In the nineties a village in Costa Rica was populated by dreams of a promising future driven by the exploitation of a gold mine. Today there are only 27 inhabitants, left without hope.
EDITORIAL
An article on Nacion.com reports on the ups and downs of the gold mine project in Crucitas, in Costa Rica, which eventually fell through because environmental forces prevailed over sustainable development, leaving a long series of damages to the country in terms of confidence in the security of investments, tax losses, and mainly in the hopes of human beings who believed in and supported the mine being a catalyst for progress in the area. As usually happens, the only winners were the lawyers who litigated and continue litigating for both sides.
In its initial ministerial meeting, the new government issued a decree imposing an indefinite moratorium on all forms of gold mining.
The moratorium will apply on gold metal, “exploration, exploitation and benefitting from materials extracted using cyanide or mercury”. It will become active once published in the official government gazette.
The new decree does not affect those permits granted to Industrias Infitino for Crucitas Mine, currently at the center of a hotly debated legal dispute.