MINING VS. AGRICULTURE? HOW TO ADDRESS THE INTERESTS OF BOTH ACTIVITIES AND PROMOTE THEIR COEXISTENCE

• Jurisdiction: Derecho Internacional

International Mining and Oil & Gas Law, Development, and Investment
(Apr 2011)
CHAPTER 15A
MINING VS. AGRICULTURE? HOW TO ADDRESS THE INTERESTS OF BOTH ACTIVITIES AND PROMOTE THEIR COEXISTENCE
Agustin Mayer
Ferrere Abogados
Uruguay

AGUSTÍN MAYER WEST is a partner at the firm of Ferrere Attorneys at Law in Montevideo, Uruguay. He is the Head of their Intellectual Property practice group and Mining practice group. He received his degrees from the University of the Republic, Uruguay (UDELAR) and the Center of Postgraduate Studies, (UDELAR). He is a member of: the International Bar Association (IBA), Young Lawyers Committee Vice-Chair; the Uruguayan Bar Association; the Inter American Association of Intellectual Property (ASIPI); and the Uruguayan Association of Industrial Property Agents (AUDAPI). He is a professor at ORT University in Uruguay.

Agustín Mayer West*

i) Uruguay: a country with farming roots.

History indicates that Uruguay is not a country with a mining tradition. On the contrary, since the country's foundation, farming has constituted its main source of income.

To a greater or lesser degree, depending on the historical moment and economic cycles, the Uruguayan economy has been heavily based on farm production and the value that can added to it. Production of seeds, meat, wool, leather, milk and processing of some of these products are very much a part of the Uruguayan "DNA" and identity.

This has not been by chance. Uruguay is a small country with rich land for planting and pasturing, with a plentiful water supply, a relatively benevolent climate, and a softly rolling landscape. The country has no mountains, deserts, natural phenomena, or inhabitants isolated by nature or distance from population centers.

The vast majority of the country's land is usable for agricultural, livestock raising, forestry or other activities. There is very little area that is not appropriate for at least one of these uses.

Added to these natural conditions and the history of the farm sector is the social element. Farming activities create very strong ties to the land and for many people are a model or way of life. For the population with roots in the countryside, engaging in one or the other activity is not indifferent. In a large number of cases they are descendents of various generations who settled in rural areas long ago. Their relationship with the land and with their activities very often is emotional.

ii) Arrival of large-scale mining activity.

Mining activities were long focused primarily on extraction of semiprecious stones, limestone and nonmetallic minerals used as building materials that, in most cases, did not undergo processing.

This situation meant that, beyond certain specific problems or circumstances, the coexistence of mining and farming was not much a matter of concern to anyone.

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Mining operators performed their work, farmers did not feel threatened by mining, and authorities did not see problems to be solved or actions to be taken.

Yet, as of inception of the forestry promotion regime adopted by Uruguay in the 1990s, conflicts between forest producers and mining operators became more frequent. Not only because of the uncertainty generated by existence of permits on lands to be forested, but also because of the risk implied for forest producers by transit through stands and use of materials that could endanger forests. The scant mining tradition and mutual lack of familiarity of the two sectors gave rise to more than one conflict between them.

Yet up to then the issue had not taken on the scope of a social conflict between farmers and mine operators or producers.

With arrival, first, of a gold mining project, and then primarily an iron ore mining project - with plans for a two billion dollar investment - a conflict between farmers and miners began to take shape.

In the case of the iron ore project, the deposit is located in a farming area with a livestock raising tradition, with many producers whose production units do not exceed one hundred and fifty or two hundred hectares. Given the dimensions of the mining project, this means obtaining permits on lands belonging to a large number of surface right holders, all with their own characteristics and interests. In other words, the project involves surface areas belonging to a large number of producers who have long used that land as their source of production.

In this context a conflict of interests would appear to arise between some of the surface right holder...