Barrick Gold will accept a Chilean court´s ruling
The law suite was regarding the continuation of its Pascua-Lama project.

Barrick Gold Corp said Friday it would not appeal the decision of a Chilean court to uphold the country’s environmental protection agency's closure order on the Chilean portion of its Pascua Lama project and sanctions against its unit. The gold and silver project, which spans the border between Chile and Argentina, was put on hold in 2013 due to environmental issues, political opposition, labor unrest and development costs that swelled to $ 8.5 billion. The miner said that Pascua, the Chilean part, will now move from care and maintenance to closure in accordance with the decision of the environmental court. In its September 17 ruling, the court said the company had failed to implement a number of measures to strictly comply with its environmental license and was therefore unable to adequately protect the environment and human health. It also maintained its previous fine of more than 7 billion pesos ($ 9.2 million) on the miner. The Chilean environmental agency ordered in 2018 that Barrick must finally close the Chilean side of his stalled Pascua-Lama mining project. However, the country's Supreme Court overturned the order in March 2019 for procedural reasons. Pascua-Lama remains an important project and work is already underway to reassess its potential, said Marcelo Álvarez, Barrick's executive director for Chile and Argentina. The miner added that he has committed to further investments in Chile and Argentina.





