The opponents of the dam are called "Las Banderas Negras" the Black Flags and dozens of homes have the flags and hand-printed signs in their front yards, with messages exhorting Antofagasta Minerals, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Antofagasta plc, a mining company trading on the London Stock Exchange, to leave the town alone. Supporters of the mine, many of whom have received tens of thousands of dollars in community grants from Antofagasta Minerals, have seen their windows shattered.
A car was burned and when the mining company bought the locals an ambulance, someone immediately smashed the windows. Fights against El Mauro dam β named after the submerged ranch of the same name β have been going on for nearly a decade, and though opponents and proponents are no closer to agreement, they all concur on one thing: the construction of the dam has shattered the peace of a rural mountain community.
Sandra Dagnino, a lawyer representing a group of townspeople in a lawsuit against the mining company, said the money has caused "a total rupture of the social fabric. Mothers no longer speak to daughters," she said. Pure fights. It divided our town, that's what happened," said Marlene Carvajal, 48, a fourth-generation local, when asked about the legacy of the mine.
The dam was built not to hold back a river, but billions of pounds of ground-up rocks and waste from the huge copper mine known as Los Pelambres, which is owned by Antofagasta Minerals.
Waste from Los Pelambres is delivered via pipelines that run for dozens of miles through the Andes, delivering crushed rock and slurry to the expanding lake that is designed to keep growing as it absorbs refuse from the copper mine. Carvajal is among many in town who blame the dam β built across a narrow watering hole high above the town β for the current lack of water.
