At last the Constitutional Court of Guatemala has spoken about the operation of Minera San Rafael, which has been paralyzed for more than a year, ordering a community consultation as a requirement to resume operations.
The project has been halted since mid-2017, when the environmental organization Calas filed an application for a declaration of fundamental rights against the mine, arguing that the Ministry of Energy and Mines had not carried out the community consultations before authorizing the operation licenses.
The Constitutional Court has confirmed the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice, which last June suspended the operating licenses of the Escobal mine, run by Minera San Rafael.
In its resolution, the Constitutional Court argued that"... when the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) authorized the operations, it denied the existence of the Xinca group and did not consult them about the work they would do."
The increase in sales of lead abroad has been attributed to the shipments that have begun from the Escobal mine, belonging to Canada's Tahoe Resources.
Lead exports increased by $141 million between January and May this year compared to the same period last year, according to the Central Bank of Guatemala.
Fernando Castellanos, Head of the Mining Department of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, told Prensalibre.com that "...
In the first quarter sales abroad of lead totaled $83 million, due to the operation of the San Rafael mine, which extracts silver, lead, zinc and gold.
In eighth place out of the top 25 export products of the country, foreign sales of lead in the first three months of 2014 were equivalent to $83 million, while in the same period in 2013 the figure was just $1.5 million , according to the Bank of Guatemala.
The Canadian company Tahoe Resources, which owns the Escobal silver mine, has announced that it has all of the funding and the project will start on time.
According to plan, the mine should begin operating in early 2014 and produce 317 million ounces of silver for 18 years, said Kevin McArthur, CEO of Tahoe.
The company said the project remains within the $326 million budget and that the initiative "is fully funded, we also have a significant reserve." At the end of 2011 the company had $350 million available in cash.
Following the announcement about the increase of 144% in reserve estimates at the Guatemalan mine, Tahoe Resources closed $ 303 million in stock sales.
The purchase was made by a group of investors led by GMP Securities.
The share offer is to be completed by December 24th. If buyers execute an option to purchase another 3.3 million shares, Tahoe Resources will add another $ 45 million to resources available for project development.
Minning project Escobal could rival Mexico's Fresnillo, the largest silver mine of the world.
The Escobal silver project in Guatemala may one day equal the Fresnillo mine – the world's biggest producer of the precious metal – Tahoe Resources CEO Kevin McArthur said on Monday.
The company has drawn up a mine development timetable that would result in first production from Escobal in late 2013, he said in a presentation at the Denver Gold Forum, which was broadcast over the Internet.
Goldcorp INC. announced today the completion of its sale of the Escobal silver deposit in Guatemala to Tahoe Resources Inc. ("Tahoe").
Pursuant to the terms of the transaction, Goldcorp received an aggregate of 43,686,667 common shares of Tahoe, representing 40% of Tahoe's issued and outstanding common shares on a fully-diluted basis and $253 million in cash.