• 278 days Will The ECB Continue To Hike Rates?
  • 278 days Forbes: Aramco Remains Largest Company In The Middle East
  • 280 days Caltech Scientists Succesfully Beam Back Solar Power From Space
  • 680 days Could Crypto Overtake Traditional Investment?
  • 684 days Americans Still Quitting Jobs At Record Pace
  • 686 days FinTech Startups Tapping VC Money for ‘Immigrant Banking’
  • 689 days Is The Dollar Too Strong?
  • 690 days Big Tech Disappoints Investors on Earnings Calls
  • 691 days Fear And Celebration On Twitter as Musk Takes The Reins
  • 692 days China Is Quietly Trying To Distance Itself From Russia
  • 693 days Tech and Internet Giants’ Earnings In Focus After Netflix’s Stinker
  • 697 days Crypto Investors Won Big In 2021
  • 697 days The ‘Metaverse’ Economy Could be Worth $13 Trillion By 2030
  • 698 days Food Prices Are Skyrocketing As Putin’s War Persists
  • 700 days Pentagon Resignations Illustrate Our ‘Commercial’ Defense Dilemma
  • 700 days US Banks Shrug off Nearly $15 Billion In Russian Write-Offs
  • 704 days Cannabis Stocks in Holding Pattern Despite Positive Momentum
  • 704 days Is Musk A Bastion Of Free Speech Or Will His Absolutist Stance Backfire?
  • 705 days Two ETFs That Could Hedge Against Extreme Market Volatility
  • 707 days Are NFTs About To Take Over Gaming?
  1. Home
  2. News
  3. Breaking News

Chile Cracks Down On Environmental Infractions

Mining

Chilean President Sebastian Piñera has submitted a series of modifications to a bill introduced earlier this year, which would set stiffer fines and jail time for serious violations of the country’s environmental rules.

The proposed law would make it a crime to mislead environmental inspectors or to obstruct the enforcement of environmental regulations in the world’s top copper producing country.

As part of the amendments, the government has tripled the related fines to up to $215,000 from a previous top of $70,000 and defined the scope of what would be considered environmental damage.

Jail time has been kept at a maximum of two months.

The new law would also empower local and regional authorities to more closely supervise mitigation efforts of projects that have the potential to pose serious environmental threats.

Most environmental crimes in Chile are currently handled by civil or environmental tribunals, or through out-of-court settlements with regulators.

The ex-prosecutor for the Ministry of the Environment, Jorge Cash, said that while the changes point in the right direction, they only apply to companies and not to its top executives. Related: China Weighs Rare Earth Export Ban

“The proposed law lacks of means to attribute criminal responsibility to managers,” Cash told local newspaper La Tercera. “Without that, the most affected executives with be the middlemen, not the decision makers.”

Chile has a history of imposing hefty fines to miners that breach environmental regulations. In 2015, the Superintendence of the Environment (SMA) ordered Lumina Copper to pay $11.9 million for infractions to the provisions established in its mining permit, including failure to implement mitigation measures to prevent the contamination of underground water supplies 

At the time, it was the second-highest fine the SMA had imposed since it was created in 2012.

The largest penalty until then — $16 million — was issued in 2013 to Barrick Gold’s (TSX:ABX) (NYSE:GOLD) now shelved Pascua Lama gold and silver mine.

The amended initiative would need to pass both chambers of Chile’s Congress before becoming law.

By Mining.com

More Top Reads From Safehaven.com:

Back to homepage

Leave a comment

Leave a comment