Argentine lawmakers have approved changes to a 2010 glacier protection law, opening areas previously off-limits to mining for gold, copper and other minerals. The move raises concerns among scientists about impacts on water supplies that support food production for hundreds of millions of people.
The amendment to Argentina's Glacier Law passed last month in the National Congress, following Senate approval in February. It eases restrictions that had defined the nation's 16,000 glaciers as public goods vital for freshwater, biodiversity and tourism.
The glaciers span 8,484 square kilometres in the Andean mountains. Deposits of gold, copper and molybdenum lie beneath some of them but could not be developed under the original rules.
Andres Folguera, a geology professor at the University of Buenos Aires, noted that the minerals remain unextracted because they threaten protected water resources or sit in hard-to-reach zones. Critics warn the changes could affect water sources linked to global food supplies for around 400 million people.
