Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Nación, 04/24/2012, “Vargas, Ricardo Marcelo v. Province of San Juan et al. / daño ambiental”

The plaintiff filed a lawsuit over environmental damage against Barrick Exploraciones Argentinas S.A., Exploraciones Mineras Argentinas S.A. and the Province of San Juan, in order to (a) have the defendants, who hold the concession of the Pascua Lama project, hire an insurance that guarantees that damage at the project is repaired; (b) obtain through the National Secretary of Environment an assessment of the environment on the project area; and (c) have the defendants condemned to repair the environmental damage. The Court, prior to issuing a decision on the case, required the Province of San Juan to submit within a 20-day term a copy of the environmental impact statement for the project’s exploration stage. Also, it required the Federal Government to inform within the same term about the performance of an environmental impact assessment at the time the Additional Protocol to the Mining Integration and Complementation Treaty for Pascua Lama project was signed, in 2004.