In an unprecedented operation, they extract 100 tons of mercury from the country's Veladero mine – 24/04/2019

In a large logistic operation, the transport of 100 tonnes of mercury from the Veladero Mine, in San Juan, at the port of Santo Antonio, in Santiago de Chile. The polluting residues, which is stored in liquid form since 2012, travels in steel bottles, placed in containers, which are transported in trucks. You will go through six provinces of northwestern Argentina and nine countries until you reach your final destination in a salt mine in Germany, where you will be buried.

"That's the first time we will export mercury for the final decision, "he said exclusively to Clarin Marcelo Álvarez, Executive Director of Minera Andina del Sol, the Canadian Barrick Gold Business Alliance and Chinese Shandong Gold, which operates the Veladero Mine, which experienced three cyanide spills between 2015 and 2017.

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Shipping costs in Europe $ 1.5 million Every 100 tons, it is made by the Swiss company Batrec, specialized in the treatment of hazardous waste. The operation is monitored by the environment police of the different jurisdictions she visits.

"There will be several trucks (estimated at between three and four) to transport 100 tons of mercury, out of a total of 440 tons that we have stored," Álvarez explained. The caravan with liquid mercury will do the trick more than 2,400 kilometers to reach the port of San Antonio, in the Chilean region of Valparaíso, located only 775 kilometers from the mine.

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"We have given permission to leave, although the time and the moment are determined by the Swiss company because of the weather," said the official Tuesday night. The cargo left Wednesday at dawn of San Juan to cross La Rioja, Catamarca, Tucumán, Salta and Jujuy. It will reach Chile by the pbadage of Jama (4,200 meters altitude) to the Chilean port located only 108 kilometers from the capital, Santiago. "The company informed us that they had chosen this route because it is the safest and the least risky"Said the general manager of the Veladero mine.

Mendoza, a province of important anti-mine social mobilizations, do not appear in the travel itinerary. The provincial environment secretary of the wine, Humberto Mingorance, said that "no one has warned nor asked permission" to transport this waste to Mendoza. But, he said, in the case where the request existed, "I do not see any problem with the mercury circulating in the country as long as the company carrying out the transport complies with the controls. environmental safety ".

Once the mercury rises on the boat in the Chilean port, he undertakes a road for nine countries, where permission to travel was also requested: Peru, Panama, Bahamas, United States, Holland, Belgium, France and Switzerland. Hazardous waste will undergo a stabilization process in Switzerland, where liquid mercury will be converted to mercury sulphide and returned to a solid state. Then he will be transferred to a salt mine in Germany, where he will be buried.

The mining company owned by Barrick and Shandong Gold confirmed that several public agencies were involved in the operation: "We obtained permits from the National Secretariat of the Environment and their counterparts from the province of San Juan to proceed to the removal of toxic waste and the final disposal that will be in Germany, "said Alvarez. The Argentine customs will deliver the toxic product to Batrec.

The executive badured that all the operation is carried out in accordance with environmental treaties signed by Argentina: the Basel Convention, which provides for the responsible management of hazardous waste, and the Minamata Convention (2013), which identified the applications of mercury and alternatives to replace its use and protect health human and environmental emissions and anthropogenic releases of mercury and its compounds.

How is it generated?

Mercury leaves the leaching process of the production of gold and silver, undergoing mineralization of the rock itself. In Veladero, mercury began to be generated since the beginning of mining in 2005. In San Juan, Between 35 and 40 tons of mercury per year and until in 2012, the mining company sold it in the United States.

Due to amendments resulting from international treaties, Barrick has asked the San Juan Mines Department for permission to change the conditions of mercury, to consider it as a mining by-product in the process of becoming dangerous wasteand to be able to get him out of the country. "Now it is treated as a hazardous waste and can be used for life," Álvarez said.

Barrick began the operational phase of Veladero in 2005 and has an operating plan for 2026, although the company is evaluating alternatives to turn it into a world-clbad mine and continue to mine gold and silver. money. The mine is located in the San Juan mountain range, a few kilometers from the border with Chile.

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Between 2015 and 2017, the company had three accidental spills of cyanide on the Jachal River which forced to paralyze some of their areas and delayed the plan of extraction. A report from the National University of Cuyo detected high doses mercury, manganese, aluminum, antimony, barium, silver, lead, chromium, nickel, cadmium and cobalt in the La Palca River, which represents 70% of the flow of the Jachal River. Environmental groups resist this exploitation and argue that affects the few redoubts of pure water and glaciers of the Andean mountain range.

Veladero produces 500,000 ounces of gold a year, which represents an income of $ 600 million a year.

Mendoza Correspondent