Los Pumas project in limbo after permit is revoked

Australia-listed Southern Hemisphere Mining's Los Pumas manganese project in northern Chile is in limbo after the government revoked its environmental permit.

"What do we gain by doing something [appealing]? We could obtain a positive result and the next day another opponent appears and revokes the permit, be it at the court, the environmental court or the council of ministers," Alfonso Quintana, CEO of the local subsidiary Minera Hemisferio Sur, told BNamericas.

On Monday, President Michelle Bachelet's council of ministers revoked the permit of the US$100mn project in northernmost Arica region (XV) after accepting eight of the 10 challenges filed against it.

The council's decision was based on "insufficient information regarding the anthropological aspects of the environmental evaluation study, in order to fully determine the impact on local indigenous communities," environment minister Pablo Badenier said in a press release.

The council is chaired by the head of the environment ministry, and brings together a total of 11 cabinet ministers.

The project had secured its environmental permit in August 2013 but was halted in three months later after a group of indigenous, environmental and civic communities filed an injunction.

The project involves three open pits and a processing plant with throughput of 2.6Mt/y for the production of 400,000t/y of manganese concentrate.

"Something is not right here, the rules of the game are not working," said Quintana. "It's not possible that one day the council of ministers doubts what these same institutions said was fine before."

The executive added that the company has suffered some US$10mn due to the project's delays.

"If someone were to tell me, you did everything wrong, and your project is risky, then of course. But we obey the current legislation. We went by the law."