Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Uruguay hopes new pulp mill won't create rifts with Argentina

After news broke that the Uruguayan government authorized the installation of a new pulp mill on the River Plate next to the town of Colonia, Deputy Secretary of Environment, Jorge Patrone, said he hoped such decision “would not created a new diplomatic conflict with their neighbouring country.”

“The mill falls under the River Plate treaty, but environmental demands will be the same that we have set in place in the River Uruguay. Our demands are in sync with those set in place on a global scale, just like the ones put in place towards the former Botnia pulp mill,” he explained.  

Mr. Patrone added that Uruguayan President José Mujica’s administration “is confident there will not be any conflict with Argentina.”

“This project was authorized some time ago, even after relocating it to an area closet o Botnia. So we hope there will not be any problem.”

The Uruguayan government granted the Montes del Plata consortium with a permit to start building the new pulp mill in the small tourist town of Colonia.  

“We first made new studies to in order to analyze the kind of environmental impact the mill would have. When results came back positive, we gave the project the go-ahead.”

The new plant is expected to employ over 6,000 people and is set to open in 2013.