It is the largest mining project of the province and it will be located near the Pascua Lama project, the largest binational mining enterprise in Latin America. All in all, Jachal is one of the cruelest effects of mega-mining over the territories.

Real World Radio interviewed María José Salazar, member of “Mothers from Jachal in defense of our children”, who told us about the consequences of the extractivist model in the territories.

This organization was created in 2002 to consult the people about environment, despite the fact that the company had been already installed, without public consultations, in Iglesias department, also in San Juan, in 1996.

“The promise of progress was everybody’s dream, because we hadn’t seen with our own eyes the impacts of mining”, said María José.
However, according to them, today they are worse than ever: they are isolated when it rains, the hospital doesn’t have enough resources, schools are abandoned and they have housing problems.

Mining affected agriculture, which was based in the production of onions. Today this is a product that nobody wants to buy due to its bad quality.

The only water resource of the population used to be Jachal River, which is located in a semi-arid region which depends on the melting of mountain tops. This delicate natural balance was destroyed by the mining company.

First the water was polluted, and then the resource started to run short and then groundwater was contaminated. The water crisis today is constant. Doctors advise not to drink tap water, especially because the river has high levels of cyanide, lead and arsenic. In addition, María José denounced that the cases of cancer have increased but there are no official figures.

“All we hear on the radio are ads by the mining company”, said the activist, who also talked about the difficulties suffered by those who mobilize: “when we are out gathering signatures, the mining company is behind us showing with TVs and DVDs the benefits of mining, they take social workers, they hire psychologists, and they visit every house to tell the population that everything is fine (...). It is an amazing display, we ride our bikes and they have expensive cars, people laugh about it”.