The Chinese consortium Ecuacorriente, which operates Mirador, the largest mine in Ecuador, ruled out a possible environmental disaster similar to that of Brumadinho, in Brazil, due to a possible breakage of its mining tailings dams, and asserted that its tailings deposits are solid and built with various technical studies.
The company thus reacted to reports from environmental organizations and human rights defenders who, at the end of last October, presented technical studies that pointed to a possible risk of collapse and rupture of the two tailings dams that accumulate waste from its production of copper concentrate.
These organizations warned that the eventual collapse of the dams would cause – according to the projections of this study – a wave of toxic materials that would destroy everything in its path for several kilometers, including several indigenous communities that live nearby and that would have just a few minutes to try to evacuate.
By categorically ruling out a possible collapse, César Vásquez, manager of the Tailings Deposits department, assured that the case of Brazil was totally different, since it was built with “methodologies that are not currently validated.”
The one used in Mirador “is the safest (downstream) and with the most resistant materials (rock and mine cover waste), he explained in a tour of the mine, to which EFE was invited, and in which appreciated the Tundayme tailings deposit (south) and the Quimi tailings deposit (north), the oldest, which has been disused since 2021 and practically dry.
The Quimi tailings dam has an effective capacity of about 11 million cubic meters of tailings, and Tundayme is designed to reach up to 260 meters in height and store up to 370 million cubic meters.
To build the tailings deposits, located in the valley of the old bed of the Tundayme River, they built a diversion tunnel under the mountain to channel the water so that it does not become contaminated, and return it at the intersection with the Quimi River.
With reserves of 2.75 million tons of copper, the Mirador mine began operating in 2019 by Ecuacorriente, a consortium of Chinese state companies formed by China Railway Construction Copper Crown Investment and Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Holdings Limited.
“The ignorance”
Vilma Pazmiño, manager of Environmental Management, insisted that to design and build the mine they went to extremes in studies, since it is not in the interest of either the company, the community or the State “for a disaster to be generated,” and pointed out that “the lack of knowledge , sometimes leads to fears”, in reference to the warning of environmentalists.
Ecuacorriente has three concessions in the area, covering about 6,600 hectares, of which about 1,400 have been used to build Mirador.
The thick vegetation of the area disappears in several intervened sections, where large masses of reddish earth are observed, from which the copper concentrate is extracted. To get to the mine pit area, you can see the opening of large roads where dozens of trucks circulate.
According to Pazmiño, the local communities were informed of the actions of the company, which began exploration work in 1995.
60,000 tons per day
Located in the southern province of Zamora Chinchipe, 750 kilometers from Quito, Mirador processes an average of 60,000 tons of mineralized rock per day with an annual production of 357,000 tons of copper concentrate.
In the area they maintain comprehensive soil control, environmental, water, and seismic monitoring and have a forest nursery in which plants are reproduced for the reforestation of the intervened areas. So far about 300 hectares have been “revegetated” with the hydroseeding system.
More than 16,500 plants and seeds are currently being produced and adapted in the forest nursery run by the Chinese company. In the area there is a wide variety of wild animals and endemic plant species, “but not unique,” he clarified.
Mining boom in Ecuador
Until last October, Ecuacorriente had generated 3,910 sources of direct employment and around 16,000 indirect ones. 87% of the workers are Ecuadorian.
Along with the Fruta del Norte gold mine, also in Zamora Chinchipe, Mirador is behind the “boom” of Ecuador’s mining exports, which in 2022 reached a record of 2.7 billion dollars and ranked as the fourth product with the highest sales outside the country.
This year it is estimated at 300 million dollars in payments from the company to the State of different kinds and from 2010 until last October it had delivered 956 million dollars in taxes.
