Pascua Lama
Pascua-Lama is an open pit mining project of gold, silver, copper and other minerals. Pascua Lama is located in the Andes mountains, in the southern reaches of Atacama Desert, straddling the border between Chile and the Argentina Northwest at an altitude of over 4,500 metres. Toronto-based Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold mining company, is developing the project. Due to its proximity to glaciers, Pascua-Lama has caused controversy and public protest in Chile, including demonstrations and petitions presented to the Chilean government. Chile has not approved the project. Pascua-Lama contains estimated deposits of 17 million ounces of gold and 635 million ounces of silver, with 75 percent of the deposits in Chile and 25 percent in Argentina. As of late 2017, the Barrick project remains on hold. The company reported a U$5.1-billion impairment charge on the asset before suspending development in late 2013. Barrick had spent around US$5 billion of Pascua-Lama's reported US$8.5 billion capital expenditure at that time. Barrick said it is taking a "fresh look" at Pascua-Lama with the intention of developing a "scalable starter operation" that could be built underground in Argentina. The company is expected to release a prefeasibility study on the new plan by early