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Anglo's Los Bronces fined $6.2 million for Chile environmental breaches


    SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Anglo American PLC's Los Bronces copper mine was being fined 3.8 billion pesos ($6.24 million) over infractions that include acid drainage at a tailings deposit, Chile's environmental regulator said on Tuesday.

    It also ordered the closure of that deposit until "a definitive solution that permits the adequate drainage of acids generated by the project is implemented," the regulator said in a statement.

    Los Bronces, perched high in the Andes near Santiago, produced 416,300 tonnes of red metal in 2013, roughly 7 percent of world No.1 copper producer CHILE (CHILE.CHL)(CHILE.CHL)(CHILE.84)s overall output.

    An Anglo American spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.

    The regulator said the project had committed a number of infractions relating to forest management and to the tailings deposit, including one that had caused irreparable damage to surrounding land.

    "The situation relating to acid drainage has been in place for over nine years without the company having addressed the issue in the indicated way," the regulator said.

    As protests increase against resources projects that communities see as polluting, the Chilean regulator has been showing its teeth, issuing a series of fines for environmental infractions.

    (Reporting by Rosalba O'Brien; Editing by Grant McCool)