By Stephen Eisenhammer
\n LONDON, May 30 (Reuters) – Protests in northern Peru over
\nthe $5 billion Conga gold mine make “no sense” and could spell
\nthe end of the project if they succeed in preventing the
\ndraining of a nearby lake, the project’s junior partner said on
\nThursday.
\n Tensions flared up again this week over Newmont’s
\nproposed mine, with hundreds of protesters taking to the streets
\nand bringing to an end nine months of relative calm.<\/p>\n
“We are working with the best of intentions. If we can go
\nahead good, if we cannot that’s it… there are no
\nalternatives,” Roque Benavides, chief executive of Newmont’s
\npartner Buenaventura, told Reuters on the sidelines of
\na conference in London.
\n Benavides said he did not understand the protests because
\nthe planned transfer of water from Lake Perol to a new reservoir
\nhad not yet begun.
\n “People may complain but it has no sense,” he said.
\n The construction of the mine, which would be Peru’s most
\nexpensive ever, was put on hold last year until local disputes
\nover water supply could be resolved. Benavides said this
\napproach had not changed.
\n “We are doing our best. We are not mining, we are following
\nthe main thing which is water first.”
\n A spokesman at Newmont reiterated the “water first” position
\nbut would not say whether being unable to drain Lake Perol would
\nbe a turning point.
\n In an interview with Reuters last week Benavides said that
\nconstruction of the mine would begin if the company could pump
\nwater from Lake Perol into the second of four reservoirs it is
\nbuilding without sparking broad local opposition.<\/p>\n
Lake Perol is one of several alpine lakes in Cajamarca that
\nwould be affected by the proposed mine, which would essentially
\nextend the life of the nearby Yanacocha mine the two companies
\nrun.
\n But protesters told Reuters on Thursday that they would not
\ngive up and that plans to occupy Lake Perol on June 17 had
\nalready been set.
\n “We won’t be happy until the government says the project
\nwill not go forward,” said community leader Milton Sanchez. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Stephen Eisenhammer LONDON, May 30 (Reuters) – Protests in northern Peru over the $5 billion Conga gold mine make “no sense” and could spell the end of the project if they succeed in preventing the draining of a nearby lake, the project’s junior partner said on Thursday. Tensions flared up again this week over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-important-news-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35946"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35947,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35946\/revisions\/35947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}