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.
Diamante Minerals announced a gold stream agreement for the Molejon Gold Mine, located in the Donoso District, Colon Province of Panama.
From a press release issued by Diamante Minerals:
KELOWNA, BC, Feb. 3, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Diamante Minerals, Inc. (OTCBB: DIMN), a natural resources company, today announced a gold stream agreement for the Molejon Gold Mine, located in the Donoso District, Colon Province of Panama.
The controversial taxes on the distribution of cement and mining royalties fell from $0.65 to $0.19 and from 10% to 1%, respectively.
With the publication of the new values in the official newspaper La Gaceta, an end has been put to the doubts that arose in companies over the fact that it was not clear what were the correct amounts for each tax, after the Constitutional Court declared that the mechanism by which initially the new taxes were set was unconstitutional.
The companies that took part in the prequalification did not meet the minimum requirements for the project set by Coalianza for the construction and operation of an industrial mining park.
From a statement issued by Coalianza:
The Technical Committee of the International Public Tender for Procurement of an Investor Operator for the Design Financing, Exploration, Exploitation, Operation and Marketing of a 200 hectare Industrial Mining Park Project in the Community of San Juan Arriba, Municipality of El Corpus Department of Choluteca, Honduras, wishes to communicate to all interested companies and the general public that the companies / consortiums participating in the process did not comply with the minimum requirements set out in the prequalification document therefore, the process was declared void by the Project Technical Committee . Immediate actions are being taken to relaunch the international public tender as soon as possible.
Government spokeswoman Rosario Murillo relayed the presidential decision to declare mining in Rancho Grande unviable, and cancel exploration in the area.
The mining concession was obtained by the Canadian company Nueva Esperanza in 2005 and two years ago another Canadian company B2Gold took over the project, which still was in the exploration stage, but without any earthworks having been carried out.
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.
In the remainder of the year B2Gold plans to invest $23 million in mining work, expansion of tailings dam and other works in the La Libertad gold mine in Chontales.
In addition, the concessionaire plans to invest $5 million in exploration in areas close to the mine and within the concession area. Representatives from the B2Gold predict closing 2015 with a total production of between 135,000 and 145,000 ounces of gold from the La Libertad and Santo Domingo mines.
The concessionaire has filed a reconsideration motion to avoid cancellation of the concession, and while it is resolved, the government will take care of the necessary maintenance work.
The review process to be carried out now by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (Mici) could take up to two months. Once the process has been completed, it will be decided whether or not to cancel the concession granted to the Canadian company Petaquilla Minerals..
The mining union is complaining about lack of controls on growing illegal mining activities, driven by the need to avoid torturous bureaucratic formalities.
The main problem denounced by formal mining companies is the effect that the illegal activity has on prices, since illegally mined products sell at lower prices, preventing the formal sector from competing on equal terms.
The Canadian firm Infinito Gold has ceased operations and requested the temporary suspension of arbitration against Costa Rica over the failed concession of the Crucitas gold mine.
The cessation of business operations due to lack of financial resources, announced in mid-July, when all its directors and managers resigned, could be the main reason for the decision to request the temporary suspension of the proceedings against Costa Rica over the Crucitas gold mine, for which $94 million was demanded for violations of the agreement for the promotion and protection of investments between Costa Rica and Canada.
Although the concessionaire Petaquilla Minerals says it is complying with the requirements of the government, the possibility of canceling the concession is being studied.
The 180 day period which the Ministry of Trade and Industry (Mici) awarded in January to the conessionarie Petaquilla Minerals to resolve its financial problems has come to an end, and the government could revoke the concession granted in 1997.
Between January and April this year, mining sales totaled $71 million, $20.8 million less than that recorded in the same period in 2014.
The report by the Central Bank of Honduras said that the decline was mainly because so far this year they have not been exporting iron oxide due to the temporary closure of the companies dedicated to this sector because of the implementation of new extraction methods.
The project consists of the construction, in the province of Colon, of a processing plant and a mine, from which it is expected that 320 thousand tons a year will be extracted from 2018.
In addition to the processing plant and the mine, a subsidiary of First Quantum Minerals, in charge of the work, is building a power 300 MW plant and and a port area, where the concentrate will be filtered and loaded for transport in ships.
Low gold prices and weaker external demand account for 14% of the annual fall in the export of metal products for March.
In the first quarter of 20,700 ounces of gold were exported, down from the 73,800 ounces sold in the same period in the previous year. The main reason behind this decrease is the fall is the international price of gold, which has remained low over the past year and part of this year.
The Hernández administration has agreed to reserve 18 zones with mining potential for exploration and exploitation in order to generate resources for the state.
Of the 950 sites that are being evaluated to determine whether they have potential for mineral extraction, 18 have been reserved for exploitation by the state.
Ebal Diaz, presidential adviser, told Laprensa.hn that "...