Glacier law comes into effect Supreme Court revoked
precautionary measures that suspended application of the law. On
July 3, the Supreme Court of Justice, or CSJ, lifted the
suspensions of National Law 26.639 for the Protection of
Glaciers and Periglacial Environments, which had been approved
in 2010 but later suspended in response to lawsuits presented by
mining companies, including the Canadian company Barrick. The
court revoked precautionary measures granted by a federal court
in the northwest province of San Juan and ordered a National
Glacier Inventory as well as obligatory studies on environmental
impact. With these precautionary measures, Barrick and the
company Exploraciones Mineras Argentinas, which run the
controversial Pascua-Lama and Veladero projects in San Juan, had
stopped the application of the law that protects glaciers and
periglacial environments as strategic water reserves, and
imposes restrictions on open-pit mining. The companies pointed
out the “irreparable damages” to their interests a