My Mining Deposits Are Under Your House

"Just imagine you’re told you have to leave your house, your livestock, the graves of your loved ones, and then they take you to an unfamiliar place without even asking you what you think about it. How would you feel?" asks Eduardo Sueldo, the local environment delegate in a highlands village in southern Peru.

He was describing the plight of mainly indigenous peasant farmers facing relocation because of the expansion of the mining industry.

The concessions that the state has granted to mining companies have grown more than 70 percent in the last few years as a result of the soaring international demand for minerals and the subsequent boom in prices.

Peru is now the world's second leading producer of silver, fifth of gold, and third of copper and zinc.

But because these minerals are often found under land where people live, entire villages and towns are slated for relocation.

The most egregious cases are the town of Cerro de Pasco, in the central department (province) of Pasco, where the Peruvian firm Volcan operates; the town of Morococha in the central department of Junín, where the Chinese company Chinalco plans to mine for copper; and the rural district of Fuerabamba, in the department of Apurímac in the south, where Xstrata Copper -- the world’s fourth-largest copper producer, which forms part of the Switzerland-based Xstrata -- operates the Las Bambas mine.

Living on the edge – of an open pit mine More