Mining mediator to close third case after miner pulls out 
By James Munson | Oct 2, 2012 6:12 pm | 0 Comments
An office tasked with resolving conflicts between Canadian mining firms and communities overseas will drop its third case due to the company pulling out of the process.
The Office of the Extractive Sector Corporate Social Responsibility Counsellor, created in 2009 following widespread allegations of human rights abuses and environmental degradation by the industry around the world, received a complaint from two Argentine environmental groups in July over the impacts of McEwen Mining’s Los Azules copper exploration site on glaciers in the Andes.
But the office, which has dropped two previous cases brought on by civil society groups in Mexico and Mauritania and can only work with companies who agree to co-operate, has been informed by McEwen that the company won’t be participating in the mediation process, said Nils Engelstad, vice-president for corporate affairs.
“Despite the fact that it says on the CSR Counsellor’s website that we’re engaged in informal mediation, early on in this process, I think about six weeks ago, we sent the CSR counsellor a note declining to participate,” said Engelstad Tuesday.
The counsellor’s office, headed by Marketa Evans, released an interim report in August in response to the complaints, which delineated the grievances she could and couldn’t examine according to her mandate.
The office can’t handle any objections to the way the Argentine or provincial San Juan governments were enforcing laws, in particular each jurisdiction’s Glacier Protection Act, says the interim report.
Nor can it deal with violations of Canadian laws or regulations, it says.
Softer issues like “appropriate due diligence procedures” and “impact assessment” are within the office’s mandate and it’s on those issues that the mediation was continuing, the report says.
But McEwen Mining said they declined to participate because they view all the complaints as best left to the Argentines.
“The issues that were brought up in Argentina … are really issues for Argentine law,” said Engelstad. “They are better dealt with locally and we owe that degree of respect to the local government of San Juan province.”
“There’s no question they have the capacity to deal with those types of issues,” he said.
This isn’t the first time Canadian mining companies have come into the crosshairs of Argentines concerned about their glaciers.
The massive Pascua-Lama gold project on the Chile-Argentina border has drawn strong opposition, in particular over water use and impacts on glaciers.
Barrick Gold is currently reviewing the project but expects gold production to begin in mid-2014. It told Reuters in July that Pascua Lama does not impact glaciers.
One of the two environmental groups that initiated the complaint against McEwen Mining, the Center for Human Rights and Environment (CEDHA), has also filed complaints with the OECD Contacts Points to the Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, over Xstrata Copper’s El Pachon and Filo Colorado projects, regarding impacts on glaciers.
“Glaciers and glacier protection have been at the forefront of politics in Argentina for some time and it’s a pressing issue in the mining lobby,” said Engelstad.
“It’s tough to assess the merits of such complaints because everyone is entitled to a voice,” said Engelstad. “But these are complaints brought by two environmental NGOs so it’s not a stretch to say there was some political motivation there and we just didn’t believe it was the best venue.”
McEwen advised the CSR counsellor it was pulling out around the same time the August interim report was being finalized, said Engelstad.
“We actually made her aware,” he said. “It’s fairly misleading that the registry request says we’re in mediation.”
A phone message was left with the office asking why the website hadn’t been updated.
“We are unable to comment on specific cases,” wrote Erica Bach, the office’s senior advisor, in an e-mail later. “All publicly available information is available on our website.”
McEwen is able to pull out because of mediation the CSR office’s mandate is voluntary for mining firms, something critics say effectively renders it toothless.
In 2011, a group of workers at Excellon Resources’ La Platosa mine in Durango state, Mexico brought a complaint against the Toronto-based company. Staff from the office travelled to the site twice before Excellon pulled out.
And earlier this year the counsellor dismissed a complaint from people in the town of Akjout, Mauritania who had problems with the way First Quantum Minerals was handling environmental impacts related to its mine there. She said in her closing report that the complaints fell beyond her mandate.
McEwen, a mid-tier miner with stakes in producing mines as well as several undergoing development and exploration, is originally a Colorado company with its headquarters in Toronto.
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