About a dozen graduate students from the University of San Diego (USD) staged a demonstration regarding South32’s Hermosa mining project in front of the project’s office in Patagonia last Friday morning (Dec. 6).
The demonstration was timed to coincide with the departure from the office of a van taking visitors on a guided tour of the mine. Demonstrators—including a few local residents—did not block traffic.
USD students said they had visited Patagonia last May and spent the fall semester learning and investigating mining and its impacts. The students’ signs included demands for independent water monitoring, closer involvement by South32 with ecological groups, and mining company payment of ecological restoration money for ongoing and future damages. One young man’s sign read “Minors for responsible mining.”