Chile regulator says could cancel permit for Barrick’s Pascua-Lama

Jon Gold, Government, Precious Metals, Silver

Chile's environmental regulator is re-evaluating penalties on Barrick Gold Corp's Pascua-Lama project, a process that could include cancelling the embattled mine's permit, the head of the government body told a local daily newspaper.
"The new sanction can fall anywhere on the spectrum allowed by the law, which goes from a warning to revoking the environmental permit, including fines," Cristian Franz, head of the SMA, said in an interview published on Wednesday in Diario Financiero.
"I can say that I don't rule out any scenario," Franz added.
Chile's environmental regulator, known as the SMA, fined Barrick $16-million in May 2013 for not complying with some of the country's environmental requirements for its massive gold and silver project.

This post was published at Mining Weekly