Sonami interview: “This ruling is a huge step, it’s a green light to keep moving forward in the next stages”

In an interview with the April mining newsletter, Francisco Villalón, Corporate Affairs and Community Manager at Andes Iron, discusses the details of the ruling by the Environmental Court of Antofagasta, which states that the Dominga project “complied with current regulations and provided complete and sufficient information for its proper environmental assessment.”

The ruling by the First Environmental Court has been a breath of fresh air for the Dominga project. For an initiative that has been in the permitting process for over seven years, this decision, as Andes Iron states, constitutes “a green light” to continue moving forward to the next stages.

Following the ruling by the Antofagasta court, the company declared that the judgment “unequivocally establishes that the information provided by the project owner is sufficient and complete, and that the Dominga project fully complies with current environmental regulations governing the legal and technical evaluation of this type of project.”

In general terms, the ruling by the First Environmental Court overturned the resolution of the Committee of Ministers—which in 2017 rejected the project, arguing that it had a deficient baseline study of the marine environment, among other issues—and of the Environmental Assessment Commission of the Coquimbo Region.

In an interview with Boletín Minero, Francisco Villalón, Corporate Affairs Manager of Andes Iron, emphasized that the ruling establishes that the project, located in the La Higuera area of ​​the Coquimbo Region, “complied with current regulations and provided all the necessary information completely and sufficiently for a proper environmental assessment.”

Fuente: https://www.sonami.cl/v2/articulos-destacados/primer-tribunal-ambiental-fallo-a-favor-de-andes-iron-en-relacion-al-proyecto-dominga/