{"id":50015576,"date":"2018-12-05T11:30:50","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T11:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stage.dialogochino.net\/?p=15576"},"modified":"2025-10-14T12:22:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T11:22:17","slug":"15576-the-chinese-mining-giant-and-the-ghost-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/justice\/15576-the-chinese-mining-giant-and-the-ghost-town\/","title":{"rendered":"The Chinese mining giant and the ghost town"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mining giant Chinalco, which operates the Toromocho Project in Peru, built a town to resettle the population of Morococha to enable the extraction of copper from beneath the ground where some 5,000 people once lived. Six years after the beginning of the move \u2013 once\u00a0celebrated<\/a>\u00a0as a triumph in community relations \u2013 the new settlement has no economic future and is fast becoming a ghost town.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Di\u00e1logo Chino\u00a0<\/i><\/b>and\u00a0<\/i>Convoca.pe<\/i><\/b><\/a>\u00a0travelled to the area five hours from Lima, discovering that amidst the frustration of the resettled population, there is another social conflict. The last inhabitants of the old town have refused to relocate and are being dispossessed of their land. They find themselves in an increasingly precarious situation.<\/i><\/p>\n

In the chilly mountains of Peru\u2019s central highlands, more than 4,700 metres above sea level, the demands of the last inhabitants of Old Morococha \u2013 65 families who resist resettlement \u2013 hang frozen in the air. For the past six years, they have been living with the tremors, dust and noise of detonations at the Toromocho mine, operated by Chinese company Chinalco, which has invested US$4.476 billion in the megaproject.<\/p>\n

Heavy machinery has now almost completely razed all buildings in the village. The rubble makes it resemble a war zone. In this area of Peru, prone to natural disasters, the world\u2019s second largest producer of copper, Chinalco wants to create an open-pit to exploit minerals beneath Morococha. Until 2012, it was home to more than 5,000 residents. 96% have left the site. Several more have settled in a new town built by Chinalco some 12 kilometres away.<\/p>\n

In Old Morococha, those remaining live in difficult conditions, themselves protagonists in an ongoing social conflict. The mine, 160 kilometres from the capital Lima and one of Peru\u2019s largest copper projects, is slated for a US$1.355 billion expansion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is sad to live here. There is no business here. There is nothing,\u201d Feliza Alania, one of the last inhabitants of the old town, says tearfully from her gloomy grocery store. She says she used to sell an average of US$45 in goods each day. Now, only her own family consumes what\u2019s left on the dusty shelves.<\/p>\n

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Morococha\u2019s resettlement has sparked two social conflicts: one in the new town and another among those who refuse to leave the old one. Photo: Marco Alegre\/Convoca.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Chinalco has tried to negotiate a deal with the remaining residents, who are adamant they won\u2019t accept the same conditions the transnational company offered their former neighbours. \u201cThey have offered us crumbs, I tell you,\u201d said M\u00e1ximo D\u00edaz, a carpenter and Alania\u2019s husband. D\u00edaz is also the President of the Broad Front for the Defense and Development of the Interests of Morococha (FADDIM), a collective founded following the resettlement process.<\/p>\n

The company did not recognise the residents\u2019 right of land ownership at the time of their purchase offer, according to No\u00e9 Gamarra, a representative of displaced former property owners. He explains; \u201cChinalco has only given quotes for the value of the erected buildings, but not for the land.\u201d Under this criteria, he says, market prices average between US$60 and US$100 per square metre. Yet this does not take into account minerals in the subsoil, especially copper. Extracting it could increase the mine\u2019s daily output from 117,000 to 172,000 metric tonnes.<\/p>\n

Chinalco expects to reach this capacity by 2020 when the expansion of the Toromocho Project, which the Ministry of Energy and Mines of Peru approved on March 23 this year, is complete. That same day, then vice-president Mart\u00edn Vizcarra assumed the Peruvian presidency in the midst of a deep political crisis that led Pedro Pablo Kuczynski to resign.<\/p>\n

In June, in the presence of Vizcarra himself, Chinalco announced the beginning of expansion works. \u201cWhen investment represents progress and development, the State becomes an ally in that investment,\u201d the President said. After the expansion, the project is expected to generate US$2 billion annually.<\/p>\n

However, the company will only meet this target with no one on the land the mining giant wants.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they do not reach [an agreement] with me, they must let me live in peace,\u201d says D\u00edaz defiantly. \u201cThe blasts from the mine shake like an earthquake and twice the roof of my workshop has been damaged [by falling rocks],\u201d he says. Such occurrences are commonplace.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe police surround us every day. They watch, and whatever you do they are all around you. Sometimes, there are shots [explosions]. They take all of us outside,\u201d laments Feliza Alania helplessly. \u201cThey have us controlled down to the last millimetre,\u201d adds D\u00edaz. This is no exaggeration. The\u00a0Di\u00e1logo Chino<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Convoca.pe<\/i><\/a>\u00a0team was followed by private surveillance around Old Morococha. They requested identification and enquired about our activities.<\/p>\n

Trust has eroded between the population, law enforcement and the authorities. Elvis Atachahua, a resident of Morococha, claims police officers travel in vehicles contracted by the mining company and support Chinalco\u2019s demolitions which, he says, don\u2019t have municipal authorisation. In the past, the Special Operations Division of the National Police and the Chinese state-owned company\u00a0had an agreement<\/a>\u00a0acknowledging the company\u2019s privileges. Inhabitants seem unequal before the law in Old Morococha.<\/p>\n

For its part, Chinalco has, with some success, presented itself to the world as a company with a strong sense of social responsibility. No wonder, Toromocho is very important for the Aluminum Corporation of China, Chinalco\u2019s parent company, given the enormous copper deposits and the amount of the rusty red metal China demands. The mine\u2019s reserves are estimated at 1,526 million tonnes. In the first half of 2018, Peruvian copper exports were worth US$7,696 million, according to the National Society of Mining and Petroleum. 61% of shipments of this metal were China-bound.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs everyone knows, copper minerals are scarce in China,\u201d Huang Shanfu, then President of Chinalco in Peru said in an interview with Chinese state-run station\u00a0CCTV<\/i>\u00a0on 13 November 2016. \u201cAs this project [Toromocho] gets underway, a solid basis for guaranteeing China\u2019s copper resources will gradually be consolidated,\u201d he stated. Other Chinese media, such as\u00a0Sina News Finance\u00a0<\/i>this year\u00a0questioned<\/a>\u00a0the economic wisdom of expanding the mine in the face of falling ore prices and company losses. News bulletins about Toromocho on Chinalco\u2019s website have not been\u00a0updated<\/a>\u00a0since 2013.<\/p>\n

Huang insisted the needs of the people of Morococha would be a priority: \u201cWe consider it necessary to show the sense of responsibility of our company and to achieve a synergistic development between the economy and the local communities, in line with our motto: first contribute to the development of the local communities, then think about bringing the project to fruition.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, residents\u2019 anger towards the company is palpable. \u201c[Do you know] how many times they have tried to get me out of my house!\u201d Edelmira Artica, whose residence has Chinalco\u2019s logo stamped on the front, says heatedly. \u201cTheir guards know what time we enter and what time we leave (\u2026) Even Chinalaco’s lawyer has said: \u2018You have already lost your house down there [in the new city]; you have no right to anything\u2019. I cannot eat my house \u2013 what we want is work! With work, I can do better than that house. But all the work avenues are closed off,\u201d he laments.<\/p>\n

In Morococha, if you are \u2018lucky\u2019\u00a0enough to have a job, you have to protect it. \u201cFrom the day Chinalco arrived, all work is subject to conditions. Once [the term of] your contract is complete, they no longer wish to renew it,\u201d says Rolando Jer\u00f3nimo, another resident.<\/p>\n

Unlike many conflicts where communities reject mining, Morococha has lived alongside extractive activities for centuries, and with large-scale operations for almost 80 years. Given this situation, it is incumbent on the company, the State \u2013 as a facilitator \u2013 and the population to find a satisfactory solution, including another option for relocation. Only then can residents resettle and generate economic activity.<\/p>\n

The area on offer, however, is unappealing.<\/p>\n

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