A licence to dig in the Cajas region has been welcomed by some as an answer to economic woes. Yet many fear it will devastate a fragile ecosystem and set the tone for further projects in the country.
Golden grasses, mossy hummocks and scattered lakes unfurl across the highlands of Macizo del Cajas, Azuay province. The páramo – a high-altitude tropical ecosystem – is a living sponge, drawing moisture from clouds at more than 3,000 metres. Beneath the ground, ancient tectonic shifts have cracked the bedrock, channelling water through veins that feed six large rivers. That bedrock also holds billions of dollars in gold, silver and copper.
For more than three decades, these deposits have made the Cajas a battlefield between Ecuadorians who see large-scale mining as the answer to the country’s economic woes and those who see it as an existential threat. Unesco designated the Cajas a biosphere reserve in 2013, but the title offers scant protection. Mining companies now hold more than 100,000 hectares of concessions in the Cajas, with more than 15,000 of those hectares in the páramo.
On 23 June, the Canadian mining multinational Dundee Precious Metals was granted its environmental licence for exploitation of the Loma Larga project, which sits on the Quimsacocha páramo and surrounds the protected area. “The company has satisfactorily fulfilled all requirements,” says Patricio Vargas Coronel, president of Cuenca’s Chamber of Mining. “It can now sign the mining contract and begin construction, generating about 1,200 jobs and an investment of $450m.”
Activists and ecologists, however, allege that the mine could cause enormous environmental damage, that the government has failed to properly consult local communities, and that they are subject to intimidation and surveillance for protesting against the mine. Dundee rejects the claims. “We are being followed,” says Esther Remache, an anti-mining activist. “They always follow us when we go up here.”
