MACDESA

MACDESA is located in the village of Cuatro Horas, in the province of Caravelí in the department of Arequipa, Southern Perú. Its origins go back to 1997 when informal artisanal miners, having walked for four hours (cuatro horas) from the road into the desert looking for a place to mine, finally found a vein of gold. They started mining informally, but due to an ongoing conflict with the concession holder, the Southern Mining Company, they decided to become an organised association of artisanal miners in 2004, first as ASPROMAC and later as ADEMIC. However, as a non-profit association they could not gain access to legal mining titles under Peruvian law and so formed the MACDESA Company, resuming negotiations with the concession holder. They subsequently signed a transfer contract with the Southern Mining Company, which grants rights for the mine’s useful life in exchange for payment of 6% royalties after discounting the production costs. MACDESA now has additional mining rights over a further 400 hectares, for which they pay the State US$1 per hectare annually, based on their status as artisanal miners.

MACDESA was initially founded by 478 artisanal community miner shareholders. Currently there are 388 shareholders of whom four are women. The shareholders are organised into four working groups of self-employed miners, each comprised of 90 to 100 people.  The producer partner groups are:

• Los Verdugos
• Amigos Unidos
• Sarita Colonia
• Vírgen de Chapi

There is a different arrangement with a group called “Los Magníficos” who are not shareholders of MACDESA, but have a transparent agreement with the company. A women miners’ organisation also works closely with MACDESA, who has increasingly recognised their work and facilitated safe and fair arrangements for them in its mining area, and now processes their ore. (See profile for Asociación de Pallaqueras of Cuatro Horas.)

Each producer partner organisation in MACDESA mines different areas of the hard rock mine.  Altogether, they process some 400 tons of mineral monthly, which produces an average 11kg of gold, and a total of 140kg of gold annually. The four groups plus the contracted workers pool the monthly mineral production and process it in MACDESA's agitation and leaching plant producing activated carbon (carbon which has absorbed the gold). Until recently it was then transported to desorption plants in Lima, however, since March 2009 the MACDESA Company processes and refines the entire extracted mineral, which it sells as fine gold bars. They enforce strict environmental controls at their cyanidation plant, which is run by trained personnel.

After the product is sold, the income is used to cover the production expenses, social security services and a percentage is saved for subsequent investments. The remainder is then divided into equal parts and shared between the producer partner groups.   All shareholders have equal rights and obligations as set out in the company’s by-laws, and they hold assemblies at least once a year. The company has a formal accounting system, declaring its annual and monthly income, and paying its taxes in accordance with the current legislation.

MACDESA’s main challenges focus on health and safety in the mines, working to raise awareness and develop stricter controls, especially in the safe management of explosives, use of safety equipment and improvement of drilling expertise. In terms of the miners, MACDESA is gradually enlisting all of them onto the payroll.  It is also seeking to establish working capital and access to credit in order to improve overall production efficiency, provide training in business management and achieve better trading expertise. Since beginning to work towards certification, they have stopped whole ore amalgamation, become increasingly organised, strengthened health and safety, built their own carbon desorption plant and enhanced their contributions to improve the quality of life in Cuatro Horas.

MACDESA is affiliated to AMASUC (Regional Association of Artisanal Mineral Producers of Central and Southern Perú) and to the recently created organisation SONAMIPES (National Association of Artisanal Miners of Perú). The miners of MACDESA founded the village of Cuatro Horas in the middle of the Atacama Desert, where access to water and government services was limited. They have since been recognised as a centro poblado (legal settlement) by the national government, and play a key role in local development:

• They subsidise electricity 24 hours a day at minimum cost.
• They provide the water supply for the town.
• They pay for maintenance and salaries relating to a medical service, as well as the supply of medications for the workers and the community.
• They finance the maintenance of a day-care and elementary school facility as well as the salaries of seven teachers.
• The sporting facilities for volleyball and soccer were built by the company and are available for use by the whole community as recreation spaces.
• They have financed the construction of a Catholic chapel for the Virgin of Chapi.
• They finance the security and safety systems of both the mine and the village.
• They pay the salary of the governing lieutenant and the sheriff of the community.
• They support health and safety procedures in particular projects for women miners.
• They finance two trucks that collect the waste in the town.

MACDESA represents a livelihood opportunity for 388 shareholders and their families, 40 contracted workers and the pallaqueras (mostly women mineral selectors), who depend directly of the existence of the mine. Many others benefit indirectly from the economic activity generated by mining.  These include restaurants, boarding houses, traders, transporters, teachers, a doctor, nurses, mining equipment specialists and shops. In Cuatro Horas a total of 550 families have found a place to build their lives and raise their children.