A mining referendum is a direct and universal vote in which an entire electorate is invited to vote on a

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

proposal. Mining referendums have been held in Tambo Grande, Peru in 2002,

Esquel Esquel is a town in the northwest of Chubut Province in Argentine Patagonia. It is located in Futaleufú Department, of which it is the government seat. Esquel is the home station for “La Trochita,” a historic narrow gauge railway known in En ...

, Argentina in 2003, and Cuenca, Ecuador in 2021. In each of the three cases the local community rejected the establishment of new mines in their territory. In 2022 activists in

Quito Quito (; ), officially San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city, capital and second-largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its metropolitan area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha Province, P ...

, Ecuador gathered 380,000 signatures to petition a mining referendum to block a mining project in the forests of Chocó Andino.

References

Referendums by issue

Referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

Environment {{mining-stub