Saul Zeballos was born and raised in Jáchal, a community tucked into the foothills of the Andes in Argentina, drinking water from the river that bears the town’s name. That changed in 2005, when the Veladero gold and silver mine started operating in San Juan province.
A decade later, a major cyanide spill from the mine polluted the rivers in the San Juan region, raising fears it could affect waterways downstream in the Jáchal basin, although further studies have shown that cyanide levels remained at safe levels. Two further spills were reported in 2016 and 2017 and are still under investigation.
