An international group of scientists have taken action across the world to challenge a major extractivist project that’s set to endanger the health and livelihoods of local communities in southwest Peru. To mark World Water Day 2025 on 22 March, activists from Scientist Rebellion mobilised a range of global actions in solidarity with communities fighting the impending river pollution-disaster, the Tia María copper mine in the agricultural Tambo Valley.
Tia María mine: a river pollution disaster waiting to happen
Communities have been fighting the controversial Tia María copper mine for over 15 years. Crucially, local Indigenous residents have voiced overwhelming opposition to the project that will pollute rivers and endanger their agricultural subsistence and livelihoods.
Southern Copper, a subsidiary of US-registered corporation Grupo Mexico is the company pushing forward the project.
As Mongabay previously reported:
Over 96% of residents in the districts of Cocachacra, Punta de Bombón and Deán Valdivia voted against the mine in a September 2009 popular consultation. They feel that they’ve taken a clear stance on the project each time it’s been attempted, but officials aren’t listening.
In 2011, the project was suspended after a U.N. agency reviewed the plans for the mine and issued 138 recommendations to address environmental and social concerns. Communities organized marches in response to the U.N. findings, resulting in the death of three people during clashes with law enforcement.
When officials tried reviving the project again in 2015, residents declared an indefinite strike with support from several local mining unions. It led to more clashes with law enforcement that saw seven people killed and over a hundred injured.
However, despite this drawn-out battle against it, in July 2024, Peru’s government greenlit the project once more.
Now, despite popular opposition, the Minister of Energy and Mines of Perú Jorge Montero has announced that Grupo Mexico could start construction of the Tia María mine as early as August or September 2025.
World Water Day 2025: NO to polluting mining projects
Given all this, scientists around the world carried out a global day of action against the development on World Water Day 2025:
📣 THIS WEEKEND on 21 and 22 March 2025 we start the global Tia Maria campaign. Why? #TiaMariaNoVa pic.twitter.com/jStTnjHp9I
— Scientist Rebellion (@ScientistRebel1) March 19, 2025
📍Tia Maria is a copper mining project that Southern Copper and Grupo Mexico Peru, Inc want to start in Peru this year. The mine site is on the Coast of the Pacific Ocean of South America, in the Islay province of Peru. pic.twitter.com/1i8AHFuvUQ
— Scientist Rebellion (@ScientistRebel1) March 19, 2025
Activists in Peru, Mexico, Germany, and the US have initiated a wide range of actions, such as banner drops and street protests. They also launched a digital campaign – sending letter to political representatives and to the companies itself.
The international community participating in the actions, support the demand from the local protest against the Tia Maria mine: YES TO AGRO, NO TO MINE. They are calling for the definitive closure of Tia María mine.
The group intends to continue taking action against the mine in the coming months. They aim to hold Grupo Mexico, stakeholders, governments, and the United Nations to account for the high risks the project poses on local communities and the environment, including:
- Endangering original local people that have been opposing the mine for years. Their struggle has already caused too many casualties of defenders of water and the territory.
- Storing 208,000 m3 of toxic liquid wastes with acids and cobalt in leaching ponds located above the towns, valley and river.
- Intense infrastructure restructuring in a region dependent on currently flourishing agriculture (e.g. water pipeline, railway, tension electric lines, water pumps)
Grupo Mexico: US company soon to wreak havoc in Peru
Of course, Scientists Rebellion have also highlighted the Grupo Mexico’s abysmal record wrecking the environment and harming local communities elsewhere.
History has proven that disaster is right around the corner. In 2014, the Buenavista del Cobre copper mine in Mexico – also owned by Grupo Mexico – was responsible for a gargantuan spill of acid toxic residues. It was branded “the worst ecocide in the history of Mexico”.
In Tia María Peru, a spill would be much worse than the one in Mexico, because human settlements are situated between the toxic ponds and the river. Every ton of copper – 100,000 per year is planned – the Tia María mine would produce, means putting the population and ecosystem at significant risk. Moreover, the group has underscored its climate costs, articulating that high consumption level of energy for the operation would generate significant emissions to boot.
Dr Isaac Santoyo, a professor doing research on the health effects of living close to mines, said:
The mine is dependent on official subsidies, which also feeds the image of sustainability they like to portray publicly. However, to even look into the report about the mine, you have to pay $2,250. We are funding our own collapse and are not even able to look into the reports that track it. We have seen similar occurrences time and time again and we will not accept another ecological and social disaster to unravel further.
Echoing this, Dr Ornela De Gasperin Quintero from Scientist Rebellion called for immediate action against the polluting project:
In times of ecological and social crises, we do not need more production. We need redistribution. There are many well-researched alternative economic models, such as the degrowth model, that we can implement. However, politicians remain focused on growing profit instead of on life. We need to stand up against further extractivism and prioritise life! Everyone can join actions to put as much political pressure as possible before the planned opening of the mine in August or September. You can help by writing to officials, contacting local newspapers, organising and joining demonstrations, spreading stickers and banners and sharing the call to action in any shape that fits you best.
Featured image supplied
