The Committee of Ministers unanimously rejected this Wednesday the Dominga port mining project (located in the commune of La Higuera, Coquimbo Region, and which threatens the Humboldt archipelago) of the company Andes Iron. After that, the Minister of Economy, Nicholas Grauand the Minister of the Environment, Maisa Rojasreported measures for the area.
The head of Economy explained that the Government has been working since 2022, together with the Regional Government of Coquimbo, on a lag plan for the Quilimarí area. “This is a plan whose approval will be promptly by the Budget Directorate. It is a plan that involves the communes of Vicuña, Andacollo, La Higuera and Río Hurtado,” Grau explained.
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“It is a plan that implies an investment for a period of more than eight years, which will mobilize more than 580 billion pesos, which will involve more than 260 activities of various kinds, such as coverage of basic services, connectivity, caletas, which is very important for the fishing sector, infrastructure for rural water purposes,” he added.
Grau said that “this is a project that has been worked on for a long time, beyond the fact that we made the decision today (the rejection of Dominga). As befits our institutionality, of course we had to work on a plan that would in the different scenarios.
For her part, Minister Rojas pointed out that “during the past year, and at the request of the communities that live in the area, work is being done on a Protected Marine Coastal Area of Multiple Uses for the two regions (of Coquimbo and Atacama), so that we can protect the entire ecosystem.”
“This is a work that is being carried out, coordinated by the Ministry of the Environment, which has its course, some technical reports must be made in this regard and we hope this year to be finalizing that declaration,” he added.
The rejection of Dominga does not end with the Committee of Ministers. Andes Iron can challenge the decision of the instance before the Environmental Court. The court’s decision, in turn, can be appealed to the Supreme Court.
Andes Iron reaction
Through a statement, Andes Iron announced that it will appeal to the Environmental Courts to reverse the resolution, “a body that analyzes the projects on their technical and legal merit, where we have obtained favorable results, for which we are confident that at the end of the process justice and truth will prevail.” In that sense, they remember what happened in 2017.
“As a company, we are not surprised by the result, considering the political intervention of the Committee of Ministers, which favors prosecution and delays a definitive response regarding such an important investment for the Coquimbo Region and Chilean mining. The Dominga project has been supported systematically in all technical instances, in which it has already been established that the Base Line of the Dominga project is sufficient and complete, for which reason there is no room for new technical questions to it”, they add.
“The Dominga project not only meets, but exceeds all standards and is aligned with the principles established by the Government for the sustainable development of industrial and mining projects in terms of environmental protection, community relations, use of clean energy, use of of desalinated water, among others. The Dominga project was designed according to the best global consensus Green Mining standards for the 21st century”, the company concludes.
Read the full statement below.
