Lima, Peru – A Peruvian government commission brokered a series of accords Sunday between Latin America’s largest gold mine and farmers from a nearby community in the first negotiations between the two groups.
Jorge del Castillo, President Alan Garcia’s Cabinet chief, told reporters that officials from the Yanacocha gold mine and a delegation of farmers from Combayo, in the northern Andean state of Cajamarca, agreed the government would monitor the area’s water quality.
The mine is majority owned by Denver-based Newmont Mining Corp.
“Be confident that we are not only going to be monitoring the water, but that the whole process goes well. That is very important,” Del Castillo said.
The talks with Yanacocha came after the farmers agreed Tuesday night to end a weeklong roadblock at the mine’s entrance that halted the mine’s operations, which resumed on Thursday.
The protesters had accused the company of not responding to their concerns about the Carachugo gold pit, Yanacocha’s latest expansion. They claimed the pit, which uses cyanide and water to extract gold from ore piled on impermeable barriers, has depleted and contaminated the area’s water supply.
As part of the agreement to end the roadblock, Yanacocha agreed to attend all negotiations with the high-level government commission, which included the Peru’s agriculture, and energy and mines, ministers.
Yanacocha agreed to construct water purification plants in the Combayo area. It will also provide “humanitarian support” to the family of Isidro Llanos, who was shot dead Aug. 2 when he and 100 Combayo residents swarmed the mine, demanding jobs at the Carachugo pit.
The mine resumed operations Thursday.
Yanacocha produced 3.3 million ounces of gold in 2005, and expects to generate 2.6 million to 2.7 million ounces this year.
In 2004, the company was forced to shelve exploration plans on the nearby Cerro Quilish mountain – which holds an estimated 3.7 million ounces of gold – after violent protests by farmers who said the project threatened water supplies there.
