The Public Prosecutor's Office has frozen the company's property, vehicles and bank accounts, because it has not yet paid the $8 million plus interest owed from an international arbitration case which it lost to the Salvadoran State.
From a statement issued by the Attorney General of El Salvador:
The Attorney General of the Republic managed to freeze buildings, vehicles and bank accounts owned by the mining company Oceana Gold, formerly Pacific Rim, for non-payment of court costs to the State of El Salvador, under an international arbitration case initiated by the mining company with the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), which it lost and in which it was ordered to pay eight million dollars for expenses incurred by the country.
From November 23 to 25 Latin American mining companies will be meeting in Panama City to explore business opportunities for the mining industry in Central America.
The Mining Chamber of Panama is organizing, in conjunction with the Latin American Mining Organization (Olami) a Second International Mining Congress, which will focus on challenges and opportunities for mining activities in Central America.
On August 16 and 17 industry representatives from around the globe will be taking part in business conferences and lectures on the role of mineral resources and the impact of the activity on the economy.
The II International Mining Congress is being organized by the Mining Chamber of Nicaragua and will be held on August 16 and 17 in Managua.
The conference will include business conferences, panels and lectures on the economic and social impact of mining on communities; the role of metallic and non-metallic mineral resources in developing countries and environmental challenges in modern mining.
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.
Central America should take note that the Canadian government is moving away from environmental positions and promoting and defending the interests of its mining investment undertakings in other territories.
The Salvadoran government is attempting to gain support in Canada in its litigation against Oceana Gold, a company founded on Australian and Canadian capital which is trying to buy Pacific Rim, a company that sued El Salvador for $301 million because they were not granted permission to operate a gold mine in the north.
Conflicts over environmental protection and excessive bureaucracy in the process of granting concessions are the factors that limit the great mining potential in the region.
The mining sector in Central America represents great potential for investment and business, however, it has so far contributed only 0.75% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), averaged from the six countries in the region, between 2008 and 2012.
The presidential hopeful Sanchez Cerén, from the ruling FMLN party, reaffirmed his opposition to the exploitation of metal mining in the country.
The presidential candidate of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front party (FMLN), Salvador Sanchez Ceren, says a new government will not allow the exploitation of metal mining in the country, believing that it is "an risk for the population."
A lawsuit by Pacific Rim Mining against the Salvadoran government must be resolved by the local jurisdiction, and not by that provided for under the DR-CAFTA.
An arbitration panel from the World Bank has found that the Canadian company Pacific Rim "does not have nor has had substantial operations in the United States" in order to take their case against the State of El Salvador to the dispute settlement mechanisms of DR-CAFTA.
The International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes dismissed a lawsuit filed by Commerce Group.
The lawsuit filed under CAFTA terms alleged that the Government, in 2006, without justification, revoked permits which had been awarded for the exploitation of mines in San Cristobal and San Sebastian and that a request made in 2008 to extend operating licenses at the San Sebastian and Nueva Esparta mines was denied.
The Salvadoran government has filed a new set of objections after the
The document, presented as a response to the backing given by the International Center for Investment Dispute Resolution (CIADI), describes the way the company changed its nationality in order to take advantage of the benefits of the free trade agreement.
"The jurisdictional objections filed, to which El Diario de Hoy was given access, argue that Pacific Rim's claims are inadmissable owing to the abuse of due process it committed. The mining company's official headquarters used to be in the Cayman Islands, part of the United Kingdon, but since 2007 it has called Nevada home, three years after the conflict with El Salvador's Economy Ministry began".
There is an unbeatable way to end with mining once and for all.
Sometimes the best way to rebut extreme ideas is to reduce them to the absurd. This is what Santos Gabino Carvajal does in an article published in Sigloxxi.com.
It must be noted that Gabino Carvajal has a large stake in the matter, as he is the president of the Honduran Metal Mining Association.
Canada’s Supreme Court has ruled that Canadian mining corporations must conduct more detailed environmental impact studies.
Several mining companies from Canada operate in Central America. Some of them include Breakwater Resources (Honduras), Inmet Mining Corp (Panama), Petaquilla Minerals Ltd (Panama), B2Gold Corp (Nicaragua), Argonaut Gold (Guatemala) and GoldCorp (Guatemala and Honduras).
Commerce Group filed a lawsuit, alleging El Salvador denied operation permits.
The lawsuit was filed at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), which is part of the World Bank. Another mining company, Pacific Rim, sued the country in June.
From an article in Elsalvador.com: "Commerce Group argues that on September 13th, 2006, the Government of El Salvador revoked, without justification or prior notice, the exploitation permits that had been granted for the mines in San Sebastián (La Unión) and San Cristóbal (San Miguel), for mining gold and silver. It adds that in 2008, the government denied a request to extend their exploitation permits for mining at Nuevo San Sebastián y Nueva Esparta (both within La Unión and Morazán)".
Pacific Rim interposed an arbitrage against El Salvador, process that started on June 15.
The arbitration was interposed by Pacific Rim on the grounds that the country did not grant permission for the start of operations of El Dorado, a gold extraction project located in the Cabañas department.
Keny López writes in her article in Laprensagrafica.com: "In 2002, the Francisco Flores administration granted exploration permits to Pacific Rim, and since then the company has invested over $70 million. In February 2009, Antonio Saca, president of the country at that time, stated that he preferred El Salvador to face an arbitration process than green light mining in the country".
Armstrong Equipment, Inc. is an American based company that specializes in the distribution to Latin America of equipment and parts used in the mining sector, rock crushing and asphalt paving.
Organization that operates in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama
Phone: (305) 592 8361