Sustainability

Corani Communities: A Sustainable Future

Bear Creek Mining has developed a unique model of social relationships at the Corani Project. This model recognizes the inherent, unbreakable connection local residents have to the culture and traditions, social structures, geography and resources inherent to the area. Oue approach is based on a collaborative relationship where local organizations and community members identify their own priorities for growth and opportunity, share the responsibility for enacting them, and take pride in the outcomes.

Our role in this model is to support communities. We do this by:

• Helping to identify potential avenues for new or enhanced economic opportunities that are based on existing community strengths, existing occupations and local resources, the success of which is not tied to the proposed Corani mine.
• Providing scientific and technical resources to develop these opportunities.
• Facilitating connections with third parties that can contribute to community efforts to improve their quality of life and to the success of their ventures.
• Advocating for government resources focused on health and education, to which rural populations are entitled, be directed to local communities.

Our measure of success with the Corani community program is that local residents achieve real, measurable, sustainable advancements in health and education outcomes, and develop practical, local and culturally relevant economic opportunities, with sufficient improvements to family incomes and quality of life that their long-term success is not dependent on the Corani mine.

Maximizing Value of Alpaca

The raising of alpaca has deep cultural roots as the traditional occupation of the Andean Quechua people, and provides both a source of food and revenue, from the sale of alpaca fiber and fiber products, for most families in the Corani-area villages of Chacaconiza and Quelcaya.

We work closely with the alpaca farmers in the project area for two purposes: to ensure our activities related to the Corani project do not negatively interfere with their alpaca herds, and to help support opportunities for farmers to maximize the benefits their herds provide.

The following are some of the many highly successful community-led initiatives that we helped to support.

Alpaca breeding programs

Creating Exquisite Alpaca Products

Artisans from the communities of Chacaconiza and Quelcaya have formed a fair-trade cooperative company named Quechua Alpaca to create, market, and sell fine alpaca garments and products. Quechua Alpaca collaborates with local farmers via the Corani Alpaca Program to source raw alpaca fiber, works with a commercial partner to wash and process the fiber and uses the resulting product to spin yarn and create alpaca fibre clothing and accessories for commercial sale. With support from Bear Creek, Quechua Alpaca artisans have the use of production workshop space in both Chacaconiza and Quelcaya that is outfitted with the materials and tools required to create their products.

Quechua Alpaca and its artisan partners receive frequent and ongoing training on maintaining and applying “Good Fair-Trade Practices”.

In 2018, the International Alpaca Association granted Quechua Alpaca the right to use the prestigious “Alpaca Mark” on their products, certifying the cooperative’s compliance with IAA regulations and high-quality standards.

Visit www.quechualpaca.com to learn more about Quechua Alpaca and view their catalogue.

Developing Novel Ideas at the Corani Technical Innovation Center

The Corani Technical Innovation Center (“CTIC”) was created to cultivate opportunities for economic diversification and skills training, using local natural resources wherever possible. CTIC is a space where youth from the Corani area have an opportunity to imagine, develop, test, and produce products and solutions that address real-world problems, and where they can consider careers in science, technology, engineering and math. With access to fully equipped lab space, 3D printers, and skilled teachers, the CTIC has been extremely successful in incubating new, sustainable economic opportunities and in demonstrating that the local economy can be diversified.

One of the many innovations developed at the CTIC is a technique to incorporate silver nanoparticles into alpaca fiber to create clothing with natural antibacterial properties. This technique was then enhanced to create “smart” clothes – silver-imbibed alpaca fiber sweaters with sensors that can monitor the wearer’s location and health conditions such as temperature, heart rate and respiration. These smart garments are being field tested by the Peruvian military, and in 2016, Corani area community members were invited by the Government of Peru to participate in the Peruvian Independence Day parade wearing these smart clothes – a great honor granted for the first time to a Peruvian community group.

Watch a video of the event!

Using Local Resources to Create Local Solutions

Ichu Grass

Ichu is a grass native to the Andean altiplano. It grows abundantly in the area of the Corani project where it has traditionally served as fodder for alpaca and other livestock. As it turns out, Ichu grass also has incredible thermal conductivity properties and offers protection from UV radiation.

The many potentially beneficial properties of Ichu grass are being investigated at the CTIC and are yielding very exciting results.

Owing to its extraordinary ability to retain heat, Ichu grass has been used at the CTIC to develop insulative building panels, which are now being widely utilized in local communities to improve the insulation in homes and barns, providing obvious health benefits to families and livestock. The CTIC then designed and has now built several prototypes of a domed dwelling using these Ichu grass panels. The design of this structure is entirely self-sustainable – they are able to generate their own energy and water and process organic waste. These domed buildings are being considered as housing options at the Corani mine and have generated interest from third parties as they are suitable for high altitude and remote locations.

Using Ichu grass and other native plants and herbs, a number of health and wellness products have been developed at the CTIC including sunscreen made from naturally zinc-rich Ichu grass extract; analgesic ointment made from Sallika; and shampoo made from the mineral-rich Huichullo root. These products are currently undergoing efficacy and safety tests at accredited third-party facilities.

On the horizon are CTIC projects to develop Ichu grass-based fabrics for use where exposure to extreme temperatures and UV radiation must be mitigated…like space!

CTIC research into the uses of Ichu grass was recently profiled in the MIT Technology Review, Spanish edition. Read the article here.