In 2015, a cyanide solution spill at the Veladero gold mine, operated by Barrick Gold in Argentina’s San Juan province, contaminated local waterways and raised major environmental concerns. Authorities charged four officials in 2018 for failing to prevent the disaster, but as of 2025, no trial has occurred. Ricardo Villalba, the former director of IANIGLA, the national institute for glacier research, and former environment secretaries Omar Judis, Sergio Lorusso and Juan José Mussi were indicted for failing to oversee the National Glacier Inventory. According to court documents, many ice bodies that exist in the Lama-Veladero area, where Barrick Gold’s mine is located, were never inventoried, meaning they were never protected. The plaintiffs argued that had the inventory been completed properly, the Veladero mine would not have been allowed to operate and the cyanide spills would have been avoided. The officials are also charged with negligently withholding information and delaying the publication of the inventory, as well as postponing surveying work in the area near Barrick Gold’s mine. Community groups continue to demand accountability, while critics highlight the case as emblematic of regulatory weakness and corporate impunity in Argentina’s mining sector.