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Sustainability

Chile's Codelco to hand over 24,000 hectares for glacier park

Chile's Codelco to hand over 24,000 hectares for glacier park

FILE PHOTO: An aerial view of Olivares glacier in the Andes Mountain range, near Santiago city, Chile November 17, 2014. Higher air temperatures have meant snow in the Andes, once a key store of meltwater for spring and summer, is not compacting, melts faster, or turns straight to vapour. Picture taken November 17, 2014. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado/File Photo

05 Sep 2023 05:17AM

SANTIAGO: Chilean state-owned mining firm Codelco will give up some 24,000 hectares of land it holds concessions to near the Andes mountain range for a new national glacier park, the chair of the board announced on Monday (Sep 4).

The move is "a strategic initiative to face the challenges of climate change," Codelco chair Maximo Pacheco said at an event.

The Chilean government announced the park in mid-August, aiming to protect more than 300 of the ice formations which bring water to a large part of the Santiago region.

The glacier park sits along the upper part of the Olivares and Colorado river basins, to the east of the capital.

The South American country's deputy environment minister Maximiliano Proano said the mining company's move will help develop the second phase of the project.

However, the local unit of German construction material firm Knauf is looking to develop a new plaster project in the area, which faces opposition from social and environmental groups.

Source: Reuters

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