Mexican government criminally charges mining conglomerate | News

In the usual press conference of the Mexican Government, the Secretary of the Environment, María Luisa Albores, announced this Thursday that Grupo México, a mining, construction, engineering, infrastructure and transportation conglomerate, was criminally sued for not complying with its commitment to environmental correction to the Sonora River.

READ ALSO:

Death toll from climate phenomena in Mexico rises to five

The Mexican authority declared that the company has done nothing to alleviate the consequences of the chemical spill that occurred in 2014 in that river. "On August 17, we filed a criminal complaint against Grupo México because it has not complied with environmental remediation," said Albores.

The incident occurred on August 6, 2014, when 40,000 cubic meters of acidulated copper sulfate were spilled into the Tinajas stream, directly impacting the Sonora and Bacanuchi riverbeds.

"This is considered the worst environmental disaster in the history of metal mining in Mexico," declared Albores, who confirmed "that the disaster was not an accident, it was negligence. (…) There are still effects on the health of nearby communities and there was never any remediation after the environmental disaster. (…) It is the company who must compensate for this environmental damage.”

Although the environmental authority did not add other details about the judicial process, it said that the new agreement should be the repair, now complete, of all the conditions of that region.

Days ago, the conglomerate had issued a statement announcing that the remediation of the Sonora River had been “successful” and that the ecosystems of the Bacanuchi and Sonora rivers were not “affected.”

Grupo México is one of the largest copper producers in the world and also has operations in the infrastructure and transportation sectors. After the Government's complaint became known, the company's shares fell around 3.1 percent, their lowest price since January of this year.