Mitsubishi has decided to drop plans to build a massive salt
works in the Mexican desert because of concerns about its environmental
impact.
The Japanese group, which consists of 42 companies
involved in a range of activities from car making and chemicals to
construction, said it would not go ahead with the $120million Baja
California salt works project – which it had planned to develop with
the Mexican government – after a United Nations report found the scheme
would ‘damage the integrity’ of the surrounding landscape.
The project would have created the world’s largest salt works at Laguna
San Ignacio in the Vizcano Biosphere Reserve. Mitsubishi had been
working on the plans since 1994, but ran into opposition from a
coalition of 58 international environmental groups, and received
700,000 letters of protest.
Mitsubishi said it had decided
to heed a warning from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural organization (UNESCO), even though its own environmental study
concluded the project would have a small impact on the environment.
