Mining in El Salvador

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Mining in El Salvador to extract gold and other minerals from beneath the surface can be traced back to the beginning of the twentieth century but has generally been halted due to policy changes in the last two decades. There are large deposits of minerals in the mountainous areas of Central America, starting in Guatemala, throughout El Salvador, and all the way to northern Costa Rica. [1]

Contents

Mining expanded in scope from artisanal mining to industrial mining at a mine in San Sebastián, El Salvador. [2] Artisanal mining has occurred in El Salvador, including at the San Sebastian Gold Mine that opened in 1904. [3] Mining became a national significant economic activity in the 1970s when U.S.-based company the Commerce Group Corp industrialised the mine. [2]

El Salvador became the first country in the world to officially ban all forms of metal mining in 2017, [4] [5] [6] following campaigns by activists, local populations, civil society organizations, community members, and the catholic church on the grounds that metallic mining is harmful to the local ecosystem and human life. [7] [8] [5]

Map of El Salvador. Highlights the major municipalities. El Salvador CIA map PL.png
Map of El Salvador. Highlights the major municipalities.

Mining activity ceased directly after the Salvadoran Civil War. [2] After the war, the country's right-wing government proposed designated mining zones and issued exploration licences to many foreign mining companies in order to supplement the Salvadorian economy, [1] which led to much pushback from locals and years of social unrest and opposition from the local community based on the alleged environmental impacts of this practice. [9]

Political Context

In the post-civil-war 1990's, the two most important political parties were Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) and Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). [10] ARENA came into power during this time, and in the subsequent years developed an ideology centered around economic reforms that would attract foreign investment as the country recovered from the costly war. [4] These reforms included less taxes and more protection legally for foreign companies looking to invest in the landscape. ARENA are credited with introducing neoliberal ideology into the Salvadorian government in this way, with a focus on the prioritization of privatization and economic growth. [10] However in 2006, despite their previous pro-mining legislation, the ARENA administration established a de facto moratorium, or an unofficial but imposed prohibition, on mining. [1]

The left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), originally a guerilla movement during and directly after the civil war, launched their presidential campaign with then-journalist Mauricio Funes as their frontrunner between November 2007 and March 2009. [4] [10] The included strong opposition to mining practices in their campaign, and managed to obtain the presidency by the end of the race. After Funes won the presidency and served for 5 years in this position, a shift towards anti-mining opinions and legislation occurred. [4]

Environmental Concerns and Conflicts

Lempa River Rio Acahuapa cerca del Lempa, Vista desde panamericana Ag05 - panoramio.jpg
Lempa River

El Salvador is a small nation, densely populated and very vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. [11] The Lempa River is an integral water resource for the nation, and has been negatively impacted by both resource depletion and contamination, [12] affecting the livelihoods of those dependant on the river. The Lempa's watershed covers almost the entire country, and thus the potential contamination from mining sites placed in the territory pose a risk of long-lasting damage to environmental and human health. [13] [14] As a transboundary watershed shared with Guatemala and Honduras and on which El Salvador is located downstream, Salvadorans have also been concerned about the impacts of mining and other industrial activities performed in neighbouring countries. [5] [14]

The industrialisation of the San Sebastian Gold Mine led to massive amounts of cyanide, arsenic, and mercury poisoning of the San Sebastián River. [2] This issue has been highlighted by the Asociación de Desarrollo Económico y Social (ADES) organization, located in Cabañas, El Salvador, who seek to address the alleged long-term environmental impacts of metal mining. [15]

Local opposition to mineral mining is derived from the effects on natural resources such as water from the Lempa River and the contribution to overall ecosystem degradation in the region. [12] [16] According to a 2011 report by the United States Agency for International Development, El Salvador has been deforested by 85% since the 1960s, and approximately 90% of surface water is polluted. [16]

In 2005, Canadian company Au Martinique Silver began prospecting in Chalatenango, a municipality desired by mining companies for its rich gold deposits but also very sensitive to the potential negative impacts of mining practices. [17] This project was objected to by the majority of community leaders, who with support from U.S. activist organization the Madison Arcatao Sister City Project, successfully halted the project in 2006. [18]

The government agency General Directorate of Energy, Hydrocarbons and Mines was formed in October 2021. [19]

El Dorado Mine

The El Dorado gold mine site was acquired in 2002 by the Pacific Rim Mining Corporation. [1] It is located located approximately 65 km (40 mi) east of the city of San Salvador. [15] The mine had been in operation, according to Pacific Rim Mining Corporation's parent company OceanaGold, from 1948 to 1953. [20] Pacific Rim attempted to obtain exploitation rights by submitting their Environmental impact assessment (EIA) in 2004, but it was never granted by the Salvadorian Ministry of Economy due to Pacific Rim's failure to complete the appropriate requirements in terms of adequately reporting their planned use of ground water. [1] [15] [21] Pacific Rim later enacted a lawsuit against the Salvadorian government in 2009 asserting that they were owed a mining concession despite the moratorium on mining currently in place. [21] [22] In 2016, the company lost this suit by a ruling from the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). [21] [22] [23]

Social Influences and Organizations

Grassroots Organizations

In 2005, the National Roundtable Against Metallic Mining (also known as "La Mesa" or "Mesa Nacional") was formed by local organizations, such as NGOs, religious and academic groups, and community activists that opposed mining practices in El Salvador, acting as a figurehead for the anti-mining movement within the country. [12] [24]

A "Week Against Mining" was held in June 2006 across the country in order to protest extractive mining practices, as well as educate the population about the potential risks of allowing such projects to take place in El Salvador. [25] This shifted the majority opinion of the people within the country into a dislike of the idea of mining practices. [25]

Grassroots organizations, civil society organizations, and local populations mobilized largely by the National Roundtable Against Metallic Mining was involved in lawmaking to ban mining from the mid-2000s. [1] [21] In 2017, the ban on metallic mining was passed by the Legislative Assembly that can to a large extent be considered a citizen ban, even if an institution like the Catholic Church was largely involved in the latest draft. [21]

The Catholic Church

The Catholic Church in Latin America is an important social factor in terms of widely believed ideas and views on morality. In 2007, Archbishop Fernando Sáenz Lacalle announced that the El Salvador's Church leadership was overall anti-mining within the country, based upon the argument that environmental concerns outnumber likely economic benefits. [5] [7] This move solidified the Catholic leadership as the first organization to define environmental protection as more important than economic growth, [7] mirroring the growing social sentiment of this same vein within El Salvador. Because of the authority the Church held in the strongly-religious El Salvador, this position made anti-mining all the more popular. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">El Salvador</span> Country in Central America

El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is San Salvador. The country's population in 2024 was estimated to be 6 million according to a government census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demographics of El Salvador</span>

This is a demography of the population of El Salvador including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economy of El Salvador</span>

The economy of El Salvador has experienced relatively low rates of GDP growth, in comparison to other developing countries. Rates have not risen above the low single digits in nearly two decades – part of a broader environment of macroeconomic instability which the integration of the United States dollar has done little to improve. One problem that the Salvadoran economy faces is the inequality in the distribution of income. In 2011, El Salvador had a Gini coefficient of .485, which although similar to that of the United States, leaves 37.8% of the population below the poverty line, due to lower aggregate income. The richest 10% of the population receives approximately 15 times the income of the poorest 40%.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mining</span> Extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth

Mining is the extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agricultural processes, or feasibly created artificially in a laboratory or factory. Ores recovered by mining include metals, coal, oil shale, gemstones, limestone, chalk, dimension stone, rock salt, potash, gravel, and clay. The ore must be a rock or mineral that contains valuable constituent, can be extracted or mined and sold for profit. Mining in a wider sense includes extraction of any non-renewable resource such as petroleum, natural gas, or even water.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cabañas Department</span> Department of El Salvador

Cabañas is a department of El Salvador in the north central part of the country. Its capital is Sensuntepeque and it is one of coldest parts of El Salvador. Classified as a department in February 1873, it covers an area of 1,103.5 km2 (426.1 sq mi) and has over 164,900 inhabitants. The other major city of the department is Ilobasco. Agricultural produce includes coffee, sugar cane and sesame seeds, as well as dairy products. Gold, silver and copper are the principal minerals mined in the department. Its main industrial activity is oriented to manufacture of potteries, cheese, lime and distilleries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chalatenango Department</span> Department of El Salvador

Chalatenango is a department of El Salvador located in the northwest of the country. The department's capital city is the city of Chalatenango, which shares the same name as the department. Chalatenango covers a land area of 779 sq mi (2,017 km2) and contains over 192,000 inhabitants. Chalatenango's maximum elevation, located at Cerro El Pital, is 8,960 feet (2,730 m).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gold mining</span> Process of extracting gold from the ground

Gold mining is the extraction of gold by mining.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environmental justice</span> Social movement

Environmental justice is a social movement that addresses injustice that occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement has generated hundreds of studies showing that exposure to environmental harm is inequitably distributed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A.D. Chalatenango</span> Soccer club

Asociación Deportiva Chalatenango is a Salvadoran professional football club based in Chalatenango, El Salvador, they are currently playing in the top-tier Primera División de Fútbol de El Salvador.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OceanaGold</span> Gold mining company

OceanaGold Corporation (OceanaGold), previously named Macraes Mining Company and then GRD Macraes, is a gold mining and exploration company based in Vancouver, Canada and Brisbane, Australia

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salvadorans</span> Citizens or residents of El Salvador

Salvadorans, also known as Salvadorians, are citizens of El Salvador, a country in Central America. Most Salvadorans live in El Salvador, although there is also a significant Salvadoran diaspora, particularly in the United States, with smaller communities in other countries around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lempa River</span> River that flows through Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras

The Lempa River is a 422-kilometre-long (262 mi) river in Central America. It is a transboundary river shared by El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

Cimarron Hydroelectric Power Project a hydroelectric power plant in El Salvador, that was to start construction in 2010. The plant would have been be located in the upper basin of the Lempa River, upstream of the Cerrón Grande Hydroelectric Dam. The proposed location of the dam was between the town of Agua Caliente on the left shore and Metapán, Santa Ana, on the right shore. A tunnel would divert water from the Lempa River to a powerhouse and substation to be built near Agua Caliente. With an estimated capacity of 261 megawatts, the project would have increased El Salvador's total generation capacity by almost 25%.

The Pacific Rim Mining Corporation is a multinational mining company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. Its principal corporate offices are located in Reno, Nevada and has operations throughout the Americas. It merged with Dayton Mining Corporation in 2002. In 2013, Pacific Rim became a wholly owned subsidiary of OceanaGold.

Water resources management in El Salvador is characterized by difficulties in addressing severe water pollution throughout much of the country's surface waters due to untreated discharges of agricultural, domestic and industrial run off. The river that drains the capital city of San Salvador is considered to be polluted beyond the capability of most treatment procedures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canton El Tablón</span> Flooded locality in El Salvador

Canton El Tablón belonged to the municipality of Suchitoto, Cuscatlán, El Salvador. Canton El Tablón was one of many cantons in the surrounding area that was flooded as a result of the Cerrón Grande Hydroelectric Dam built in El Salvador between 1972 and 1976 that created the artificial Cerrón Grande Reservoir. According to former residents of El Tablón, the area was divided up into four main caseríos: Caserio La Hacienda Vieja, Caserio Los Figueroas, Caserio Valle El Tablón, and Caserio Los Palitos. It is unclear where the name El Tablón originated from, but according to local historians, a village named "El Tablón" existed prior to 1860 that was formed through a municipal ejido. An ejido was commonly owned municipal land granted by the Spanish Crown to governing bodies in the Spanish Empire. These lands were considered vacant or unused land in some cases belonging to existing indigenous communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cerrón Grande Reservoir</span> Reservoir in northern El Salvador

The Cerrón Grande Reservoir, also known locally as Lake Suchitlán, is a reservoir in northern El Salvador and the largest body of fresh water in the country. The reservoir was filled between 1973 and 1976, subsequent to the construction of the Cerrón Grande Hydroelectric Dam. The Cerrón Grande Reservoir is among the most polluted bodies of fresh water in Central America.

Dora Alicia Recinos Sorto was a Salvadoran anti-mining activist who was murdered while protesting the opening of a mine by the Pacific Rim Mining Corporation.

El Dorado is a former gold mine, located San Isidro, Cabañas, El Salvador.

San Sebastian Gold Mine is a gold mine located 2.5 miles northwest of Santa Rosa de Lima in the La Unión Department of El Salvador.

References

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  2. 1 2 3 4 Broad, R., & Cavanaugh, J. (2013). Gold for export?… or water & food for life? the case of gold mining in El Salvador.
  3. ↑ Dougherty, Michael (12 April 2017). "El Salvador Makes History". North American Congress on Latin America . Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Spalding, R. J. (2018). From the Streets to the Chamber: Social Movements and the Mining Ban in El Salvador. European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies | Revista Europea de Estudios Latinoamericanos y Del Caribe, 0(106), 47.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Montoya, Ainhoa (2021). "On Care for Our Common Home: Ecological Materiality and Sovereignty over the Lempa Transboundary Watershed". Journal of Latin American Studies. 53 (2): 297–322. doi:10.1017/S0022216X21000249. hdl: 10261/309858 .
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  8. ↑ Schalk, Owen (2 May 2023). "El Salvador's Historic Metal Mining Ban Is in Danger". Jacobin . Archived from the original on 2023-03-31. Retrieved 2023-07-01.
  9. ↑ Jayko, C., & Broad, R. (2024, January 23). State of Deception Report released on Mining and water rights in El Salvador. Center for Environment, Community, & Equity (CECE). https://cece.american.edu/state-of-deception-report-released-on-mining-and-water-rights-in-el-salvador/
  10. 1 2 3 Van Der Borgh, C. (2000). The Politics of Neoliberalism in Postwar El Salvador. International Journal of Political Economy, 30(1), 36–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/08911916.2000.11644005
  11. ↑ "El Salvador Arrests Prominent Anti-Mining Activists". North American Congress on Latin America . Archived from the original on 2023-04-12. Retrieved 2023-07-01.
  12. 1 2 3 Artiga-Purcell, James Alejandro (2024-09-26). "Entangled social movements: extractivism and water justice in El Salvador". Social Movement Studies: 1–18. doi:10.1080/14742837.2024.2407293. ISSN   1474-2837.
  13. ↑ Artiga-Purcell, J. A. (2022). Hydrosocial Extractive Territories: Gold, sugarcane and contested water politics in El Salvador. Geoforum, 131, 93–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2022.03.012
  14. 1 2 Montoya, Ainhoa (2024). "Troubling environmental governance: citizen legal experiments with transboundary commons". Oxford Development Studies. 52 (4): 396–412. doi: 10.1080/13600818.2024.2395008 .
  15. 1 2 3 Moran, R. E. (2005, October). Technical review of the El Dorado Mine Project Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), El Salvador. TECHNICAL REVIEW OF THE EL DORADO MINE PROJECT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT (EIA), EL SALVADOR. https://remwater.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Moran-Robert-E.-2005-Technical-Review-of-the-El-Dorado-Mine-Project-Environmental-Impact-Assessment-EIA-El-Salvador.pdf
  16. 1 2 United States Agency for International Development. (2011). El Salvador Country Profile: Property Rights and Resource Governance. https://www.land-links.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/USAID_Land_Tenure_El_Salvador_Profile_0.pdf
  17. ↑ Dario, S. (2006, September 6). Chalatenango communities say “no” to mining before Salvadoran Legislative Assembly: Mining Watch Canada. MiningWatch. https://miningwatch.ca/news/2006/9/6/chalatenango-communities-say-no-mining-salvadoran-legislative-assembly
  18. ↑ Dinur, Esty (2018-04-01). "How El Salvador Won on Mining". The Progressive . Archived from the original on 2023-07-01. Retrieved 2023-07-01.
  19. ↑ Radwin, Maxwell (2023-02-07). "Is El Salvador preparing to reverse its landmark mining ban?". Mongabay . Archived from the original on 2023-04-01. Retrieved 2023-07-01.
  20. ↑ "OceanaGold 2017 Sustainability Report" (PDF). OceanaGold Corporation. 1 June 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 June 2018.
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  22. 1 2 Broad, R., & Fischer-Mackey, J. (2017). From extractivism towards buen vivir: Mining policy as an indicator of a new development paradigm prioritising the environment. Third World Quarterly, 38(6), 1327–1349. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2016.1262741
  23. ↑ Montoya, A.; Sieder, R.; Bravo Espinosa, Y.; Knox, R.; Pauchulo, M.C. (2020). "The Legal Cultures of the Subsoil Database". doi:10.14296/slwu8713.
  24. ↑ Mesa Nacional. (n.d.). ¿Quienes Somos?. Mesa Nacional Frente A La Mineria Metálica. https://noalamineria.org.sv/quienes-somos/
  25. 1 2 Nadelman, R. H. (2017). El Salvador’s Challenge to the Latin American Extractive Imperative. In K. Jalbert, A. Willow, D. Casagrande, & S. Paladino (Eds.), ExtrACTION (1st ed., pp. 184–197). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315225579-13
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