The Muhaida Bell Project was initially developed by the Provincial Corporation Mining Corporation of Neuquén (Cormine), which left environmental liabilities of the previous exploitation, of copper, which affect the daily life of the Mapuche communities that live that territory. In 2008, the company China MCC (Metallurgical Construction Corporation) intended to continue with an exploration program, with the support of the provincial government, but had a strong resistance from local communities, which had already rejected another metalliferous project (Lonco), in Lancoopué. The project had been exploited in the Cerro Three Tips, sacred place from the Mapuche indigenous worldview. To the already shaped Aval (Assembly of autoconvocados neighbors of Loncopué) joined the Assembly of Autoconvocated Neighbors of Bell Mahuida (Avacam), and the Mapuche Mellao Morales community, since the mining project was intended to settle in its territory, without having made the consultation , mandatory according to the legislation in force in the country. Local institutions were also added, such as the hospital, the presence of teachers favored that the issue was present in schools, and rural cranks and associations were also adding up. The local parish was constituted in a meeting place and information collection on the subject, and the national team of the aboriginal pastoral (Endepa) provided advice to the Mapuche community, who initiated a judicial cause for the lack of prior consultation.

The project was temporarily stopped by Amparo resources, which prevented the realization of the public audience of the project, because previous information had not been provided on it to the local population. Marches and other activities were performed on LancoPué. Finally, in 2009, and before a context of escalation of the conflict, which already had environmental organizations and human rights agencies by supporting the struggle of Loncopué in Neuquén, the provincial capital, the Superior Court of Justice (TSJ) of Neuquén was issued. The TSJ returned the First Instance court, because it had not followed the appropriate way, but it took the precautionary measure of suspending the entire administrative process until the resolution of the trial determining whether the Cormine with MCC was legal or illegal. With this decision, not only the public hearing was suspended, but the whole process.

Subsequently, the movements of Loncopué decided to carry out a consultation to the population, to PLASMAR The "Non-Mine" from an ordinance (municipal law) that prevented the realization of mining activities in the municipal ejido. In this referendum voted 72% of the registered people, from which 82% voted for the YES to the Ordinance. Unlike the plebiscite of Esquel (Chubut), the first popular consultation on the installation of a mining project in Argentina, and the second in Latin America after Tambograde (Peru), in the case of Loncoopué the consultation was binding, that is, if Half plus one of the register voted by the yes, the preliminary draft became ordinance, as happened.