Transnational mining company loses the battle, but the war continues.
- Details
- Category: Pacific Rim/OceanaGold
- Published: Thursday, 05 January 2017 09:02
Edgardo Ayala : IPS News
En
vironmental organizations are not dropping the guard in their fight against the operations of transnational mining corporation OceanaGold, which has just lost litigation against El Salvador but does not show any signs of giving up the extractive business in this Central American country.
"The threat has not disappeared yet, they (OceanaGold) continue their efforts to confuse people with the supposed advantages of mining," activist Vidalina Morales of the Economic and Social Development Association Santa Marta, one of the 11 organizations that make up the National Roundtable Against Metallic Mining - la Mesa, told IPS.
"As relatives of the victims, we are still awaiting for justice to be made, and this event is to commemorate and recognize their lives," said Alejandro Guevara, at the seven anniversary mass and community event that honored the memory of environmentalists Marcelo Rivera, Dora Sorto, her unborn son (Enmanuel), and Ramiro Rivera.
Citizens of the municipality of Cinquera in the department of Cabañas were asked to participate in a public referendum, to be held in the next months, to give their opinion in favor or against metal mining within their territory.
In October this year, the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) decided in favour of El Salvador in a case brought by the US mining company Pacific Rim Cayman (now part of the Australian-Canadian company Oceana Gold) regarding a dispute over the granting of a mining licence for the El Dorado mine, a gold-mining project in Cabañas, in the north east of this Central American country.
The conflict between Pacific Rim mining, a subsidiary of the transnational Oceana Gold, could continue as the company not only has delayed payment of the $ 8 million compensation imposed last October 14 by the International Center for Arbitration (ICSID) In Washington, but it has initiated talks with representatives of the Salvadoran government in an attempt to obtain permission to exploit gold and silver in Cabañas.