A 24-hour strike has begun today amongst employees of Chile’s state-owned copper mining company Codelco, along with private mining corporation employees. Union organisers have gathered with 26,000 miners to participate in the countrywide strike.

The strike was called on Monday by the Federation of Copper Workers (FTC) and the Mining Federation of Chile (FMCJ), as part of their campaign for an improvement in pensions and the re-nationalisation of the copper and lithium industry, amongst other reforms. Chile is the world’s leading producer of copper, and it is estimated that its production represents one-third of the world’s copper supply. Chile produces an average of 5.4 million tonnes of the metal a year, with Codelco alone producing 10% of the world’s supply of copper.

A spokesperson for the Federation of Copper Workers (FTC), Jorge Varas said that, “all of Codelco is paralysed, and private mining companies have also been stalled”. Chairman of the FTC, Raimundo Espinoza continued by stating that “at this time we have paralysed the North in both the private and the state sector,” in an interview with Radio Cooperativa at 11:30am.

Employees of foreign private mining companies, such as Minera Escondida, operated by Anglo-Australian petroleum group BHP Billiton, are considered to be the largest private operation of miners in Chile. Miners from Minera Escondida will however only participate in the strike for a few hours, in support of the strike led by Codelco employees.

Codelco’s workers are demanding improvements in their pensions, the health system in the state sector maintained, greater job security, and fairer pay for contracted workers, who receive on average 70% lower wages than permanent employees.

Codelco said that the 24-hour strike being carried out by its employees is the equivalent of a loss of around US$35m in revenues from operations.

Salt mine in Colombia (Photo: phyxiusone on Flickr)

Colombian miners have agreed to end their 32-day strike on the premise of increased pay and better health insurance.

The union parties of the BHP Billiton coal company have signed a three year deal agreeing to a 5.1% salary rise in the first year and increases of inflation plus 1.5% and 1.7% respectively over the next two years, according to Marlon Gomez, a negotiator for the Sintracarbon union.The deal also includes a C$3.4m bonus, a C$9.6m advance on productivity bonuses over the next three years, better health insurance terms. and housing bonuses.

“It was a successful strike with no legal reprisals,” Gomez told Bloomberg earlier today. “We’re satisfied, though there’s a bitter taste from having extended the accord for three years when traditionally they last for two.”

The miners, who have been on strike since 7th February, stopped work to demand increased compensation, better health cover, and improved work conditions. According to media sources, the strike has reportedly lost BHP C$96m in productivity loss.

“We all lost out with the strike,” Cerrejon president Roberto Junguito. “Now the priority is to focus on safely re-establishing the operation, regaining our clients’ trust and focusing on expansion projects.”

The Cerrejon mine is located in the northern Colombian area of Guajira, and is the largest open-pit coal mine in the world, responsible for approximately 5% of global coal sales.

Rescue efforts for nine Peruvian miners who have been trapped in the Cabeza de Negro mine since last Thursday have encountered complications after further caving. The setback could delay the miners’ release another two to three days.

While the exact cause of the initial collapse remains unclear, it is thought that the miners got trapped 250m underground due to a broken shaft.

In the meantime, the miners have been able to get access to oxygen, water, and food through a tube. They are also able to communicate with rescuers aboveground.

“It’s very complicated work,” said Cesar Chonate, a regional head of Peru’s civil defence agency. “We’re taking into account all the necessary security measures to avoid risks among the rescuers themselves.”

The trapped miners range in age from 22 to 59, including a father and son. All of them are reported to be in good health, though their anxiety has at times been forcefully expressed to those tasked with coordinating their rescue.

“Due to the cave-ins late Saturday, we don’t know exactly the distance between rescuers and miners, but the communication has been maintained constantly.

The Cabeza de Negro mine, abandoned over two decades ago by its owners, continues to be exploited by informal miners.

Protests by informal miners in the region of Madre de Dios have escalated to the point of violence after ten days of mobilisation. Three people have been pronounced dead and 38 are injured, including nine police officers.

Madre de Dios, which is located in Peru’s south-eastern Amazon basin, has become a site for extensive illegal mining.  The area has already suffered large swaths of deforestation and mercury-contamination of rivers as miners push further into buffer zones and wildlife preserves.

The protesters organised to call on the government to revoke new decrees that impose harsh penalties on them for pollution and mining in unauthorised areas.

According to the current Minister of the Environment, Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, talks with the informal miners broke down when they continued to increase their demands with each meeting. Protesters blocked the main streets of Madre de Dios and attempted to seize an airport.

More than 40 people have been arrested over the past ten days as tensions continue to mount. Former minister of the environment, Ricardo Giesecke, has joined regional leaders and members of Congress in calling for a state of emergency to be declared.

A march in Buenos Aires on Thursday will mark a National Day against Mining Exploitation, the Union of Citizens Assembly (UAC) announced today.

The statement was released by the UAC, an annual meeting of environmentalist and rural activists. It additionally announced also a more general mobilization on a national scale for the same day.

The announcement comes in response to the repeated acts of repression against anti-mining protests in the Andean provinces of Argentina.

In its press release, the UAC assembly remembers that several northern provinces are mobilised since two months already against the so-called megaminería.

The environmentalists’ uprisings in the cities of Famatina, Bethlehem, Andalgalá, Amaicha, Tinogasta and Cafayate have been the most prominent ones so far.

Citizens’ assemblies also noted that besides the big march called in ​in Buenos Aires, there will be more noticeable protest events throughout the week in many parts of the country.

The National Day against Mining Exploitation has been called to ask for a repeal of the current mining laws, a revoking of the antiterrorism law and the acknowledgment of water as a fundamental human right.

Also, organisers are soliciting the government the drop the charges against those people arrested while protesting against mining site exploitations, stressing the importance of respecting the self-determination of people.

Last 10^th of February, the statement recalls, an environmentalist and neighbors outcry to reject the mining site nearby the Argentine town of Tinogasta was harshly repressed by the police.

At that time, protesters were enforcing a roadblock to prevent the passage of trucks loaded with toxic materials and explosives on their way to the Bajo la Alumbrera mine.

Story courtesy of Agencia Púlsar AMARC-ALC news agency.           

Yesterday a ceremony was held at San Jose mine celebrating the anniversary of the 33 miners that were freed after 69 days stuck underground. A themed museum was opened as a tribute and the Chinese government donated a statue in commemoration.

The museum houses the clothes that the miners wore over the 69 days and is designed as a replica of their shelter with samples of the soil that was drilled through for the rescue.

Almost a billion people worldwide watched the 22 hour rescue operation of the miners, and now, a year on, questions are being asked about what has been learnt from the incident.

The trapped miners are still suffering from the trauma, half are unemployed and the legal fight with the Chilean state for compensation has not yet been resolved.

Daniel Herrera, one of the miners, told Pagina12 that there has been “no progress” in the country.

The country’s first lady, Cecilia Morel, who attended the mass yesterday, denied such claims. She defended her husband’s administration and stated that laws have been modified to improve safety for workers.

Furthermore, Morel told the Chilean newspaper La Tercera that the newly erected ‘monument of hope’ will “rescue that hope, that unity, that when we have a common cause we can unite and achieve impossible things”.

It has been revealed that less than a year after their ordeal, the Chilean Miners of San José mine have sold the rights to their story to Hollywood film producer Michael Medavoy.

Juan Andrés Illanes, the third miner to be rescued in October 2010, made a statement announcing the news of “the only official and authorized film about what we lived in San José mine.”

Medavoy [Black Swan] bought the rights through his production company Half Circle. The film will include never-before-told parts of the story, with a screenplay set to be written by Oscar-nominated screenwriter José Rivera [Motorcycle Diaries].

“Like millions of people around the world, I was completely engrossed watching the rescue at Copiapó,” said Medavoy.

The miners were stuck half a mile underground for 69 days before the Chilean government were able to carry out a viable escape plan. Since their release, the miners have been bombarded with publicity requests such as award presenting, and appearing in a Disney parade.

Production is scheduled to start in 2012.

Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, general secretary of the National Union of Miners of the Mexican Republic, spoke in an interview with Radio Bemba about mining disputes in the country, while denouncing the activity of the Grupo México company.

Gómez Urrutia has been living in self imposed exile in Canada since 2006, after denouncing the explosion in the Pasta de Cochos mine, in the northern state of Coahuila, as “industrial homicide”. The explosion killed 65 miners.

During the interview, Gómez Urrutia criticised the corruption of the Grupo México company. The union of which he is the leader has been in constant conflict with the company since 2003.

He accused Grupo México of violating trade union rights of the miners, while denouncing the inhuman working conditions of the Cananea mine.

The union leader said that “Mexico should have a law which punishes the criminal negligence and the irresponsibility of the companies”.

At the same time, Gómez Urrutia called on the people of Cananea, colleagues in the struggle and the striking committee to conduct a campaign protesting against “the Grupo México abuses”.

Story courtesy of Agencia Púlsar, the news agency of AMARC-ALC.

Former mines’ leaders from Coronel, Lota and Arauco will expose the grave situation of 600 former workers who have lost their severance benefits. This will take place on Tuesday, in the national congress.

Demonstrators are ex coal miners who, since August 2009 have ceased to receive law 19,129’s severance benefit after their accepting grace pensions from Pension Funds’ Administrators (AFPs).

Miners explained that, upon accepting pensions they did not know they would lose the severance benefits.

Legislator Clemira Pacheco explained the problem had been solved by former president Bachelet. However, with the change of government the Undersecretary of Social Welfare has decided to cancel the severance benefits.

Legislator Manuel Monsalve announced he will ask for an urgent processing of a project that contemplates the payment of a severance benefit for former miners who worked more than 18 years in mines.

Also, socialist parliamentarians stated the fact poorer families are banned from the state’s aid is unacceptable. It is worth remembering these families have mostly been affected by last year’s earthquake.

Story courtesy of Agencia Púlsar, the news agency of AMARC-ALC

Residents of the Peruvian province of Islay have announced they will strike indefinitely from the 20^th November against the mining project Tía María. The project belongs to the Southern Peru Copper Corporation (CPCC).

This was confirmed by the President of the Defense Coalition for the distract of Cocachacra, Julio Gutierrez Zevallos, to the National Coordinator for Radio (CNR).

He said the strike was ratified at a meeting held last Tuesday by the Defense Coalition of the Tambo Valley.

Gutierrez Zevallos said that “it is a fact and not a threat” and that the “primary objective is the removal of Tía María for the lack of success to date.”

He also regretted the failure of the commitments made by the Government, at the same time criticising the “arrogance” of the SPCC responsible for the project.

He recalled that the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) signed a framework agreement under which a period of 90 days is needed to begin construction of the dam. However, the deadline passed and the work did not start.

Gutiérrez Zeballos said that although there is a new minister, they too appear politically uninterested in this issue.

The people of Islay say around 12,500 hectares of crops are affected by the mining activity of Tía María. In September last year a local consultation was held where 90 percent of the participants spoke out against the mining project Tía María.