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At the forefront of the legal battle against Cerro Matoso SA are former miners who suffer the health consequences of the mine’s activities. Víctor Pineda worked for decades in the transformation of ferronickel and continues to ask in vain that the company compensate the damage to his health.
Angélica Pérez and Aabla Jounaïdi
“We were exposed to extreme temperatures and carcinogenic substances,” says Víctor Pineda, who for 20 years worked in the nickel ore transformation area at Cerro Matoso SA However, in his occupational health history “It doesn’t say anywhere that I was exposed, not even to carbon monoxide“, the ex-miner we met in his house in a working-class neighborhood of Montería, capital of the department of Córdoba, told us angrily.
The burning of coal -reducer of oxides- is the base of the industrial process of Cerro Matoso. The mined ore must be heated to at least 900 degrees Celsius before being melted down again to obtain ferronickel. This is where fine particles, gases, and dust combine at extremely high temperatures, turning the work area into hell on earth.
After years of working under these conditions, Víctor Pineda began to suffer daily from strange dizziness. Medical tests revealed what is known as “dysautonomia of the sympathetic nervous system,” a cardiovascular disease that requires him to take seven drugs a day to regulate his heart rate and anxiety disorders. “The same anxiety that Cerro Matoso SA caused me doesn’t give me a minute to rest in my fight with the company for justice to be done,” he tells us with a broken voice before unleashing tears.
In 2012, Victor and 69 colleagues took legal action to have their health problems recognized as occupational diseases. But in the absence of a professional medical file that mentions occupational hazards, those actions failed. The complaints were rejected one after another. For its part, the company affirms that it does not use “any carcinogenic substance” for humans in the mine.
