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The Santa Ana Silver Project is a proposed open pit silver mining project by the Bear Creek Mining Corporation for the Santa Ana silver deposit in Huacullani District, Chucuito Province, Puno Region in southern Peru. Bear Creek's concession to the mine was revoked in late June 2011. On May 13, 2014, the Lima First Constitutional Court rendered its ruling regarding the action brought by Bear Creek Mining against the Peruvian government, challenging the constitutionality of the Supreme Decree N° 032-2011-EM, which rescinded the Company's rights to operate on its Santa Ana mineral concessions. The decision states unequivocally and unconditionally that: (1) Bear Creek's constitutional rights were violated; (2) The Company's rights are unconditionally returned as stipulated under Supreme Decree N° 083-2007-EM, which originally granted the right to Bear Creek, as a foreign company, to operate the Santa Ana concessions, located within the 50 kilometer border zone of Peru; (3) Bear Creek is recognized as title holder of the Santa Ana's mining concessions and therefore, is enabled to perform all the rights arising from said titles; and (4) The Court reaffirms that the Santa Ana project is in National interest. 〔 http://www.bizjournals.com/prnewswire/press_releases/2014/05/13/TO706 〕The company states that 63.2 million ounces of silver (proven and probable mineral reserves) are at the site, 19.7% of the company's total silver reserves.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.bearcreekmining.com/s/SantaAna_Project.asp?ReportID=374323 )〕 Of these, 16.6 million ounces are proven, and 46.6 million ounces are probable. Bear Creek proposes to operate the mine for an 11-year period during which it would extract approximately 47.4 million ounces of silver. A possible extension of the mining period could bring an additional 35 million ounces, according to company estimates.〔 Mineral reserves constitute 37 million tons of silver-containing rock; within them, the silver occurs at an average density of 53g of silver per ton of rock.〔 Cyanide, a toxin, would be used to separate the silver from the rock. Prior to regional protests against mining, construction was scheduled for late 2011 with operations to start in 2012.〔 However, amidst protests in May 2011, the company withdrew its staff until at least after the June 5, 2011, election. The Peruvian government agreed to create a commission representing multiple government agencies concerning mining in Yunguyo and Chucuito provinces. On May 24, Bear Creek announced that this measure would delay construction until 2012 and operations until 2013.〔Bear Creek Mining Corporation, "(BEAR CREEK REPORTS ON PERUVIAN GOVERNMENT STUDY ON MINING PERMIT PROCESSES WITHIN TWO SOUTHERN PUNO PROVINCES )," press release, May 24, 2011.〕 On May 28, 2011, Peruvian government negotiators agreed to delay approval of the mine's environmental license for twelve months. Protests resumed on June 8 and spreading across to Puno region to cover a variety of issues. Government negotiations with protesters resulted in five government decrees affecting the region, issued on June 25, including Supreme Decree 032-2011-EM which cancels Bear Creek's concession at Santa Ana〔"On Friday, hours before the deadly clash at the airport, Garcia's cabinet revoked the license of Canadian mining firm Bear Creek in a bid to persuade locals residents to end protests that have dragged on for more than a month." 〕 and bans mining activities in the Huacullani and Kelluyo Districts of Chucuito Province. ==Proposed operations== Bear Creek Mining contracted Ausenco Vector, Independent Mining Consultants, Inc. (IMC), and Resource Development, Inc. to conduct a feasibility study on mining operations for the project. Their proposed operations were summarized in a technical report issued on October 21, 2010. IMC proposed a "conventional open pit" mining plan based on extracting rock using 63-ton-capacity loading trucks. Prior to production, at least 2.97 million tons of rock would be removed. Each year, about 3.6 million tons of rock would be extracted for 9.5 years; an additional 1.7 years would be required to finish processing it. During the extraction process, 1.96 tons of rock will be removed from every ton of ore extracted.〔 The ore will then be crushed to a size of 3/4 inch and sent to a heap leach, where a sodium cyanide solution would be used to extract a silver-zinc precipitate from the rock; this will be smelted on site into mostly silver Dore bars; lead and most zinc will remain unextracted.〔 Mining operations would be contracted to a local company. The feasibility study proposes to supply the water used by the mine from water wells in "a very large alluvial aquifer" connected by a 12-km pipeline and from a river 10 km north of the project. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Santa Ana mine (Peru)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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