Chile's Government fines itself for polluting the environment

“These fines are a joke,” said Girardi, adding that companies like state-owned CODELCO should be one of the leading industries cutting back on water pollution.

CHILE: 70 BUSINESSES FINED FOR WATER VIOLATIONS

(Nov. 13, 2007) Magaly Espinosa, the Superintendent of Sanitary Services (SISS), fined 70 public and private companies Monday for polluting Chile’s waters. The fines represent the outcome of an extensive investigation, began in September of last year, during which Chilean businesses were warned to reduce the level of their water pollution.

Out of 174 companies SISS found guilty of polluting waters, annual fines were given out to 52 companies, and monthly fines to 18 companies. The annual fines ranged from 409,440 pesos (US$809) to 16,377,600 pesos (US$32,360).

The only company to receive the maximum sanction was El Teniente, a division of Chile’s National Copper Corporation (CODELCO), the state-owned copper company responsible for roughly half of Chile’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Most companies receiving the higher fines were mining or cellulose companies, including Sociedad Punta del Cobre, S.A., and Celulosa Arauco (CELCO) (Planta Aserradero El Colorado).

Among the companies given monthly fines was the Spanish-owned fishing company Pesca Chile, S.A., which was fined 9.8 million pesos (US$19,360). Artisan beer company Cerveceria Kuntsmann S.A. received the smallest monthly fine at about 2.47 million pesos (US$4,800).

Sen. Guido Girardi (PPD) termed the level of noncompliance with water pollution norms as “catastrophic” because the companies that do not cut down their water pollution levels directly affect the industries that are trying to meet the terms of the new legislation.

(Weak environmental laws in Chile pave the way for foreign owned extraction companies. Example: False Environmental Impact Statements induce Regional Environment Commission to Implement Fines.

This is the opposite in Argentina where local residents have a say about their environment: Revisiting the Esquel Gold Mine Protest - Argentine community wins mining moratorium , Argentine government will have to get tougher with anti-mining provinces if it wants industry to fulfill potential )

Here is the full article.

Ransacking Chile - Fabulous Profits for Multinationals

The rise in copper prices has produced euphoria in the government and ruling elites, despite relative complications for certain exporters. The price rise seems not to be a momentary phenomenon. Although abundance is not noticeable in the daily life of Chileans, three out of four expect that the price rise will raise their living standards. Everything is looking good. But a kind of conspiracy of silence hides something basic. The ones who do best out of the copper price are the multinationals who manage two thirds of Big Mining, not Chile. The multinationals are the main winners : they pay low taxes and walk off with colossal profits.

The figures are startling. With copper at US$2.60 per pound, the profits leaving Chile for production in 2006 will be US$16 billion. More than twice the surplus of CODELCO One is dealing with real plunder, the culmination of an open handed policy towards the multinationals that began with the dictatorship and has been maintained to the present day and which, apparently, President Bachelet wants to continue. Punto Final talked to the economist Orlando Caputo of the Study Centre CETES, an academic and expert in copper and the world economy.

PF. What is the situation relating to multinational profits in Big Mining of copper during this period of high prices?

OC. The profits of the foreign companies that control 70% of Chilean copper are so high that they are equivalent to more than twice the surplus of CODELCO. El Mercurio (3) on April 30th reported that in the first quarter the profits of Escondida (4) were US$1.136 billion, which means more than US$5 billion for the whole year, including taxes. One has to take in the general panorama and we can use data from recent studies. There is no information from the multinationals since they are not obliged to publish accounts. We can only make deductions. There are figures for profits sent overseas resulting from direct foreign investment, which are after-tax profits. The significant figures are these : 1999, US$1.603 billion; 2002, US$2.557 billion; 2003, US$4629 billion; 2004, US$8.231 billion; and 2005, US$11.088 billion.

These figures include the total of foreign direct investment but help us get to the figures for the mining multinationals. If we discount profits of foreign non-mining companies, we arrive at the companies that are, namely, the copper mining companies. To their profits we need to add remittances made up of accelerated depreciation and other items that we can consider as earnings. We can conclude from these calculations that the surpluses of the mining multinationals were approximately US$10 billion in 2005. This year however, when prices and their trends are higher, the surpluses of the copper mining multinationals are around US$16 billion. A figure that would finance the new social program announced by Michelle Bachelet for 27 years.

To appreciate what these earnings mean we can establish other relations. One is that which exists with the material investments made, which together with labour and the natural resource itself, constitute the source of those profits. According to the Foreign Investments Committee, that investment in the mining sector for the period 1991 - 2004, that is to say the democratic period, was US$16 billion in round figures. That figure is practically the same as the earnings for 2006. In just one year the multinationals will earn the same amount that they invested over 14 years, and the investments in the democratic period represent more than 80% of the investment in copper Big Mining since 1974.

Here is the full article.

Mining Giants Account For Fifty Percent Of All Corporate Profits in Chile

CHILE’S BUSINESSES SHOW STRONG RESULTS THROUGH 3rd QUARTER

Mining Giants Account For 50 Percent Of All Corporate Profits

(Nov. 2, 2007) Chilean enterprises have done well this year, showing an overall 12 percent increase in profits from January through September, as compared to 2006. Big winners are the mining and forestry companies.

Profits at all businesses are up by US$22 billion compared to September, 2006, according to figures by Chile’s Securities and Exchange Regulator (SVS). Total sales add up to 164 billion, a 14.9 percent increase compared to same period last year.

The two largest mining companies, state-owned CODELCO and BHP Billiton’s Escondida, accounted for 50 percent of total profits in Chile. CODELCO registered overall profits of US$6.7 billion in the first nine months of the year, while Escondida saw its profits grow to US$ 5.3 billion in the same period. But while Escondida’s profits are up by 28.3 percent compared to last year, CODELCO saw its profits diminish for the first time in five years, down by 7 percent. The state-owned mining company has seen its production costs rise considerably, affecting overall profits.

Of the country’s economic groups, the two largest, the Matte and Angelini consortiums, have profited the most this year. Cellulose-company CMPC - part of the Matte group - has seen its overall profit for the first nine months this year add up to US$377 million - an impressive 128.3 percent increase compared to the firsty nine months of 2006. Angelini’s CELCO showed an overall profit of US$534 million, a 25 percent increase compared to September last year. The positive numbers are attributed mostly to record prices for cellulose and a sharp increase in production capacity.

Here is the full article.