It has also diminished access to water for urban populations, especially in critical hydric zones such as northern Chile, southern Peru, and the Bolivian altiplano. Defined as a “thirsty industry” (Cereceda 2007), mining has been dispossessing the agricultural communities of their water sources.
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Water has been one of the commons goods most affected by mining in the region. The natural and cultural elements that have supported the communities’ development, lifestyles and systems of existence – all the components that contribute to the concept of “ vivir bien” (literally, “living well”) – are under siege 1 (Choquehuanca 2010). Communities have lost access to their most valued properties that they customarily shared in a sustained manner. The increase in areas given over to mining concessions in South America has involved profound disruptions of ecosystems and the communities that have depended on them for centuries. In Ecuador, despite the mining mandate ( mandato minero) that reverted mining concessions to the State during the Constituent Assembly in 2008 (Acosta 2009), there has been an increase in mining concessions, especially along the southern border with Peru.
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In Argentina, the number of mining projects increased 740 percent from 2003 to 2007 alone, reaching the considerable number of 336 projects (Swampa/Antonelli, 2010). According to the Ministry of Mines of Colombia, more than 40 percent of the national territory is being sought for mining concessions. In Colombia, President Santos’s aggressive promotion of mining (“ la locomotora minera”) has entailed a substantial increase in mining concessions. This, in turn, has intensified socio-environmental conflicts on territories and communities. The concessions granted to mining interests have soared in Peru, from 7.3 percent of the national territory in 2005 to 15.4 percent in 2009. This trend has meant, in turn, an increase in the number of mining projects in the portfolios of transnational corporations and an expansion of the areas given in concession throughout the region. The so-called “financial crisis” of the early 21st century further accelerated the rising prices of precious metals, which are now seen as a “safe-haven” value given the vulnerability of currencies. Such investment has benefited from reforms in the laws governing mining in almost all countries, and the high demand for basic minerals for industrial use, especially in China and India, which have translated into high prices. Since then, levels of investment in exploration and exploitation have generally held steady. The latest cycle of mining expansion in South America dates from the mid-1990s.