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.
Representatives of the El Tambor mine, located in San José del Golfo and San Pedro Ayampuc, filed a $300 million lawsuit against the State of Guatemala.
The arbitration lawsuit was filed by the Americans Daniel W. Kappes, Kappes, Cassidy & Associates, which was registered by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) last December 11th.
One year after the suspension of operations at the El Escobal mining project in Guatemala, the company is still waiting for a definitive judicial decision from the Constitutional Court.
In May 2018, the Legal, Environmental and Social Action Center of Guatemala (Calas) filed an appeal for legal protection, arguing that the Ministry of Energy and Mines had not carried out the necessary community consultations before authorizing the licenses.
Industrialists are demanding that the Constitutional Court rule on the request for legal protection that was granted in favor of an environmental group and which is keeping the mine's operations in a state of paralysis.
The project has been paralyzed since an environmental organization filed an request for legal protection against the mine, arguing that the Ministry of Energy and Mines did not carry out the necessary community consultations before authorizing the licenses.
After seven months of suspended operations, the company that operates the Escobal mine in Guatemala has announced that it is making 250 workers redundant.
Minera San Rafael will have to cease operations after its two operating licenses were suspended as a result of a writ of protection granted by the Supreme Court of Justice to an environmental group.
Prensalibre.com reports that "...The licenses for El Escobal, approved in 2013, and Juan Bosco, in 2012, are suspended and as a consequence, the San Rafael mine must stop its operations.The extraction plants whose licenses are now invalid are located in Mataquescuintla, Jalapa, and Nueva Santa Rosa, Casillas, and San Rafael Las Flores, Santa Rosa."
Goldcorp has announced that the process of closing the gold mine has already started and will be completed within four to five months.
The company that owns the mine in San Marcos started the vegetation recovery process in 2012, when it finished open air exploitations, and is now completing the process of recovery in the underground area, which it expects to finish this year.
The Supreme Court has temporarily suspended the extraction of gold and silver on the Tambor mine in response to an appeal lodged on behalf of indigenous peoples.
The mine in question is Progreso VII Derivadas, owned by Exploraciones Mineras de Guatemala, S. A., Exmingua in La Puya, department of Guatemala and it is dedicated to the exploitation of gold and silver.