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.
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.
Amid blockades by local residents, the company that operates the Escobal mine in Guatemala is trying to normalize its activities, after having obtained a legal guarantee to do so.
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."
The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of an injunction against the operation in Progresso VII, Derivada, but the legal criteria of the Ministry of Energy and Mines is that the project can continue to operate.
The Supreme Court of Guatemala had granted a provisional injunction against the environmental organization (Legal, Social and Environmental Action Center (Calas) in order to suspend the license for the mining project Progreso VII, Derivada, located in San Pedro Ayampuc and San José del Golfo.