Retrofitting the Concept of FPIC in a Late-Phase Mining Operation: Barrick, the Diaguita and the MoU

摘要

Free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) has emerged in the last decade to become an important component of mining industry policy when companies engage with impacted indigenous communities. FPIC was conceived within a global framework that sought to safeguard indigenous rights, in particular the right to self-determination. While ?prior consent? suggests that the consent of indigenous peoples be obtained in the early stages of a mine life cycle, in several recent cases, mining companies have sought to apply processes informed by FPIC in later stages, such as during construction and operations.Barrick Gold?s Pascua Lama project, in the Huasco Valley, received its environmental permit to proceed in 2001. Chilean government recognition in 2006 saw the Diaguita formally identified as indigenous peoples. Subsequent mobilization of rights mechanisms such as the International Labor Organization Convention 169 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as well as a raft of private sector voluntary standards within the expanding discipline of 'sustainable mining' have seen incremental modifications to strategies of engagement between Barrick Gold and indigenous communities beyond the mandate of state-controlled prior consultation regulatory processes.The author, through historical document analysis and semi-structured interviews with Diaguita indigenous leaders, examines how actors in the Huasco Valley have invoked the concept of FPIC, identifying the limitations of doing so in the latter stages of a complex project.