Just crossing the
borderline
 |
| Is it tge paradise? Maybe. It is
located near Zanoira, Ecuador. |
FACTORTIERRA
Investigative Unit
Zamora, Ecuador –
Do you know
Zamora City? People here are proud of
the jungle – lots of trees, falls, rivers,
natural reserves... In fact, Amazon forest
is around the place. Green is the dominant
color.
Zamora is the capital city of
Zamora-Chinchipe province, located at
southcentral Ecuador, just next to Peruvian
regions of Cajamarca and Amazonas.
Weather is warm and wet,
it is home of “tapirs, capybaras,
guatusas, jaguars, birds and insects”,
according to
Wikipedia website.
It also contains Podocarpus
National Park, a place where trees look
like rocks and you can find a hundred lakes
plus a crazy geography.
You can find other
related sites as Palphinia to protect
orchids, Chicaña to improve cattle as
Natentza, where you can go fishing too
Perfect soup for a
winner
 |
|
Zamora City
Catgedral. |
Zamora is trying to have
a double fame – it seems to be the Miner
Capital of Ecuador, and the City of Birds
and Falls at the same time.
Or maybe it could be a
mix-up—Chorrillos Fall is projected to be a
part of a hydroelectric project in the
future.
So the region is familiar
with that reality, and it explains in part
why they didn’t react when all Rio Blanco
issue started just crossing the borderline,
in Peru, with possible consequences in their
territory.
Chris Eager got a job in
Ecuador, many years ago, as he realized he
wanted to work in Latin America. He stayed a
time before he started to study a MBA in
France.
Then he met Richard
Angus, who knew before, for an interesting
offer –buying a mining project developed by
Newcrest Mining where Angus was working, and
to create a new company.
In June 2002,
Monterrico Metals born and Eager and
Angus became the top chairmen.
Not to hear the noise
 |
| Monterrico project is not too
far from the places Zamora is trying
to promote as eco-touristic. |
Rio Blanco means for
Monterrico a possibility to reduce poverty
in Piura region highlands.
Opponents insist that the
problem is that it will operate in a
delicate area where there is a cloudy forest
that produces part of clean water that Piura
uses everyday, and if Monterrico enters, the
next might be Newmont that got titles at the
moors region next to Huarinjas lakes.
For the London-based
company, voices against it are just a
minority. Even those, experts suggest
investing in Monterrico:
“The inevitable risks of
mining in developing countries then reared
their heads: environmental protest,
political worries, and now a modest delay in
Rio Blanco's bankable feasibility study,”
they say.
They expect to develop
other projects around the world, but this is
not the right time. They’re focused on Rio
Blanco; however, they deny it is “a
one-project company”.
This is not a mad vision
from two executives, but Europe vision that
conceives Latin America as El Dorado, like
their recent ancestor who came for the same
dream half-millennium ago.
Good expectative
 |
Bombuscaro River, inside Podacarpus
National Park, in Zamora-Chinchipe
province’s territory. This an area
scientists are trying to protect
against predation and pollution.
Does the Monterrico project offer
enough safety and minimum impact? |
Company top capital
reached 71 million pounds last year, but the
share has been decreasing recently. They
have a reserve of 1,26 billion tons,
according to a recent Monterrico Metals’ CEO
Andrew Briston’s speech at Peruvian Congress
in Lima.
1.200 people could get a
job and other 7.000 can depend around the
first group.
Monterrico said they plan
to generate new opportunities for
agriculture, cattle and tourism, and a
forest protection program.
Monterrico’s current
chairman Richard Ralpn said too there are
parties interested in participating in Rio
Blanco project.
“The proposal is still
subject to a number of preconditions,
including satisfactory completion of due
diligence, which have to be satisfied or
waived before any offer can be made”
Sharecast news feed reported last
December 21st.
Monterrico projects to
produce about 200 K tons a year of cooper
and 2,5 K of molybdenum.
“The scale of the
resource offers potential to double
production after three to four years,” says
one of the experts.
“As part of the study,
there has to be a new Scope of Works for
process plant and tailings (residue)
management, plus relocation of the tailings
dam closer to the mine site”, he continues.
Other project attraction
is the possibility to build a pipeline to
transport minerals.
No one sees
 |
| Visitors are
still arriving to Zamora. Will the
day come when no one appears due to
pollution? |
n Zamora, people are
still receiving visitors to show forest and
rivers, maybe to have an excursion to
ashuar villages.
Maybe you want to go to
Palanda, the home of black-peaked Andean
toucan, maybe you want to meet the natives.
People don’t see threaten
just crossing the border line, where Blanco
River starts and also impacts in their side,
because it feeds Chinchipe basin, shared by
Peru and Ecuador.
No one realizes, no one
opines. Do we need the future to prove that
we are right?
Additional information
from
Factortierra News
©2007
Asociación FACTORTIERRA |
