It was only a matter of time, but it’s now official: CODEGAM has joined with the rest of Intag’s forces to oppose Ascendant’s Junin mining project. The proposal to work together against Ascendant came yesterday after a meeting of the main anti-mining forces in Intag: including CODEGAM, DECOIN and the Community Development Council.
OFFICIAL BREAK On February 17th CODEGAM officially broke all relations with Ascendant Copper Corporation after the company refused to sign an agreement to benefit the communities. The three-page document was signed by Garcia Moreno Parish government officials as well as thirty-five community presidents, according to reliable sources (DECOIN has a copy of the document).
LAWSUITS What’s more, CODEGAM’s president is pursuing Ascendant in the courts. CODEGAM president is getting ready to criminal charge Ascendant Copper for breach of contract – this is in reference to an earlier contract Ascendant signed with the communities to fund several development projects and which Ascendant refuses to live up to – according to sources within CODEGAM.
MORE LAWSUITS All the factions involved in the struggle against the mining project have agreed to share documents in order to facilitate lawsuits aimed at stopping the destructive mining project in Intag. If Ascendant thought it had a huge headache confronting DECOIN and the Community Development Council, they’ll have to find a way to deal with the deadly migraine that signifies the unification of all anti-mining forces into one single FORCE.
KEEP TUNED A lot going on right now regarding the irregularities surrounding the Preliminary Environmental Impact Statement… It seems Whistler was hired to do the study, then fired, but in the meantime Terrambiente shows up having done the complete Study in 5 days?? This at a time when Ascendant had officially said they had hired Whistler. Whistler, you’ll recall, was dropped from the scene after we denouced that one of Whistler’s board member was a part owner of a portion of Junin’s smelting rights! The environmental study was conducted in August 2005, when Whistler was still suppossedly working on the EIA. But this is just the beginning!!
In the next few days, we’ll delve a bit into what the scientist and archeologist discovered that will have a direct impact on the future of this incresingly troubled project.
