The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.
TIMMINS – A delegation of community members from villages in the Cusco Region of Peru were in Timmins last week to find out what it is like living in a community in close proximity to major mining operations.
The six different communities the delegates are adjusting to the copper mining operations in their region being conducted by the Canadian company, Hudbay Minerals. This is the second group Peruvians to come to Timmins to see first-hand how a community can coexist with the mining industry and all the opportunities and problems that come with it.
Christy Marinig, the chief executive officer of the Timmins Economic Development Corporation, which hosted the delegation, said the plan is to have two groups coming to Timmins every year for the next five years. The TEDC took on the role of bringing up groups from Peru after they were contacted by the Global Indigenous Trust, which was looking for a mining community to act as a role model.
“They want to see how mining is done in Canada and to use our community as a model for best practices as they develop their relationships with Hudbay Mineral in Peru,” explained Marinig.
This particular group of delegates were not mayors or other officials, but representatives of civil society such as student groups, women’s associations, institutes, and village elders.
Marinig said communities in Peru are given money by the mining companies for economic development, so one important part of the trip was to showcase the businesses in Timmins that supply the mining industry.
“They toured various sites such as The Bucket Shop and Microtech. They also toured Northern College, and did a workshop with the First Nation that has the reclamation site at Goldcorp,” said Marinig.
“They toured Goldcorp and were pretty amazed to see mining so close to the community that it was part of the community. The mine site in Peru is quite a few kilometres away.”
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