Codelco to hand over 24,000 hectares for glacier park

Chilean state-owned mining firm Codelco will give up some 24,000 hectares of land it holds concessions to near the Andes mountain range for a new national glacier park, the chair of the board announced on Monday.

The move is “a strategic initiative to face the challenges of climate change,” Codelco chair Maximo Pacheco said at an event.

The Chilean government announced the park in mid-August, aiming to protect more than 300 of the ice formations which bring water to a large part of the Santiago region.

The glacier park sits along the upper part of the Olivares and Colorado river basins, to the east of the capital.

The South American country’s deputy environment minister Maximiliano Proano said the stage.mining.company’s move will help develop the second phase of the project.

However, the local unit of German construction material firm Knauf is looking to develop a new plaster project in the area, which faces opposition from social and environmental groups.

(By Fabian Andres Cambero and Valentine Hilaire; Editing by Josie Kao)