Last Thursday, Macarena Villalobos joined thousands walking in an anti-mining march in Buenos Aires.

Holding her four-month old daughter to her chest, her dark eyes lit up as she explained why she was there.

“As a member of the Partido Obrero, I’m here against mega-mining,” she said. “We’re here against what [the government] is doing in negotiations for significant mining projects and the destruction of the provinces where the mines are.”

Villalobos is not the only one expressing concern about government mining policies.

Over the past few months, mining – specifically, the large-scale type referred to as “mega-mining” – has entered the public consciousness in a big way.

As foreign interests try to set up shop, protests have erupted in several Argentine provinces. From Jujuy to La Rioja, people are fighting to keep mining companies away from their air, land and water.

Writer Javier Rodríguez Pardo also marched at Thursday’s protest. His book ‘They Come for Gold, They Come for It All: Mining Invasions 500 Years Later’, focuses on mining communties and companies like Barrick Gold and Meridian Gold in Argentina.

In an interview afterward, Rodríguez Pardo said people need to talk about the kind of country they want – and whether they want international companies taking resources beyond the borders, leaving behind open pits.

AUDIO: Anti-mining protestors speak to The Indy during a march in Buenos Aires on 23rd February

“We have problems,” he said. “We have opened the doors and the avenues with admiration, with the ‘progressive’ governments in our region. But at the same time, we feel a great pain. These governments, while talking about human rights, they’re allowing transnational corporations to destroy our territories and take the common goods.”

The Environment: An Ongoing Concern

Over the last decade, mining interests in Argentina have soared. In a paper from the University of Dundee’s Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy, writers argue that “legal and policy measures ensured the stability of the legal regime of the mining sector” after the 2001 economic and political crisis.

“With a more favourable international climate and domestic exchange rate, investment in the sector after 2002 has even soared, paving the way to what has been called as the ‘second wave’ of mining investment in the country,” the paper said, noting that Argentina first opened its doors extensively to international mining interests in the 1990s.

As such, protests movements against government and mining companies have sprouted up all over the country, too.

Andalgalá is one area where the anti-mining community has been fighting for years.

Located in Catamarca, the city is close to the copper-and-gold Bajo de La Alumbrera mine. It is the oldest and largest open pit mine in Argentina, and some residents accuse it of contaminating ground water and negatively affecting air quality.

More recently, reports from Catamarca say about two dozen people were injured around Tinogasta in clashes on February 10th, adding to a list of other incidents in the province. Protestors were holding up a truck on its way to the Alumbrera mine, one which a government representative said was carrying explosives.

As well, the Canadian Osisko Mining Corporation announced on 31st August that they had entered “a binding agreement” with the La Rioja state mining corporation, Energía y Minerales Sociedad Del Estado, to explore for gold. People in the province of La Rioja started protesting the potential mine on Famatina mountain, citing environmental concerns. On 30th January, the company announced a hold on exploration in that region.

“In the days immediately following the signing of the agreement, groups from Famatina and elsewhere in Argentina commenced organised protests against what has misleadingly been called the ‘Famatina mega-mine project,’” the company stated in a press release. “In fact, the development of a mine is still highly hypothetical, since very little is known about the amount, quality and location of the mineral resources that may exist in the properties within the Famatina Project.”

In addition, joined by governors of other provinces, Jujuy governor Eduardo Fellner announced the founding of a federal mining organisation on 15th February, in an attempt to bring all interested parties to the table.

As mining is governed in each province separately, the organisation could bring various provincial organisations and contacts together to deal with mining on a national scale.

“We seek solutions to the environmental impact,” Fellner said. “Tourism generates an impact and no one would ban it. We have to handle it, drive it and improve it.”

Rodríguez Pardo says the move allows government to control the narrative.

“The idea is this: to have their one discourse, their one action,” he said. “In all the provinces, they are distributing the same flyers in favour of mining, the same books in favour of mining. The same policies in schools and colleges. The same policies in our media. This is what they do, the federation that was created.”

Next Steps

Rodríguez Pardo noted that while most anti-mining protests have been outside of the capital, environmental organisations are trying to change that.

Buenos Aires resident Liliana Cubilla was at last Thursday’s protest. A member of the Dario Santillan political movement, she said she was at the march to meet people and connect with those who want to keep mega-mines out of the country.

“To help [the provinces’ residents] and give them a little more force – and so they’re not suppressed” she said.

Getting ready to start the march last Thursday, protestors were lighting fireworks in the street. As the sky boomed with light and smoke, Villalobos – who moved to Argentina seven years ago to raise a family – lifts her baby’s pink and white hat to make sure she is still napping.

“The government has the intention of negotiating these mines,” she said. “The mines, with all their exploitation – and that’s my government. This is the problem. The government attacks the inhabitants, contaminates the land and makes demands – even more than the mega-mining companies.”

This protest will not be the last in the capital, say demonstrators.

On 1st March, local organisations are planning a demonstration starting in the Plaza Lavalle in Buenos Aires at 6pm.

Find out what locals think about the impact of mining in Argentina here.