LatinNews Daily - 10 December 2024

*An environmental court in Chile’s city of Antofagasta, capital of the northern region of the same name, has annulled a January 2023 ruling rejecting environmental permits for the US$2.5bn Dominga copper and iron mining project in the central region of Coquimbo. The court ruled in favour of an appeal submitted by Chile’s Andes Iron, the mine owner and operating company, annulling the ruling issued by a ministerial committee last year determining the project would have too significant a negative impact on wildlife, water sources, air quality, and protected maritime areas. According to excerpts of the court’s ruling widely cited in the local press, the committee violated the principle of impartiality given some ministers had previously expressed their opposition to the mining project and the ruling itself went against a previous decision made by the court and backed up by the supreme court. Environmental groups including the local branch of global NGO Greenpeace and Alianza Humboldt, a grouping of organisations dedicated to protecting the Humboldt archipelago, a biodiverse and ecologically important area off the coast of Coquimbo, have expressed concern about the court’s decision.