

The Audience closed a series of workshops for Citizen Participation that began several months ago following the Regulations of the Ministry of Energy and Mines as well as other consulting and reporting activities that the Yanacocha officials developed village by village.

It is expected that Yanacocha invests again in the region which would be one of the most important gold - copper projects in Peru after they have collected the citizens’ observations and the Ministry has approved the project.

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4 false claims about Conga

What you can find in the Environmental Impact Assessment.

1. If lakes disappear, farmers will run out of water
• Conga will affect 4 lakes: Three of them will be replaced by reservoirs and one will increase its storage capacity.

2. Tailings will pollute all the basins
• The deposit design of the tailings incorporates all the control measures to avoid pollution in the natural environment. On the other hand, the tailings will be thicker to minimize infiltrations

3. EIA was created without people participation
• Without the audience, around 1800 people who live in the project area, have taken part in the EIA workshops besides other activities such as; visits, meeting, conferences (Thursday dialogues), and technical expositions among others.

4. Reservoirs affect the equilibrium of the zone
• Conga Project will build dykes as reservoirs. What is a dyke? They are floodgates built over natural ravines which allow storing water during rainy seasons. So, the water is stored in the same ravine without affecting the area keeping the same conditions.

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When mines start operating, will communities have water?

When a responsible mine is set up in high places, it must respect the quantity of water spent by the involved basins. For example, before Conga Project operates, 4 reservoirs will be built to assure enough water in dry seasons. These 4 reservoirs might even have more storage capacity (double) than the current lakes. In other words, more efficient the mining is, more water there will be.

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Is it true that reservoirs affect the zone balance?

Conga Project will build dykes as reservoirs.

What is a dyke? They are floodgates built over the natural ravines, which allow storing water in rainy seasons. So, the water stored in the same ravine will allow the place to keep the same conditions. Most important of all, farmers will have water in dry seasons.

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