A little over a month after the start of the fires that hit the south of our country, the Regional Government of La Araucanía, member companies of the Mining Council -including Anglo American- and Desafío Levantemos Chile, began the long-awaited reconstruction of homes, with the laying ceremony of the first stone for the new houses in the Villa El Bosque sector, in the Purén commune. This, after the last week of February began construction in the commune of Vilcún, which are part of the same alliance.
The regional governor of La Araucanía, Luciano Rivas, thanked Desafío Levantemos Chile, the Municipality of Purén and the Mining Council for the start of the reconstruction, adding that “it fills us with joy to be here at this important moment and to see a smile in the neighbors We know that we are not going to be able to return everything with this reconstruction, that memories and moments that will not return will be lost, but we are going to give them a decent and permanent home. This is achieved with wills, when the public and private systems make this alliance and manage to work together. It is not a question of who is going to arrive first with the solution, but that the neighbors cannot wait”.
The project will require an investment of approximately 2,000 million pesos, within which the Regional Government will contribute 1,000 million and the other 50% will be obtained thanks to a donation from the member companies of the Mining Council. The firms that contributed financially to help the affected families were Anglo American, Antofagasta Minerals, Barrick, BHP, Collahuasi, Freeport-McMoRan and Minera El Abra, Glencore, Sierra Gorda SCM and KGHM Chile, and Teck.
“Mining has a very close relationship with the country and for this reason we have always been present to contribute to different catastrophes that we have had to face, as an industry and as a company. We believe that our work goes beyond generating value for our shareholders and that we must also actively contribute to the development of communities and the country in general,” said Patricio Vilaplana, manager of Anglo American’s Corporate Social Performance. In addition, he added that “solid alliances like this are capable of generating initiatives that benefit people.”
The executive president of the Mining Council, Joaquín Villarino, added that as a mining sector “we are deeply happy to be able to help neighbors recover their smile after this tremendous catastrophe. This is great news for us and our partner companies, who have decided to come lend a hand and help build the home that, at the end of the day, is what brings the greatest joy to families. What moves us today is that feeling of help, of solidarity with the pain they have suffered and trying to contribute so that it can be achieved as soon as possible. We hope that between now and September we can celebrate the final delivery of the houses that are beginning to be built today”.
Each of the houses will have approximately 50 m2 and will be a definitive solution for 50 families in the region, 44 of them from Purén and the other six in Vilcún. They will be houses of high quality standards, similar to the 49 houses delivered in the Camilo Henriquez de Castro population, less than a year after the tragedy that occurred in that sector. It is worth mentioning that the total reconstruction of the houses in both communes will require a period of approximately seven months.
