Chile’s Environmental Judges Step Aside in Barrick Mine Case After Leak
CHILE · MINING AND THE COURTS
Key Facts
- —The country Chile, the world’s largest copper producer, has specialised environmental courts that hear challenges to mining and energy permits.
- —Why it matters The case concerns El Alto, a US$35 million Barrick Gold drilling project on the site of Pascua Lama, a gold mine Chile ordered permanently closed in 2018.
- —What happened On Wednesday 23 September the court’s website announced a ruling against the project’s opponents, then removed it. On 24 September all three judges recused themselves.
- —Who is involved Diaguita indigenous communities and Alto del Carmen residents challenging the permit, and Compañía Minera Nevada, the Barrick subsidiary behind El Alto.
- —What it means for you The cases move to a second court in Santiago. For mining investors, it adds delay and scrutiny to one of Chile’s most contested sites.
- —Still open Who published the note, whether the ruling had actually been taken, and how the Santiago court will decide.
All three judges of Chile’s First Environmental Tribunal have stepped aside from one of the country’s most contested mining cases. The Antofagasta-based court hears challenges to environmental permits in northern Chile.
They withdrew after the court’s own website announced a decision missing from the case file. BioBioChile, which broke the story, called it unprecedented.
A ruling posted before it was filed
On the afternoon of Wednesday 23 September, the tribunal’s website said it had rejected requests to suspend the project’s environmental permit. According to BioBioChile, no resolution backing that note was in the case file.
The note was removed hours later, El Desconcierto and Nueva Minería reported. On 24 September the court’s president, Alamiro Alfaro Zepeda, and judges Sandra Álvarez Torres and Marcelo Hernández Rojas recused themselves.
All three cited the same legal ground: having already expressed a view on a pending question. Under Law 20.600, which created the environmental courts, the cases passed to the Second Environmental Tribunal in Santiago.
Asked by Nueva Minería, the tribunal declined to comment beyond the case file. It said it had tightened its rules on communicating decisions.
Why the El Alto project is contested
El Alto belongs to Compañía Minera Nevada, a Barrick Gold subsidiary. It plans 62 drill holes from 43 platforms at about 4,000 metres in the Atacama region. It will cost US$35 million.
The ground is that of Pascua Lama, a Barrick gold project halted in 2013 over water discharges and glacier monitoring failures. Chile’s environmental regulator ordered it permanently closed in 2018 (background: Barrick Eyes Copper in Chile After Pascua Lama Closure).
Diaguita indigenous communities and local residents have filed several challenges to El Alto’s permit, El Desconcierto reported. BioBioChile reported that they see it as a new attempt to work a site that must close.
Questions over the court official
The challengers also question the case rapporteur, the court official who prepares the file, Álvaro Funes Palacios. BioBioChile reported that he spent five years as head of legal affairs at Minera Zaldívar, which Barrick half-owns.
Bruno Barrientos, a lawyer for the Diaguita Alta Cordillera community, questioned his assignment to the case. El Desconcierto stressed that the documents it reviewed establish no wrongdoing or proven conflict of interest.
What Is Not Yet Known
It is not known who posted the note, or whether the judges had actually reached that decision.
It is also unclear when the Santiago court will rule on the requests to suspend the permit. Barrick had not commented publicly in the coverage so far.
BioBioChile also reported that the Santiago court’s president, Marcela Godoy, is married to Minera Zaldívar’s legal manager. El Desconcierto noted that this does not in itself disqualify her.
Sources: BioBioChile (via Fundación Terram), 27 September 2026, El Desconcierto, 28 September 2026, Nueva Minería y Energía, El Ciudadano, 27 September 2026, Diario y Radio Universidad de Chile, 27 September 2026. Earlier coverage: Barrick Gold’s epilogue in Chile and complications in the Pascua Lama closure.
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