Increasingly, over the past few years, information has been published about serious human rights violations and health and environmental harms being caused in Guatemala by (mainly) Canadian mining company operations: Goldcorp Inc, Radius Gold, Tahoe Resources, Hudbay Minerals, Skye Resources, etc.
It is not possible to understand how these violations and harms occur, and will continue to occur, without understanding the political context. In short, global mining companies profit financially and benefit directly from the fundamental lack of democracy and the rule of law in Guatemala, both historically and on-going today. (This is true, in varying degrees, about global businesses and investors operating in many countries around the world.)
Rhetoric aside about respecting the sovereign democratic will of the duly elected officials of Guatemala, about abiding by the laws and regulations that govern the country and the mining industry, impunity and corruption are the norm in Guatemala. The wealthy elites in Guatemala, including international companies and investors, act with a huge amount of impunity and have almost complete immunity from legal or political accountability.
Latin America Mining
Miners wince over Colombian land auction model – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – August 9, 2012)
The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.
Latin American country’s decision to auction land in blocks isn’t suitable for mineral exploration, Canadian firms say
Canadian miners are feeling the growing pains of a mining industry in transition in Colombia, which is struggling to harness a frenzy of exploration activity as prospectors race to stake claims.
Facing a backlog of thousands of unprocessed mineral concession requests, the government has put aside 21 million hectares of mineral-rich lands to auction to the mining industry in blocks, instead of the usual first-come, first-served system of awarding concessions that is accepted globally, and used in other parts of the country.
Far from rubbing their hands over the plan, which copies a model that helped drive an investment boom in the country’s oil industry in the past decade, exploration companies worry the oil and gas exploration model is not appropriate for mineral exploration, which is done on a much smaller scale and focuses on narrow mineral veins.
In Panama, Locals Protest Canadian Copper Mines – PBS News Hour – July 17, 2012
Watch In Panama, ‘New Conquistadors’ Protest Canadian Copper Mines on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.
Transcript
JEFFREY BROWN: Next, new battle lines are being drawn in the rain forests of the Americas, and billions of dollars are at stake. Canadian mining companies hold about 1,400 properties in developing nations from Mexico to Argentina.
One of those is in Panama, where local groups have teamed up with environmental activists to halt the building of new mines.
Our story is a collaboration with CBC News in Canada and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. The producer is Lynn Burgess. The reporter is Mellissa Fung.
MELLISSA FUNG, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting: Deep in the Panamanian rain forest, more than three hours northwest of Panama City, small agricultural communities dot the landscape, places that have remained unchanged for generations.
Carmelo Yanguez has lived in this town of Coclesito for more than 40 years. A subsistence farmer, he lives on what he grows, planting coffee, rice and beans and fish from nearby rivers. But his peaceful life, he fears, is changing.
Goldcorp wins mining dispute [against Barrick Gold Corp.] – by Cristin Schmitz (The Lawyer’s Weekly – July 20, 2012)
http://www.lawyersweekly.ca/index.php?section=main
Superior Court provides guidance for rights of first refusal agreements
A major commercial law ruling from Ontario holds useful lessons for the mining industry and other sectors that incorporate rights of first refusal into joint venture or shareholder agreements, counsel say.
The case pitted two Canadian mining giants, Barrick Gold Corp. of Toronto against Vancouver-based Goldcorp Inc. (and two other defendants), in a dispute over the ownership of one of South America’s largest gold and copper deposits. Barrick contended that Goldcorp illegally gained control of the Chilean mine that Barrick had conditionally purchased from co-defendant Xstrata Copper Chile S.A.
Superior Court Justice Herman Wilton-Siegel’s 229-page ruling dismissed all of Barrick’s claims against the three defendants. “Barrick’s principal claim for breach of contract is dismissed on the basis that the agreement between Barrick Corp. and Xstrata Chile S.A. terminated upon the exercise of the right of first refusal,” the judge wrote.
Mark Gelowitz of Osler in Toronto, who represents Goldcorp, said the judgment provides a useful overview of the rationale and principles that underlie rights of first refusal (ROFRs) and similar liquidity arrangements in shareholder agreements.
In Latin America, nationalism stumps Canadian mining companies – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – July 12, 2012)
The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.
Bolivian President Evo Morales has revoked the mining rights of Vancouver-based South American Silver Corp., the latest blow to foreign miners operating in Latin America amid a growing wave of resource nationalism.
The decision to expropriate the Canadian company’s Malku Khota silver mine was the second for Bolivia in a month, highlighting the increasing risks to developing mining and energy assets in the mineral-rich region.
From expropriations in Venezuela, Bolivia and Argentina to violent opposition in traditionally mining-friendly jurisdictions such as Peru and Chile, the rising political tensions pose a risk to a decade-long bonanza mining companies have enjoyed.
“Resource nationalism is not just about expropriation,” said Alan Hutchison, an expert in mining and energy securities and corporate law at Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP who specializes in Latin American matters. “It is the role and the stake that the government is going to take in any resource project and I think you are seeing that on the rise with the continued high commodity prices.”
Bolivia’s Morales threatens to “nationalize” Malku Kota silver project – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – July 9, 2012)
Fresh off the expropriation of the Quinto smelter, Bolivia’s president has now set his sights on the troubled Malku Khota project, a target of violent protests and kidnappings.
RENO (MINEWEB) – Bolivian President Evo Morales reportedly told a farmers’ group Sunday that Bolivia will consider nationalizing South American Silver’s silver property. Morales stressed he had not made a final decision on whether or not to revoke the concession for the Malku Khota project, Reuters reported.
“Nationalism is our obligation, I already raised the issue of nationalizing [the Malku Khota project] last year, and I told [local residents] to reach an agreement, because when they want, we’re going to nationalize,” he said.
In a statement Sunday, South American Silver said Bolivian authorities “continue in their efforts to restore peace and order to the Malku Khota region in the face of acts of aggression being perpetrated against law-abiding local indigenous communities, police, the company’s employees and its local contractors.
Argentine ruling won’t stop project, Barrick says – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – July 6, 2012)
The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.
A law banning mining around glaciers in Argentina will not derail development of one of the world’s largest new gold projects, Barrick Gold Corp. said. The Pascua-Lama project is on track to go into production in 2013 after years of fighting over its environmental impact.
Argentina’s Congress passed the law – which also bans drilling on oil rigs – about two years ago in an effort to protect water reserves, but opponents held it off with an injunction that was overthrown by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, driving Barrick Gold stock lower amid concerns Pascua-Lama may be halted.
“The impact of the law on Barrick is nil,” said Barrick spokesman Andy Lloyd, pointing out that there are no glaciers near the mine on the Argentine side of the cross-border project with Chile, where 70 per cent of the mine is being built.
Barrick stock stumbled on news of the ruling earlier this week because it raised alarm bells that Pascua-Lama might be thwarted by the same environmental concerns it already faced down nearly a decade ago, when a media storm echoed from Andean capitals in Buenos Aires and Santiago to Barrick headquarters in Toronto.
In Peru, Chinese mining firm moves a town to get to the copper underneath – by Caroline Stauffer (Globe and Mail/Reuters – July 4, 2012)
The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.
MOROCOCHA, PERU — Reuters – High in the Andes mountain range, a Chinese mining company is now in the housing construction and demolition business as it works to relocate a Peruvian town that sits in the way of its $2.2-billion (U.S.) Toromocho copper mine.
By late July, state-owned miner Chinalco says it will finish building a new city of paved roads and multistorey homes for 5,000 people currently living on the side of a giant red mountain of copper 4,500 metres above sea level.
Residents from the poor, ramshackle town of Morococha, where children attend school steps away from discarded mine tailings, will get access to amenities they currently lack, like modern water, sewage and electrical systems. They will all also own their homes and no one will need to pay rent.
Chinalco calls the new $50-million town the biggest privately funded social project in Peru’s mining history and it may help the company avoid community opposition that has stalled other major projects.
Sherritt as Cuba’s CP – by Peter Foster (National Post – June 29, 2012)
The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.
Once a catalyst, underperforming miner needs one now
When the recent proxy fight broke out over CP — whose repercussions continued this week with the resignation from the CP board of Rick George — my colleague Terence Corcoran cited another all-too-rare example of a catalyst investor taking on the Canadian corporate establishment. It was Ian “the Smiling Barracuda” Delaney’s successful 1990 fight for control of Sherritt, an historic but failing fertilizer and nickel-refining company based in Fort Saskatchewan, Alta.
In fact, the CP link doesn’t end there. Mr. Delaney subsequently guided Sherritt into Cuba, where he declared that he would make the company the island’s answer to … CP! Unfortunately, he spoke truer than he knew. Although Cuba now accounts for only a fifth of its assets, Sherritt has been a less than stellar performer over the past two decades. Meanwhile Mr. Delaney’s adventures as Fidel Castro’s “favourite capitalist” remain one of the more controversial aspects of the company’s recent history.
After Mr. Delaney expanded his Cuban ambitions to embrace a joint venture at Moa Bay, a cucaracha appeared in the ointment in the form of Helms-Burton, U.S. legislation that allowed its citizens, including naturalized Cuban-Americans, to sue anybody “trafficking” in assets expropriated by the 1959 Castro revolution.
Chinese demand for Chile’s copper holds strong – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – June 26, 2012)
The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.
Global copper goliath Chile says Chinese demand for the metal is holding up despite a slowing of China’s economic growth, signaling a continuation of market dynamics that have driven consumption for over a decade.
“We have not seen a relevant decrease with respects to the Chinese market,” Chile’s deputy mining minister, Pablo Wagner, said by telephone from Santiago.
Mr. Wagner pointed to forecasts for a rise in overall copper exports in 2012 of between 5 per cent and 6 per cent over the year-earlier period. “Signs of demand, shipments and inventories, continue to be solid.”
Chile exports about 53 per cent of its copper to China, giving it one of the clearest insights into the demand patterns of the giant Asian economy that has devoured the red metal as it fuels booming economic growth and urbanization. Chile is also home to the world’s largest copper company, state miner Codelco, which is a key business partner of China.
Pacific Rim Mining locked in closely watched fight with El Salvador – by Jeff Gray (Globe and Mail – June 20, 2012)
The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.
Tom Shrake, the American mining industry veteran who heads Vancouver-based Pacific Rim Mining Corp., is nothing if not an optimist.
He’s had no end of troubles: His staff in El Salvador have faced intimidation at gunpoint by local opponents of his proposed mine. Anti-mining groups have accused his company of involvement in the killings of local activists, charges he vehemently denies and for which he says there is no evidence. And the government of the tiny, impoverished country has decided to block all mining within El Salvador’s borders out of fear that a mishap could contaminate the country’s water supply.
But Mr. Shrake says he remains committed to digging for gold and, he argues, digging the local population in northern El Salvador out of poverty. This month, he got a green light to keep fighting for that plan from a World Bank investment tribunal in Washington – a fight being watched closely by the mining industry, international trade lawyers and anti-mining activists.
“We don’t want to go to court. We never wanted to go to court … But they left us no choice,” Mr. Shrake said in an interview from Reno, Nevada, where he is based.
The New Conquistadors [Canadian Miners Conlfict/Image in Panama] – Mellissa Fung, Paul Seeler and Lynn Burgess (CBC National News Documentary – June 18, 2012)
Click here to watch the documentary “The New Conqistadors”: http://www.cbc.ca/thenational/thenewconquistadors/
Starting in the early 16th Century, Spanish explorers arrived in Central and South America in search of gold, silver and spices. While the term “Spanish Conquistadors” references an era of great Spanish power and influence, for the indigenous people living in the lands the Conquistadors reached, it was considered a time of exploitation, disease and oppression.
Five hundred years later, there are some – particularly in the indigenous communities of Latin America – who are seeing this as new era of economic conquest, one with significant environmental and social consequences. This time, the new “conquerors” are Canadian mining companies.
These “new conquistadors” have generated enormous wealth for Canada and the countries in which they do business. Canadian mining companies often have “sustainable development” programs that provide a range of opportunities for locals and attempt to offset the negative environmental effects of mining. However, the economic, environmental and social changes these mines bring to rural communities have generated considerable debate in Latin America. This project is intended as a catalyst for discussion.
Yamana Gold snaps up Extorre for $395-million – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – June 19, 2012)
The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.
Yamana Gold Inc. said Monday it will pay $395-million for Extorre Gold Mines Ltd., the owner of a gold and silver property in Argentina that has run into development difficulties.
Extorre’s stock price has been so battered by global market uncertainty and local politics that the company can no longer develop the property itself with solid returns.
“Extorre’s share price has suffered dramatically over the past few months due to a number of factors including: global political and economic uncertainty impacting credit markets; a broad selloff of all junior non-producing gold companies; concerns with respect to share dilution arising from a decision to develop the Cerro Moro project; and a series of events that have raised the perceived investment risk in Argentina,” Extorre co-chairman Yale Simpson said in announcing the deal with Yamana.
Anti-mining violence escalates in Peru – by Peter Koven (National Post – May 30, 2012)
The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.
TORONTO — Miners in Peru are operating under another black cloud this week after a wave of anti-mining protests turned violent and prompted the government to declare a state of emergency.
At least two people were killed and dozens more injured in protests against Xstrata PLC’s Tintaya mine, which is located in Espinar province in southern Peru. The protesters claim the mine has polluted two rivers, a charge Xstrata denies. Sources said that there are socio-economic factors behind the outbreak of violence as well.
There has been significant anti-mining violence in Peru since President Ollanta Humala – a moderate leftist who supports mining — took office last year (it was also an issue under Alan Garcia, his predecessor).
In recent months, protesters have successfully disrupted development of Newmont Mining Corp.’s US$4.8-billion Conga project, as well as Southern Copper Corp.’s Tia Maria project and Bear Creek Mining Corp.’s Santa Ana project. At least 10 people died in those actions, according to reports.
McEwen comments on uncertainty in Argentina – Canadian Mining Journal (May 28, 2012)
The Canadian Mining Journal is Canada’s first mining publication providing information on Canadian mining and exploration trends, technologies, operations, and industry events.
When mining entrepreneur Rob McEwen put US Gold and Minera Andes together to create McEwen Mining he was working on the model that you could take one company that had cash flow and another company that had development projects and create a stronger company.
But what he didn’t foresee, he told investors and analysts on a conference call earlier this week, and apologized for not foreseeing, was that there would be changes in Argentina that would create a lot of uncertainty and put that model at a disadvantage.
McEwen arranged the May 22 conference call to alert shareholders about potential difficulties and delays in repatriating cash flow from McEwen Mining’s 49% stake in the San Jose mine in Argentina, which has been earmarked to fund development of the company’s El Gallo project in Mexico. ( El Gallo is in Mexico’s Sinaloa state, along the foothills of the Sierra Madres, and includes the El Gallo and Palmarito silver deposits and the Magistral gold deposits, all located within a 13 km radius.)