Plantel Los Angeles, a mixed capital company operating in Chontales, Nicaragua, plans to invest $25 million in the construction of three new raw gold processing plants.
The company, which will invest in the new processing plants, caters exclusively to producers who are classified as artisanal miners. The announcement of these projects comes in the context of the increase in gold exports, since between January 2020 and the same month of 2021, Nicaraguan sales abroad went from $50.6 million to $60.8 million.
Following the ruling of the Constitutional Court, the Ministry of Energy and Mines decided to temporarily suspend the rights of the Fenix mining company, located in El Estor, department of Izabal.
Condor Gold, a British company that for 14 years has carried out exploration work in the province of León, in Nicaragua, announced that in 2021 it will invest in the construction of a metal processing plant.
According to company executives, the new industrial plant to be located in the municipality of Santa Rosa del Penon, will have the capacity to process 1,500 tons per day and the company is expected to start exporting by 2022.
After the Constitutional Court decided to keep the "Extracción Minera Fénix" project suspended, the private sector is asking the authorities to start the community consultation process as soon as possible, in an objective and clear way.
The operations of the mine located in the department of Izabal were suspended since July 2019 as a result of a legal appeal filed by a group of neighbors, who argued that the community consultation process for the operation of the mining project had not been exhausted.
The Constitutional Court decided to keep the "Extracción Minera Fénix" project, located in the department of Izabal, suspended and ordered the community consultation process to be carried out within 18 months.
Minera Panama filed a protection action, because since April 6 the Ministry of Health ordered the closure of the Donoso mining project, for reporting an outbreak of covid-19 among the company's staff.
The Ministry of Health (Minsal) suspended the activities of the mining project located in the province of Colon, after several workers became infected with covid-19 and two of them died from the virus.
Between January and November 2019, mining sector exports totaled $153 million, 16% less than what was reported in the same period in 2018.
Exports of mining activity recorded a value of $152.8 million, $27.6 million below what was observed in November 2018, as a result of the reduction of $17.4 million in shipments of zinc, related to the fall in price and volume exported, also, gold sales showed a decrease of $6.7 million, resulting from operational problems in some of the extracting companies, informed the Central Bank of Honduras.
Inversiones Los Pinares, in charge of building an iron oxide mine in Tocoa, Honduras, plans to begin exporting to the U.S. market in late 2020 or early 2021.
Representatives of the company informed that currently the construction works of the plant are carried out where the iron oxide that will be extracted from the mine will be processed and also warehouses, administrative offices and other enclosures are built.
The amendments to the law stipulate that prior to the request for exploitation, the mining authority shall require the municipal corporation to conduct a citizen consultation within a period not exceeding 90 days, and the decision adopted shall be binding for the granting of the concession.
If the result of the citizens' consultation is to oppose the exploitation, it cannot be carried out again after one year, prior to the installation of a social development table, the approved text specifies.
The Guatemalan Nickel Company announced that it will go to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to request precautionary measures in response to the local authorities' decision to suspend operations at the Fénix mine in Izabal.
The temporary suspension of the exploitation right license of the Fénix mining company, operated by Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel, in the department of Izabal, is reported.
After a group of neighbors claimed before the Supreme Court of Justice that for the mining project concerned, the community consultation process was not exhausted, in February of this year an injunction was granted in favor of the plaintiffs, but the company's operations were not suspended.
The arbitration panel was formed to hear the lawsuit against the State of Guatemala, which was filed because of the suspension of the operations of the El Tambor mine, in San José del Golfo and San Pedro Ayampuc.
After the arbitration claim was filed by the Americans Daniel W. Kappes, Kappes, Cassidy & Associates before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on December 11, 2018, the body announced that the panel was formed.
In Panama, the Canadian company First Quantum, owner of the copper mine in the province of Colon, sent the first vessel with 31,200 tons of copper.
The Panamanian mine whose construction began in 2013 and demanded about $6.3 billion investment, expects to export 320 thousand tons of copper concentrate per year, announced from the beginning of the year that in June would begin to export its product.
Canada's First Quantum, owner of the copper mine in the province of Colon, Panama, plans to begin exports by the middle of this year.
The Panamanian mine, whose construction began in 2013 and demanded a $6.3 billion investment, expects to export 320,000 tons of copper concentrated per year.
Pan American Silver agreed to acquire the shares of Canadian Tahoe Resources, thus becoming the owner of the Mina San Rafael project in Guatemala.
With no details on the transaction amount, it was reported that the agreement between the two companies was approved on January 8, 2019 and is expected to be finalized on February 26.