Andes Iron calls on the ministers’ committee to respect environmental court ruling

Ahead of tomorrow’s meeting of the Ministers’ Committee, convened to comply with the ruling issued by the First Environmental Court of Antofagasta on December 9, Andes Iron released the following statement:
The ruling from the First Environmental Court set clear and unequivocal guidelines that must steer the Committee’s decision, which the company expects to be followed faithfully.

According to environmental law experts, the technical debate surrounding the Dominga project has been fully settled. Therefore, Andes Iron expects a favorable resolution; otherwise, the Committee would risk being in contempt of court. Even the Environmental Evaluation Service (SEA) acknowledged in its December 23 appeal that the ruling leaves “no room for discretion.”

The company criticized recent government statements claiming that the Committee’s January 2023 decision was based on “technical reports,” noting that those documents were dismissed by the Environmental Court, as they addressed matters already resolved in previous judgments.

In particular, we wish to express our regret over the inappropriate statements made today by the Minister of the Environment, who, in addition to making comparisons without any technical basis, stated that “a project like this” (referring to Dominga) should not be developed in the area where it is located. She failed to mention, however, that the current government (through the Ministry of the Environment, SAG, Undersecretariat of the Armed Forces, and other agencies) provided a range of information to the courts to support the environmental permit for the Cruz Grande Port, a neighbor to Dominga. This suggests that her objections to projects in the area are selective, demonstrating a clear bias against our project.

At this stage of the environmental permitting process, in which all technical bodies have confirmed that the Dominga project has fully complied with all environmental and technical regulations, we expect an end to actions that, illegitimately, seek only to obstruct, litigate, or outright prevent this initiative from moving forward.

We continue to trust that justice and the rule of law will prevail, and that our project will be able to move forward, ideally according to the timeline projected by Cochilco in its recent report, “Investment in Chilean Mining: Project Portfolio 2024–2033.”