After a community consultation was ordered as a requirement for the resumption of operations of the San Rafael Mine in Guatemala, the authorities invited nine institutions to participate in the first meeting of the pre-consultation roundtable.
Derived from a protective action filed by the environmental organization Calas, the Constitutional Court (CC) ordered in September 2018, to carry out through the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), a community consultation in the area of operations of the mine, in El Escobal, in the municipality of San Rafael Las Flores, department of Santa Rosa.
Plantel Los Angeles, a mixed capital company operating in Chontales, Nicaragua, plans to invest $25 million in the construction of three new raw gold processing plants.
The company, which will invest in the new processing plants, caters exclusively to producers who are classified as artisanal miners. The announcement of these projects comes in the context of the increase in gold exports, since between January 2020 and the same month of 2021, Nicaraguan sales abroad went from $50.6 million to $60.8 million.
Although in Guatemala the right to operate the El Escobal mine was granted in law, the project has been suspended for two years, making future investments in the country unviable.
The disadvantages for Minera San Rafael's operations date back to 2017, when in May of that year the Guatemalan Center for Legal, Environmental and Social Action (Calas) filed a protective action, arguing that the Ministry of Energy and Mines had not conducted the necessary community consultations before authorizing the licenses.
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.
Exports from mining companies in Honduras totaled $133 million from January to July 2018, 35% more than reported in the first seven months of 2017.
The Central Bank of Honduras reported that during the first seven months of the year the exported value of zinc was $37.4 million, above the $24 million reported in the same period of 2017. This increase is mainly due to the 17.4 million pounds sold to Mexico and Belgium.
Following the Guatemalan Constitutional Court's order of a community consultation as a requirement to resume operations at the San Rafael Mine, the company is now claiming that the timelines for the process are not clear.
Given the doubts that exist about the term that the government has to complete the process of community consultation, the mining company has decided to make another staff cut, given that it is unknown how long it will be before they can resume mining operations, which were halted on July 3, 2017.
Following the order to hold community consultations as a requirement for resuming operations at the San Rafael Mine in Guatemala, the authorities are waiting for the ruling to be be made firm in order to start a pre-consultation process.
After more than 300 days of waiting for a decision from the authorities, as a result of an appeal for legal protection filed by the environmental organization Calas, the Constitutional Court (CC) last week ordered a community consultation to be carried out, through the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), into the operations area of the mine, in El Escobal, in the municipality of San Rafael Las Flores, department of Santa Rosa.
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.
The Ministry of Energy and Mines has requested that the Executive Power authorize the Canadian company Gold Quest a mining license for the Romero project in San Juan de la Maguana.
Seven years is the estimated useful life of the deposit of gold, silver, copper, zinc and lead, whose present value is around $561 million in accordance with the current prices of metals.
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 Canadian mining company GoldCorp has agreed to sell 100% of its stake in the gold and silver mining project Cerro Blanco located in Asuncion Mita, Jutiapa, to Bluestone Resources.
From a press release by Goldcorp:
VANCOUVER, Jan. 11, 2017 /CNW/ - GOLDCORP INC. (TSX: G, NYSE: GG) today announced that the Company has entered into an agreement (the "Agreement") pursuant to which it has agreed to sell its 100% interest in the Cerro Blanco gold-silver project, located in Guatemala, to Bluestone Resources Inc. (TSXV: BSR) ("Bluestone").
Less mining of metals such as silver, lead, zinc and iron oxide explains the 17% drop in mining activities in the first quarter, compared to the last quarter.
In the quarterly GDP report up to March 2016 the Central Bank states that"...The negative result in Mining and Quarrying (-17.0%) was associated with a decline in metal ore mining (silver, lead, zinc and iron oxide), which has been discouraged by low prices in the international market, which do not stimulate the development of projects aimed at exploring new mineral deposits. "