(The Canadian Press) LIMA, Peru _ Peru's environment minister says the government has fined the owners of one of the world's largest zinc and copper mines $77,000 for a toxic slurry spill last year that sickened dozens of villagers.
Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal tells The Associated Press that the Antamina consortium was fined for infractions that included a delay in alerting authorities. Immediately after the July 25 spill, he had called for the maximum penalty of $13 million.
Pulgar-Vidal says that under standards set since the spill, Antamina would have faced a higher fine. The new rules set a maximum fine of $41 million for a single incident of environmental contamination.
Antamina's owners are BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE: BHP, Stock Forum), Glencore-Xstrata, Teck Resources Ltd. (TSX: T.TCK.A, Stock Forum) (TCK: T.TCK.B, Stock Forum), and Mitsubishi Corp.
The slurry caused nosebleeds, nausea, blurred vision and headaches. Some villagers complain of recurring symptoms.
Teck shares rose 0.72% to $27.82 Tuesday, leaving the company with a market cap of $15.9 billion, based on 570.7 million shares outstanding. The 52-week range is $38.13 and $24.10.