The Chilean government keeps its word and cancels the project called Dominga. It involves the construction of a mining operation and a port for the loading of minerals in a rich maritime reserve in the north of the country, where 80% of the Humboldt penguins of the entire planet live, among other species, currently in danger of extinction. extinction.
Environmental groups and those related to the country’s president, Gabriel Boric, have celebrated the decision. An activist stresses that “for us it is very important, we have been fighting for years to make this happen. Now our fight is to create a multi-use marine protected area, so that there can be sustainable work for people.”
But the project also involved an investment of around 2,500 million euros in a region, La Higuera, with few resources. The promoters, who are going to appeal the annulment, calculate that the extraction of iron and cobalt could leave some five hundred million euros a year in taxes and defend their environmental sustainability.
For residents of the area, it has been a setback, as a woman detailed: “For us, the Dominga mining project means hope, it means real job opportunities for the commune and the Coquimbo region. It was to be expected that this project would be rejected, It was something we expected, the circus had to continue and the puppets already voted.”
The place was also dotted with a possible case of corruption. According to the so-called ‘Pandora Papers’, the sons of former President Sebastián Peñera sold the Dominga mining company to a close friend of the president in an operation carried out mostly in a tax haven such as the Virgin Islands.
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