By Fabian Cambero
SANTIAGO, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Global miner BHP BHP.AX will be forced to suspend operations at its Cerro Colorado copper mine in water-parched northern Chile after the country's Supreme Court upheld local indigenous communities' complaint about the project's water use.
The court ruled late on Wednesday night that a routine evaluation of the mine's environmental project, including by a committee of ministers, failed to take into account warnings by locals that its operations were overdrawing water and impacting local wetlands.
It said the complaint, filed by the San Isidro de Quipisca Indigenous Agricultural Association against the environmental approval granted on Nov. 12, 2016, was upheld.
Cerro Colorado, a small mine in BHP's Chilean portfolio, produced about 1.2% of Chile's total copper output in 2019. It now faces a lengthy suspension of its operations while a fresh environmental review already underway is completed.
BHP did not immediately respond to a request for comment on what it would do. The company said last July that it would begin to ramp down activity at Cerro Colorado as the coronavirus pandemic threw metals markets into disarray.
The company said at the time that it wanted to ensure the mine remained "viable" for its remaining years, and that it would nonetheless continue "looking for medium and long-term alternatives that would allow it to extend its mining operation beyond 2023."
Lorenzo Soto, a lawyer for the indigenous group, told Reuters on Thursday that water pumping to feed Cerro Colorado's operations had almost entirely dried out high-altitude wetlands around its operations in the Tarapaca region.
"We have been raising this for several years," he said. "The surrounding communities are victims of dust and noise emissions, and any water they have is contaminated."
He said the Supreme Court ruling was the culmination of a five-year legal battle.
"Cerro Colorado's environmental operating permit is annulled and, that permit being annulled, the company must stop," he said.