Tensions between the Mining Integration and Complementation Treaty and the “Glacier Law” in Argentina

Abstract

In a context of expansion of the extractive model in Latin America, in 1997 Argentina and Chile signed the Treaty on Mining Integration and Complementation in order to enable investments in border areas in a geopolitically strategic area, which provided a space for development of this activity without overlapping restrictions between both countries. In this framework, the first binational megaproject, Pascua Lama, property of Barrick Gold company, was approved, strongly questioned in both countries due to its environmental impacts. In Argentina, sanction of the Laws on Minimum Standards for the Preservation of Glaciers and the Periglacial Environment (Law 26.418/2008, Law 26.639/2010), which prohibited mining in these areas, was perceived by the mining sector as a threat to its economic interests. Taking Political Ecology and International Relations as theoretical approaches, this article analyze the tensions that arise between the binational Treaty and the “Glacier Law” in relation to mining interests and the conservation of glacial and periglacial ecosystems. Socio-environmental, legal, political and corporate aspects are analyzed, considering the complexity of the coexistence of both legal instruments in an extensive binational territory.