President Gabriel Boric once again defended the gradual closure of Codelco’s Ventanas smelter. Through his Twitter account, the president was emphatic in clarifying that the workers will not be unprotected and that the work carried out in their facilities will continue in other foundries of the state copper company.
President Boric relied on an opinion column published in El Mercurio, written by the academic from the Catholic University Gustavo Lagos, who endorsed the closure of the smelter due to the economic and health costs generated by its obsolete and polluting technology, which has been constantly “patched” without, until now, having been able to reduce its level of incidence in the levels of contamination by particulate material and sulfur dioxide. In the column, the academic applauded the decision of the authorities to bet on the construction of a new plant with state-of-the-art technology to replace a smelter that has been operating in Quinteros Bay for almost 60 years.
“I reiterate that all copper will continue to be processed exclusively in CODELCO smelters and that no worker will be left without their source of employment. It is a difficult decision, but I am convinced that it is the right one,” Boric wrote.
The closure of the Ventanas smelter has generated deep concern among the company’s workers, to the point that the Federation of Copper Workers called for a strike to reverse the decision adopted this Friday by the board.
