Threat to local livelihoods

According to information from Oxfam America, the mine concession is in a forest region in the Huancabamba Mountains, which comprise a fragile biological corridor for endangered species such as tapirs and bears, and feeds major rivers running to the coast and into the Amazon River.  Communities in this area rely mainly on farming for their livelihoods, and have successfully obtained organic certification so their avocado, banana, coffee and mango crops can be sold at a premium on the international markets.  Many farmers also raise cattle and grow corn and other food crops to feed their families and sell on the local market.  Pollution from the Rio Blanco Mine into the regions waterways puts at risk the organic certification that is the bread-and-butter for local farmers.

Local communities want to increase farming in the region, and have been working with Peru's Ministry of Agriculture to make more land available to them and boost production. As a result of their efforts they increased production of organic bananas by more than 40 percent in 2005.  However, if the Rio Blanco mine goes forward it could open up additional areas of Piura to mining, and significantly change the entire region from one primarily oriented to farming, to an industrialized mining region.

Failure to obtain community authorization. 

Under Peruvian law*, mining companies must obtain the two-thirds approval of local community assemblies before entering community land to do exploration or other activities. The owners of the mining concession failed to obtain this legal authorization when it entered the Rio Blanco project area in 2003.  Further, a legal referendum held in September 2007 clearly displayed community members' strong opposition to the project. Thus its presence in the area does not comport with existing legal requirements, a point that has been sustained by Peru's national Public Defender's office. 

The illegality of the company's presence in the project area is contributing to suspicion and resentment toward the company amongst the local population. The company has not taken action to address this issue despite repeated efforts by local stakeholders to raise this concern with company and government officials.

*Peruvian Laws: Article 89, paragraph 2 of the Peruvian Constitution; Law 24656 on Native and Peasant Communities; Law 26505 on Private Investment in Economic Development.

Torture and killing of local people: The Rio Blanco project has been the site of a number of violent incidents, including the killing of four community leaders and three company personnel, since 2004. In August 2005, 28 people were allegedly detained and tortured by the mine's security forces after protests at the project site. One person was killed in the incident.  According to Peru's National Human Rights Coordinator and Peruvian human rights organization FEDEPAZ, members of the company's security force, private security contractors, and the Peruvian National Police (PNP) were involved in the torture.

Evidence of the torture was made public in early 2009 when photographs taken of the incident were released by a journalist who had also been tortured. These incidents could amount to a violation of the victims' rights to personal security and to not be subjected to torture as established in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN

Convention Against Torture, both of which Peru has ratified. Violations of these rights by contractors or police working directly for or at the behest of the company could implicate the company in the violations. In 2009, the UK High Court froze GBP 5 million in assets of Monterrico Metals, a subsidiary of Zijin, in response to torture allegations brought against the company by victims of the 2005 incidents.  In July 2011, Monterrico settled with the victims out of court without admitting liability for an undisclosed amount.

Although Zijin was not involved in the Rio Blanco project when violent conflicts initially broke out in 2004, the company has not taken the appropriate steps to rectify complaints made by the communities and violence has continued. In November 2009, three company workers were killed in an attack on the project site by unidentified assailants.

In December, two more people were killed and eight injured in a conflict with local police as police tried to arrest a suspect in the November attack. In September 2008, members of a local civil association that had made false accusations of terrorism against 35 people, including local authorities, community leaders and environmental and human rights activists, stated to government prosecutors that they had received financing by Rio Blanco Copper for their activities.

In February 2008, the Peruvian government fined Zijin US$100,000 for noncompliance with the Environmental Evaluation Study approved by the government for the initial phase of exploration.  Among the issues cited by the government in assessing the fine were:

• Carrying out a greater number of drilling perforations than had been approved in the environmental assessment (129 vs. 60).
• Modifying its exploration project without having the necessary environmental studies required by the Ministry of Energy and Mines.
• Exceeding limits for liquid metallurgic effluents in its exploration activities.
• Improper disposal of waste material.
• Inadequate implementation of remediation measures, including erosion control and closing off of access roads no longer in use.