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SolGold Cascabel mine impacts worse than thought previously

New research shows vast impact of Solgold's proposed Cascabel mine in Ecuador

Yemanyá Corporation research shows Cascabel mine will cause more environmental impact than all other Latin American mines

Esmeraldas, July 16, 2025 The Yemanyá Corporation – Water and Conservation, in its commitment to the conservation of aquatic ecosystems and the sustainable use of resources in the province of Esmeraldas, presents the
following statement:

The 200 km long Cascabel mine's mineral pipeline would affect 18 parishes in northern Esmeraldas and threaten the protected mangrove area of the Esmeraldas River.
The Australian company SolGold proposes the construction of a 200 km mineral pipeline that will transport the extracted ore from the Cascabel mine to the port of Esmeraldas. This would be a pipeline similar to an oil pipeline, transporting minerals in the form of a slurry, obtained by mixing mineral powder from the mine with water in a 60% to 40% ratio, thus creating an enormous demand for water. This infrastructure would have a high risk of failures and ruptures, causing the slurry to spill outside the pipeline. This mineral concentrate contains copper and other heavy metals such as cadmium and lead, and would pose a threat to the environment and human health.

Cascabel and proposed pipeline

The mineral pipeline would follow the route of the old railway line between Ibarra and San Lorenzo, continuing parallel to the highway that connects San Lorenzo with Esmeraldas. The mineral pipeline would cross 22 parishes in the provinces of Imbabura, Carchi, and Esmeraldas and would require a permanent right-of-way between 20 and 60 m wide for maintenance work. Landowners and communities would have to sell or cede the land to SolGold for the construction of this infrastructure.

The mineral pipeline would cross over the Rioverde, Cayapas, and Santiago rivers, but also over smaller ones such as the Lagarto, Ostiones, Mate, Colope rivers, and other watercourses that join the Pacific Ocean following a North-South direction. From its starting point at the Cascabel mine until it approaches the road leading to Esmeraldas, it would also affect almost fifty small estuaries and the Cachaví, Bogotá, and Zaspi rivers. The pipeline's route would generate a high risk of contamination of the water resources and transitional and coastal waters throughout northern Esmeraldas. Due to the topography of the 30 km coastline between Rioverde and Esmeraldas, the mineral pipeline must be routed through or near populated areas and close to the sea. In this area, social conflicts would arise over land rights needed for infrastructure construction, and slurry spills would be very difficult to control before they contaminate coastal waters.

Finally, the mineral pipeline would have to cross the Esmeraldas River to reach the port. The mineral pipeline could cross the river by following the bridge and highway connecting Tachina to Esmeraldas, but it would have to traverse the Esmeraldas River Mangrove Wildlife Refuge all the way to the port to bypass residential areas. Alternatively, the mineral pipeline could cross the river at a point between Las Piedras and the Coronel Carlos Concha Torres airport runway and reach the port via an elevated viaduct, but this solution would have a significant visual impact at the mouth of the Esmeraldas River. Either option would pose a high risk of direct spills into the mangroves and transitional waters of the Esmeraldas River in the event of slurry leaks.

Esmeraldas, January 2, 2025 The Yemanyá Corporation – Water and Conservation, in its commitment to the conservation of aquatic ecosystems and the sustainable use of resources in the province of Esmeraldas, presents the
following statement:
The Cascabel mine will affect the ancestral territories of the Awa people and two protected mangrove areas in the Chocó region.
The Cascabel mine, Ecuador's largest mining project, is located in the Mira River basin in northern Ecuador. The mining company SolGold has signed a contract with the Ecuadorian government to operate Cascabel. The Cascabel concession will generate over 600 million tons of waste (tailings), which will primarily be discharged into two tailings ponds in the Santiago River basin. Additionally, two tailings ponds will be built in the Mira River basin for the initial phases of Cascabel's development. The tailings deposited in these ponds can produce acidic leachates and contain copper, heavy metals, and binding chemicals used in mineral processing. SolGold also proposes using cyanide to recover gold from these tailings.

Impact of Cascabel on mangroves and Awa territory

The tailings will drain contaminated water that will affect the Cachabí and Bogotá rivers, the entire lower Santiago River and its mouth, as well as the Cachaco and Parambas rivers, the Mira River, and all the channels that make up its mouth between Cabo Manglares and the city of Tumaco in an area of more than 400 km². In total, over 500 km of river channels (191 km in Ecuador and 413 km in Colombia) will be affected by Cascabel's tailings. The Santiago and Mira rivers have rich aquatic biodiversity, with over 62 freshwater fish species, five of which are endemic, and three are classified as vulnerable or threatened.

Cascabel's activities and tailings will impact ecological reserves and ancestral territories and communities in Ecuador and Colombia. They will affect the Awá Bioanthropological Reserve and the La Turbia Indigenous Reserve, which form part of the ancestral Awá territory on both sides of the border between Ecuador and Colombia with nearly 2000 km² protected. In total, 100 km of river channels within the two reserves will be affected: 23 km of the Bogotá River, 12 km of the Cachabí River at the reserve's border, and 64 km of the Mira River. It will also affect the Manglares Cayapas-Mataje Ecological Reserve at the mouth of the Santiago-Cayapas River, spanning 564 km², where 13 ancestral Black communities have custody agreements for the sustainable exploitation of mangrove resources, mainly shellfish and crab, which, along with fishing, are their main economic resources. At the mouth of the Mira River in Colombia, it will affect the Cabo Manglares, Bajo Mira y Frontera National Park, spanning 1902 km². This is an emblematic natural site because Cabo Manglares is the westernmost point of Colombia and an important nesting area for sea turtles. Even though these protected areas are far from Cascabel, they will be the ultimate recipients of the sediments transported by the rivers from the mine's tailings ponds, because mangroves retain large quantities of sediments. Mangroves act as nurseries for commercially important marine fish, are important carbon sinks, and harbor characteristic species that depend on the diverse aquatic food web. These ecosystem services will decrease or disappear when contaminated sediments from Cascabel begin to deposit in the mangroves.

The Cotacachi-Cayapas Ecological Reserve, at 2600 km², is the largest forest reserve in the Ecuadorian Chocó in the upper Santiago-Cayapas River basin. The northern boundary of this reserve is only 6 km from the Awá Bioanthropological Reserve. The development of infrastructure and two tailings ponds in the upper Cachabí River will act as a physical barrier to the movement of wildlife between both reserves. Iconic species like the jaguar and tapir will have reduced possibilities for dispersal and survival. This will lead to the isolation of the two large protected areas of the Chocó, accentuating the already existing fragmentation in Ecuador's protected area system,
which is already critical in the coastal region.

The Cascabel mine will generate the largest environmental impact from mining development in recent Latin American history, affecting the last protected areas of the Chocó coastal region in Esmeraldas (Ecuador) and Nariño (Colombia). The mangroves located between the mouths of the Santiago-Cayapas and Mira rivers will receive contaminated sediments discharged by the Cascabel mine's tailings ponds. More than 80 km of coastline and the associated marine-coastal region, which boasts great biodiversity and high ecological value, will disappear due to the operation of the Cascabel mine.

Esmeraldas, November 17, 2024. The Yemanyá Corporation – Water and Conservation, in its commitment to the conservation of aquatic ecosystems and the sustainable use of resources in the province of Esmeraldas, presents the
following statement:
The Mira River basin is a binational heritage shared between Colombia and Ecuador, but the Cascabel mine will only benefit Ecuador.
The Cascabel mine, Ecuador's largest mining project, is located in the Mira River basin, in northern Ecuador. The mining company SolGold has just signed a contract with the Ecuadorian government to exploit Cascabel and estimates a market value of 5.4 billion dollars for the minerals extracted during the mine's first 28 years of operation. The Cascabel concession will generate over 600 million tons of waste, which will primarily be discharged into the Santiago River basin, 40 km away from the mining concession. Additionally, two tailings ponds will be built in the Mira River basin, on the Cachaco and Parambas rivers, both with a capacity to store 60 million tons of tailings that will be used in the initial phases of Cascabel's development. The tailings can produce acidic leachates and contain copper, heavy metals, and binding chemicals used in mineral processing.

Cascabel will wreak environmental disaster on Colombia

SolGold has also tested the use of cyanide to recover gold from the tailings. These tailings ponds will drain contaminated water into the Cachaco and Parambas rivers, tributaries of the Mira River. Affected areas include the parishes of Lita and Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño near the ponds, Guadual, and the Mira River downstream from its confluence with the Parambas River. The discharges will also affect Achotal, Vuelta Candelillas, Imbili, Cajapí del Mira, and the entire course of the Mira River in Colombia. Finally, they will disperse at the mouth of the Mira River, affecting Milagros and the Cabo Manglares, Bajo Mira y Frontera National Park. The mouth of the Mira River is characterized by a complex network of smaller channels, and the discharges will spread over an area of 400 km², reaching the city of Tumaco. Mine tailings leachates contaminate surface and groundwater, preventing their use for domestic supply and bathing in the river. Heavy metals enter food webs and, through bioaccumulation, concentrate in fish and crustaceans like shrimp and minchilla. Communities located downstream from the tailings ponds will suffer severe environmental damage and health risks from consuming contaminated water and fish. Furthermore, the Mira River basin contains a rich aquatic biodiversity with 33 native freshwater fish species, with two species classified as vulnerable and three as threatened or near-threatened.

The northern border between Ecuador and Colombia is merely an administrative boundary, as there's great cultural similarity on both sides. This is a conflictive border with five recognized armed groups operating in the territory that have the capacity to infiltrate Ecuador, as demonstrated by the attack on the San Lorenzo police barracks and the murder of three journalists by the Oliver Sinisterra Front group in 2018, or the presence of FARC dissident guerrillas 300 km from the border. Additionally, 50% of the cocaine produced in Colombia is transported to Ecuador for trafficking to the United States, Europe, and various Pacific countries. Besides insecurity and violence, similar problems have been identified in both countries, such as extreme poverty, lack of basic services, deficient infrastructure, and environmental deterioration. The need for joint actions for the development of these border regions was recognized as early as the 1940s. In 1990, the Border Integration Zone was established between Colombia and Ecuador, primarily to regulate vehicle circulation. Subsequently, the Andean Community established Border Integration Zones as a tool for transnational development and integration in 2001. In 2014, the Ecuador-Colombia Binational Border Integration Plan was presented, based on social and economic development, sustainability, biodiversity conservation, and pacification.

The Cascabel mine will keep its economic benefits in Ecuador but will leave only contaminated water and sediments in Colombia. The Cascabel mine itself, located 20 km from the border, and the necessary infrastructure for its operation could become future targets for armed groups if they come into conflict with the Ecuadorian government. Aside from the negative environmental and social impacts caused by Cascabel's tailings, this project will not contribute to the social and economic development needed for peacebuilding in the area on both sides of the border. On the contrary, Cascabel will be a source of greater economic inequality and conflict throughout its operational life of over 100 years, destroying three decades of work towards cross-border integration.

Esmeraldas, October 15, 2024. The Yemanyá Corporation – Water and Conservation, in its commitment to the conservation of aquatic ecosystems and the sustainable use of resources in the province of Esmeraldas, presents the
following statement:
The Cascabel mine will discharge over 600 million tons of waste into the Santiago River basin during its first 28 years of operation.

Cascabel will discarge 600 million tonnes of waste

The Cascabel mine is one of Ecuador's new large-scale mining projects. It's a metal deposit with high copper, gold, and silver content, located near Ibarra, in the municipalities of Lita and La Carolina, northern Ecuador, about 20 km from the Colombian border. The mining company SolGold recently signed a contract with the Ecuadorian government to operate Cascabel. They estimate that the Alpala deposit holds 10.7 million tons of copper, 760 tons of gold, and 2,600 tons of silver, which will be extracted during the mine's first 28 years of operation, with an estimated market value of 5.4 billion dollars. The Cascabel concession will generate over 600 million tons of waste during the mine's construction and operation. To accumulate these mining tailings, two tailings ponds have been planned in the upper Cachabí River basin, 4 and 7 km from San José de Cachabí.

These ponds will have the capacity to store over 2 billion tons of tailings. Although these ponds are located 40 km from the mining operation, they are easily accessible via the old railroad that connects Ibarra and San Lorenzo, which will be used to transport tailings from the mine via a 57 km pipeline. These tailings can produce acid leachate due to the presence of pyrites, and contain copper and other heavy metals like arsenic, cadmium, or lead, as well as binding chemicals used in the ore concentration process. Furthermore, SolGold has tested the use of cyanide to recover gold from the tailings and should clarify if it will ultimately be used at Cascabel. The tailings ponds will pump 1500 cubic meters of contaminated water per hour into the Cachabí River and will have a secondary drainage into the Bogotá River. The Chachi and Afro-descendant communities located downstream from the tailings ponds will suffer severe environmental damage and health risks, disrupting their economic and cultural connection to the river.

Affected areas include the parishes of Urbina, San Javier de Cachabí, Santa Rita, and Carondelet, as well as the entire lower Santiago River, Concepción, Maldonado, and Borbón. The mangroves of the Cayapas-Mataje Ecological Reserve will be the final recipients of these discharges. In the affected areas, it will be impossible to use surface and groundwater for domestic supply, and the recreational and daily use of the river itself will disappear, eliminating traditional economic activities such as fishing, shellfish gathering, and crab catching. Furthermore, the Santiago and Cayapas river basins contain a rich aquatic biodiversity with 62 freshwater fish species, five of which are endemic, and three are classified as vulnerable or threatened. After years of demanding control over illegal mining and the remediation of environmental damage, even with a still-valid court order to halt mining in the area, the government's response has been to hand these communities the drain from the world's third-largest copper mine.

The government assures that Cascabel is an example of sustainability, and SolGold presents itself on its website as a company committed to minimizing the social and environmental impacts of its operations. Although the government estimates an income of 1611 million dollars from mining royalties, of which 60% would be delivered to the affected municipalities, only the parishes of Lita and La Carolina, located within the Cascabel concession, will receive these mining royalties.

Although a strict environmental monitoring plan has been established, controls are only carried out in the Mira River and several streams that drain the concession area. This is a clear attempt to hide the true negative social and environmental impacts of Cascabel's tailings, which will be primarily located in the Santiago River basin.

Report shows Solgold’s Proposed Cascabel Mine in Ecuador will cause Untold Environmental Harm

New study shows Solgold's proposed Cascabel mine in Ecuador will cause untold environmental harm

Mining expert Steven H Emerman recommends Solgold abandon Cascabel project and regulatory agencies should not approve the mine after new report shows massive financial and environmental risks at proposed Cascabel site.

The areas highlighted red on this map are largely Australian controlled mining concession areas in northern Ecuador. The Cascabel mine is located approximately 100km north of Ecuador's capital city, Quito. The planned tailings dump is proposed to be located approximately 60km north east of Cascabel. Two pipelines are planned to pipe heavy and fine tailings to the waste dump area.

A proposed "block caving" gold and copper mine proposed by Australian mining exploration company Solgold, will most likely cause untold environmental harm to the region, Emerson shows. Solgold have been working in Ecuador for over a decade and the Cascabel* mine is their flagship operation in the country. The Cascabel mine, if operational could also lead to more mines in northern Ecuador. Cascabel tenements are surrounded by Hanrine concessions - owned by Australia's richest woman, Gina Rinehart.

Mining expert Steven H Emerman's detailed report raises some key issues regarding Cascabel, some of which include revelations that concentrate produced at Cascabel will be processed on site and then transported 150km-200km to the Port of Esmereldas and then on to undefined refining facilities. Previous reports by Rainforest Action Group have highlighted the security risks in this region. The report also reveals that the substantial deposits of gold, silver and copper at Cascabel are very low grade meaning that 469 million tonnes of rougher tailings and 60 million tonnes of finer mining tailings will be created by the Alpala mine and that the costs of the tailings management have been greatly underestimated. Tailings are the waste rock left behind after gold and other precious substances are extracted. They include high levels of arsenic, cadmium and other heavy metals and toxic substances. See Rainforest Action Group report on Tailing dams for more.

The Cadia mine in New South Wales near Orange shows the approximate size of 3km width tailings dam crest length. This tailings dam wall collapsed in 2018. The scars of the collapse can be seen just above centre left of image. In regards to the Solgold Cascabel proposal, "Thus, the mining company, its investors, the regulatory agencies, and the affected communities have not been provided with any knowledge as to what may actually happen after the failure of the tailings dam. Image credit: Google Earth

Tailings Dams

In Solgold's Pre-Feasilibility Study four preferred options for managing the tailings include the most preferred option which is the construction of two separate 57km long pipelines that will transport cleaner and rougher tailings to two unspecified sites on the coastal plains north west of Cascabel. Estimations for the costs of these options have been understated. No explanation has been given as to why the coastal plains location was chosen. Emerman writes "Considering that cost was a factor in the choice of the tailings management plan, the underestimation of the cost of tailings management comes as a great surprise".

Two of the other possible sitings for the tailings dams would be within the Cascabel concession itself. These two options would mean the construction of tailings dams over 200 metres in height and with dam crest lengths of over 1km. The two coastal plains options would require tailings dams with heights of 190 and 132 metres with final dam crest lengths of 3.3 and 4.6km.

SolGold's Pre-Feasibility study also does not analyse the consequences of tailings dam failure. There have been 2 to 5 major tailings dam failures around the world each year over the past 30 years. This raises real concerns about and what happens to the tailings dam after the mine is exhausted in 2050.

“The level of engineering complete for a TSF [Tailing Storage Facility] is greater than the level of engineering required for the rest of a mining project to support permitting requirements” (Henderson and Morrison, 2022)

Emerman states, 'The Pre-Feasibility Study recognizes community concerns regarding the open pit and the tailings storage facility as significant risk factors. The proposed action is 'Do not publish the location of any controversial infrastructure (e.g. Tailings, Open Pit),' although it is difficult to understand how such information could be kept secret."

This statement raises serious concerns that communities near the mine and tailings dumps have not been adequately consulted or given the opportunity to provide free and  informed consent, as is their legal right. Why the secrecy?

Acid Mine Drainage

Acidification of mining materials occurs when oxygen and water react to sulfide minerals to have been mined. This chemical reaction converts the sulfides to sulfuric acid. Acid mine drainage of this material is disastrous to waterways. Solgold propose to cover their tailings dams with a permanent water cover to lessen possibility of acidification of the cleaner tailings. This practice is no longer consistent with best industry practice as the water can have a detrimental impact on the physical stability of the tailings dam.

Solgold believe that only the 60 million tonnes and finer grade tailings will generate acidification but Emerman refutes this claim in his report, referring to the SME Tailings Management Handbook which says "Where tailings subaqueous disposal is employed behind constructed dams, the dam safety liability associated with maintaining the tailings in a flooded condition also remains … A dam that retains  a large water pond is inherently less safe than an embankment that does not. There are no case records of impoundments designed for perpetual submergence behind constructed dams that have been perpetually submerged. So, there is no demonstrated precedent for the legacy of permanent submergence being constructed today. We have only just started the clock” (Andrews et al., 2022).

View looking east towards the location of where the 529 million tonnes of mining tailings are proposed be located (marked in red, 50km from the ocean) - Colombian/Ecuadorian border in yellow. The tailings dam would be between 3-4 km in width and between 130-190 metres high. It is proposed to be located somewhere near the Rio Cachavi River which flows west into the Rio Tulubi, Rio Santiago and Rio Cayapas Rivers and then into the Pacific Ocean. None of the authors of the Pre-Feasibility study visited the site of the proposal Coastal Plains Tailings Dam site. What consultation is Solgold and the Ecuadorian Government doing with communities located nearby and downstream. The Rio Santiago/Rio Cayapas also take in the southern sections of the Mangroves Ecological Reserve Cayapas-Mataje

Two Tailings Pipelines

In the Pre-Feasibility there is no discussion about the possibility of pipeline failure. The two 57km pipelines have to cross four major rivers and numerous tributaries and there is no discussion of the exact pipeline route in the Pre-Feasibility proposal. Emerman suggests that failures of tailings pipelines will occur every year over the 28 years of the project. The Emerman report provides a database of 61 tailings pipeline failings, which has not been previously published. The pipelines will also require construction and maintenance of emergency ponds and leak detection systems.

There is also no discussion in the Pre-Feasibility study of excess water used in the pipelines which will most likely have to be discharged into local waterways near the tailings dam, or the costs of maintaining and eventual closure of the tailings dams. An estimated cost for the tailings dams is put at $267 million.. Operating costs of the tailings facility have also been underestimated by significant amounts.

Other concerns include the fact that there is currently no electricity at the proposed mine site. Proposed works have been woefully understated with multiple hydroelectric projects required to built to provide power to the mine. The low ore quality at Cascabel means that the entire ore body still has be crushed. It is suggested that Cascabel will require around 91MW.

Cascabel's power needs would consume all the entire output of the only two planned hydroelectric projects, Miravalle and Arenal, located near Cascabel and the Pre-Feasilibility study does not include any costings of new hydroelectric plant construction or operation. Miravalle and Arenal have a combined estimated cost of $283 million to generate 90MW. It is unlikely that the Government of Ecuador will support the idea that Cascabel would be the sole user of all the power generated by these yet to be built plants.

The Pre-Feasibility Study also states that "Multiple hydroelectric projects are currently in the advanced planning stage, with a total capacity of 200 MW having been identified in the local area. The Project plans to participate in these projects and secure the supply of power from them" yet Solgold provide no costings estimates for these plans.

Ecuador is home to some of the most diverse forests in the world. The proposed Cascabel mine will impact on local flora and fauna species, as will a planned tailings dump located approximately 60 km north east of the mine site. Two 57km pipelines are also bound to cause environmental problems.

In conclusion Emerman recommends that the Solgold should abandon the project and that investors should decline to invest in the project and that regulatory agencies should not approve the mine.

This article was first published by Friends of the Earth

 

A closer view of the mining tenements in the region. Hanrine tenements are owned by Gina Rinehart. Hanrine tenements south of Cascabel have already caused many problems including illegal mining and military interventions.

Hancock Prospecting in Ecuador: Seven years of reported violations

Hancock Prospecting in Ecuador: Seven years of reported violations

In 2016-17, Ecuador put a third of its land mass up for sale to mining companies. They came from all over the world eager to explore for copper, gold and other metals, including several Australian heavyweights and juniors: BHP, Newcrest, SolGold, Fortescue Metals, and more. Prominent among the new Australian investors was Hancock Prospecting. 

Image credit: Matt Golding, Sydney Morning Herald, June 2019

Seven years on, in 2024, these companies are all busy drilling and establishing projects - leaving behind them a trail of environmental damage and violence as they progress their ambitions. Of the Australian miners, Hancock Prospecting - through its 100% owned subsidiary, Hanrine - has attracted the most news headlines. Let's take a journey through the legacy that this well-endowed private company is creating in Ecuador, one of Latin America's poorest countries.

Find our 2019 shareable PDF fact sheets on Hancock Prospecting (HPPL) in English here and Spanish here. Updates will soon be available on our website.

Introduction

Hanrine is a subsidiary 100% owned by Hancock Prospecting (therefore 76.6% owned by Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart). The company was established in Ecuador in 2017.

Hanrine has never had a website. It is very difficult for the public to access information about the company. For its part, Hancock Prospecting has never published any details about Hanrine on its Australian website, apart from its logo.

The CEO of Hanrine, Carlos De Miguel, has a history of military involvement (he was a US Marine) and in the security industry (running a private security company). He had close ties with the Ecuadorian government under the administrations of both ex-presidents Rafael Correa and Lenín Moreno. He was known to be friends with Correa’s Minister of Mines, Javier Cordova and ex-CEO of Ecuadorian state mining company ENAMI, Stevie Gamboa (who, after leaving ENAMI, became the legal advisor for Hanrine).

De Miguel is reputedly linked with privileged information regarding major infrastructure developments in Ecuador and was allegedly involved in a security capacity with the internment of Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

2015-2017

2015: Australia signs a Memorandum of Understanding with the State of Ecuador regarding mining cooperation.

2016: The government of ex-president Rafael Correa opens over 2 million hectares of land across Ecuador up to local and transnational companies for mining exploration, without any public knowledge and in alleged violation of Ecuadorian Constitutional Law.

A flood of Australian mining companies move in to Ecuador to buy concessions, securing around 10% of the total transnational mining investment. These companies include BHP, SolGold, Fortescue Metals, Newcrest, Hancock Prospecting, Sunstone, Tempus/Pelorus, and Titan Minerals.

Representatives from Hancock Prospecting visit Ecuador (reportedly four times during the course of 2016). They make a deal with the Ecuadorian state mining company, ENAMI, regarding mining and exploration.

July 2017: Hancock Prospecting forms a new subsidiary - Hanrine Ecuadorian Explorations and Mining - and sets up office in Quito.

2018

Early 2018: Gold is found when contractors start working on a road into the peaceful rural parish of Buenos Aires. This sparks a massive “gold rush”. Up to 12,000 illegal miners quickly converge on the area, many from other countries such as Colombia, Peru and Venezuela. Among them are representatives of extant and former paramilitary groups, including FARC, and narco-trafficking gangs from Colombia and Ecuador. The local population, many of whom are small scale farmers, are overwhelmed. The Ecuadorian Government grapples to deal with the problem, but fails.

March: Hanrine acquires exploration rights to six mining concessions in northern Imbabura, totalling over 27,032 hectares close to the Colombian border and surrounding SolGold’s much-touted Cascabel copper project. This is one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet, and home to several small rural communities, including the Parish of Buenos Aires.

Hanrine’s acquisions are instantly controversial. According to Ecuadorian media reports, Hanrine was awarded the concessions after the new Moreno government pledged to suspend the mining cadastre (registry) and cancel more than 2000 mining concessions – actions promised in the wake of a national referendum when 80% of Ecuadorians voted “no” to the expansion of mining in environmentally vulnerable areas.

Moreover, local communities within the Parish of Buenos Aires have received absolutely no consultation about Hanrine moving into the region (this is not a problem specific to Hanrine; lack of consultation plagues communities all over Ecuador who are suddenly finding themselves on the frontlines of mining exploration).

April: Illegal mining is still concentrated in Hanrine’s active concession, Imba 2. Organised crime gangs are now well- established in the area. Gold is being trucked to San Lorenzo, one of Ecuador’s most dangerous ports. Several deaths of miners occur.

Illegal mining in Hanrine's concession, Buenos Aires Parish, Ecuador. Source: Ecuavisa, 2018.

June: After the death of a 14 year old child, residents of towns and villages within the parish of Buenos Aires protest on the streets, demanding that the illegal miners be evicted. Illegal miners form consortiums and battle for control over mines. Some claim they are dealing with Hanrine, saying they have asked the company for their mining rights to be legalised.

27 September:  Concerns are raised about the process by which Hanrine obtained their six concessions in just a few short weeks, rather than the 8 months or more it usually takes to secure mining titles. The assemblyman for Imbabura, Marcelo Simbaña, formalises a complaint before the General Comptroller of the State regarding this and other inconsistencies, and requests a constitutional injunction to stop Hanrine operating in the area.

December: The State of Ecuador sends in the military to address the illegal mining problem. Raids and arrests follow, but these efforts again fail to bring the situation under control.

2019

Military police entering Hanrine's concession in Buenos Aires, Ecuador, 2019. Source: BUPROE

May: Residents of Buenos Aires blockade the main road to illegal mines after locals are shot at in armed confrontation between gangs at the mining sites.

July: From Australia, Hancock Prospecting allegedly requests the State of Ecuador to intervene in the illegal mining situation in their concession Imba 2. The government responds by sending in 1,200 police and 1,500 troops. They create a militarised zone and declare a state of emergency in the region. 5000 illegal miners are evicted and their camps burned. Meanwhile dozens of police officers are arrested and charged for receiving bribes from illegal mining organisation leaders.

2020

January-March: Despite the successful removal of the illegal miners, the area of Buenos Aires remains under military presence. An order by the local Emergency Operations Committee of the Cantón of Urcuquí suspends Hanrine’s activities due to the Covid pandemic; however, Hanrine does not respect this restriction.

Hanrine chases Llurimagua: An article published in the journal Periodismo de Investigation (3 August 2020) reveals that Hanrine has, since 2017, been in battle with Chilean state mining company Codelco for control of a lucrative 49% share with ENAMI in the Llurimagua copper-molybdenum project located in Junín, Intag.

Llurimagua is a highly contested project: planned to be one of the world’s biggest copper mines if built, it would host huge infrastructure (including a vast tailings dam) in a highly flood and earthquake-prone region, which also happens to be in the centre of the world’s number one biodiversity hotspot. Llurimagua has been opposed by the majority of the local community since the beginning. Currently two legal cases have been won against the mining company. The second (March 2023) resulted in a ruling that nullified Codelco’s environmental license due to violation of constitutional laws protecting the Rights of Nature.

Codelco's letter to Hancock Prospecting. Source: Periodo Investigación.

Allegedly, in the first half of 2020, Hanrine offered the Ecuadorian Government $400 million for the stake in the project and begged the Ecuadorian Government, via dozens of letters, to open the concession up to a tender process. This move angers Codelco, who had received the concession for free in 2016 under a deal with President Correa.

5 June: Codelco's Attorney General in Chile writes to Hancock Prospecting's Executive General Manager in Perth, Australia, saying "Stop interfering in our business...any subsequent action by Hancock will undoubtedly constitute conscious and intentional interference that could be extremely detrimental to Codelco's contractual rights".

July 27: Hanrine’s CEO, Carlos De Miguel, is caught with a stockpile of weapons at his home in Quito and arrested. He is charged with possession of illegal firearms and 9,500 rounds of ammunition. De Miguel’s defense claims that he was set up by the government and falsely charged. He is later released with the charges dropped. It is speculated that the arrest was related to the conflict between the two companies, Hanrine and Codelco, and possibly instigated by the Ecuadorian Government.

August 17: The restrictions on Hanrine’s operations in their Imba 2 concession are finally lifted. Hanrine attempts to enter. On August 21, the communities of Buenos Aires parish gather together, demanding that Hanrine exits Imba 2. Four days later, 180 local people burn down one of Hanrine’s main mining camps.

Hanrine's camp burns, August 2020. Source: El Universo

2021

April: The Public Defender’s Office calls on the national government to suspend all Hanrine’s mining activities in the Buenos Aires parish after what it deemed was excessive military force against inhabitants resisting mining. Hanrine contracts a  lawyer to threaten the President of the Parish of Buenos Aires, falsely accusing her of violating the company’s constitutional rights by not allowing them access to their concession.

April-June: Buenos Aires residents reiterate that they were not consulted and do not want any mining on their land, and set up a 24-hour vigil to keep Hanrine out.

June: Hundreds of Hanrine workers block the only access road into the town with trucks and machinery for over 40 days, trying to force residents to allow them passage. An Urcuquí judge eventually rules that Hanrine is violating the rights of the Buenos Aires people and gives the company 10 days to withdraw from the public highway.

July: Hanrine allegedly bribes a Quito judge to accept a Protective Action on behalf of the company. The judge’s subsequent ruling hands the national police unprecedented powers to oppress and disperse local protestors.

August 3: In the early hours of the morning, only a matter of days after the court order was given in Quito, Hanrine forces its way through Buenos Aires with over 500 police, who shoot tear gas and rubber bullets at crowds. Police arrest several people without justification or charges and hold them in jail for days. Meanwhile Hanrine gets their machinery through into the hills, sets up camp, and commences exploration activities.

August 18: Imbabura Assemblyman, Mario Ruiz, files a formal complaint expressing concerns about alleged corruption on the part of Hanrine which led to the August 3 events. In October, an investigation by the National Council of the Judiciary in Ecuador confirms the presence of irregularities and manipulation of the judicial computer system in the Protective Action launched by Hanrine in July.

2022

March: After a long campaign by local human rights organisations and the Public Defenders Office, Hanrine’s water use permits are revoked by a court order. The court decides that Hanrine has no legal right to access water for private and agricultural use, and therefore their applications are invalid. Hanrine is banned from accessing their exploration works around the farming area of El Triunfo. Despite this order, Hanrine tries numerous times to sneak back into their camps and restart work.

June 18: In the midst of a national strike, Hanrine uses the cover of a State of Emergency to try (again) to force entry. The army and police use grenades and tear gas in order to clear the streets of citizens. Local news outlets report that five people are injured - one an elderly person who is unable to move after the attack.

There are numerous other reported incidents through the course of 2022, when farmers peacefully try to stop Hanrine entering their private access roads, and are arrested and criminalised – despite the fact that it is the company who is conducting illegal actions.

2023

January: Hanrine engages the army to help them enter private properties around the village of El Triunfo in order to build a new mining camp. Farmers blockade their private access roads and are shot at with rubber bullets. Videos shared on social media show terrifying scenes of running and screaming in the midst of gunshots. The company exits a couple of days later, after being threatened with legal consequences for violation of the March 2022 court order invalidating their water use licenses.

Over the course of 2023: Hanrine, whilst not active in Imba 2, apparently feels no obligation to utilise the police to protect local farmers and townspeople from illegal mining. Therefore the police, while maintaining checkpoints on the entry and exit roads to the town of Buenos Aires, do little to stop hundreds of illegal miners moving back, reinhabiting their camp known as Plastic City, and restarting their mining activities.

Dangerous drug gangs roll in to control the area, including the notorious “Los Lobos”. Violence and crime worsens. Buenos Aires, once a small peaceful town, begins to host night clubs, liquor outlets and brothels. More violent incidents occur, and the residents of Buenos Aires continue to be oppressed by police whenever they attempt to peacefully protest the trespass of Hanrine or illegal miners on their private roads and properties.

November: Without warning, Hanrine removes all machinery from their exploration camps in Imba 2 and lays off its workers.

December 2023-January 2024: Many of Hanrine’s workers, suddenly finding themselves without income, join the illegal miners, swelling the numbers to over 3000. A series of military operations commence, purging and burning camps and equipment.

2024

March: Weeks after their exit from Imba 2, Hanrine expands its activity. Through a back room deal, without respect of Ecuadorian mining laws (which require that concessions be sold through a tender process), Hanrine seals a $150 million partnership with ENAMI, giving them access to a 49% stake in six mining concessions in Intag. The concessions surround the embattled Llurimagua copper-molybdenum project, which has been stalled by investor corruption, environmental concerns and social resistance since 2018.

This move by Hanrine is bold, for two reasons. Firstly, Intag has the longest history of unified resistance against mining in Latin America – four decades of successfully repelling one company after another – and has achieved two legal precedents defending the rights of Nature in the area. Secondly, local community and environmental organisations suspect that Hanrine’s desire to own these concessions has a lot to do with their ambitions for Llurimagua … see below.

Mining concessions in the province of Imbabura as of March 2024. Hanrine's are in green. Source: APT-Norte.

April: Ecuador’s Constitutional Court rules to invalidate an appeal launched by Codelco and the Ministry of Environment, which attemped to overturn a 2023 Court of Imbabura judgement removing their environmental permit to develop the Llurimagua project.

This ruling, while a positive result for those fighting Llurimagua, raises concerns in local communities that should Codelco give up its share of the mining project, the most likely company to buy it will be Hanrine. If this scenario comes to pass, Hanrine will own over 40,000 hectares of contigious mining concessions across the region of Intag. Furthermore, almost the entire province of Imbabura (with the exception of EMSAEC, Agroindustrial, and private concessions) will be occupied by four Australian mining companies – Hanrine, SolGold, BHP and Sunstone.

April: Hanrine invests $186m ($120m US)  in the Linderos copper exploration project in the Ecuadorian province of Loja (owned by a junior Australian company, Titan Minerals) with a view to acquire up to 80% of the project. Gina Rinehart is reportedly committed to increasing her investments in the so-called Andean Copper Belt - copper being an important battery metal - but so far, Ecuador is the only country in the region where she has a footprint. Within the past few months, Rinehart has also bought substantial sized shares in lithium and rare earth metals mines in Australia, Brazil and the United States.

May: Local Intag residents report that Hanrine employees have visited farmers living within their new Guadalupe mining concession in Intag and offered to upgrade access roads to farms.

RAG is working closely with people and communities who are being directly impacted by Hanrine's activities. Many of the events described here and in our linked media releases have been reported first hand from the frontlines, while the remaining references are sourced in Ecuadorian and Australian news media. We will update this timeline as things unfold through 2024.

 

New report on SolGold backer Jiangxi

Rainforest Action Group launches its new report today on Jiangxi Copper, the Chinese mining company which invested $36 million US into SolGold in December

Only weeks after Canada ordered three Chinese companies to give up their investments in Canadian minerals in November 2022, citing national security, SolGold announced Jiangxi would become a new investors to drive development of its flagship project Cascabel in the north of Ecuador.

Jiiangxi Copper is the largest integrated copper producer in the People's Republic of China. Its principal business includes: copper, gold and silver mining, dressing, smelting, processing, extraction and production of sulphuric acid.

As of late 2022, Jiangxi was the 46th largest mining company in the world. Jiangxi operates 6 mines in China and one in Kazakhstan. It owns the biggest copper smelting and refining complex in the world, at Guixi in China, which has discharged significant pollution into the local environment, particularly metals (copper, cadmium, arsenic, lead and others) and acid gases (sulfur dioxide and sulfuric acid). Fifteen villages with a total population of 10,000 people have been affected by the smelter, with hair and urine samples showing high concentrations of heavy metals. Farmland surrounding the smelter has also been contaminated, including 132 hectares of rice farmland and 6 hectares of vegetable farmland.

More on Jiangxi's operations can be found in the report here.

Rainforest Action Group report on Jiangxi Copper

Intag says no to mining

On September 12, members of Intag's local government and organisations sent a letter to the CEOS of BHP, Cornerstone Capital Resources, Codelco and Sunstone Metals, stating that unconsulted mining in their territories was threatening water sources, and demanding they stop explorations in the area.

The email below was sent to the CEOs of BHP Billiton and its subsidiary Cerro Quebrado S.A.; Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. and its subsidiary Cornerstone Ecuador S.A.; CODELCO, and its subsidiary Exploraciones Mineras Andinas Ecuador Emsaec s.a.; with copies to President Guillermo Lasso, Ministries of the Environment and Water, and the Ministry of Energy and Non-renewable Resources. Visit DECOIN for more information.

We, the undersigned representatives of the Autonomous Decentralized Parochial Governments and the principal social organizations of the Intag area, Cotacachi County, Province of lmbabura, send you our most sincere greetings. At the same time, we would like you to listen to the voice of the majority of the population of the Intag area, which has been struggling since January 1995 to prevent the development of metallic mining projects in our territories.

1) Please be aware, CEOs and Ministers, that mining concessions were granted in the Intag area without prior consultation with the potentially affected populations, in flagrant violation of Article 398 of the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador. In addition to contradicting the Development and Land Use Plans of the decentralized autonomous governments, the mining projects ignore the pronouncement of the Assembly of Unity of Cotacachi County, a space for citizen participation and which has, since 1996, rejected extractivism.

The nearly 90,000 hectares under concession, and being processed, include dozens of communities, productive agricultural lands that supply several cities in Ecuador with food, as well as organic export markets, tourist attractions, 21 micro and sub-watersheds, and includes an important extension of primary and secondary cloud forests. We remind you that the forests of Intag are within the Tropical Andes Biodiversity Hotspot, the most biodiverse of all the Hotspots of global importance. They are home to critically endangered species of mammals, birds, amphibians, fish and trees, including one of the world’s most endangered primates, as well as sheltering and protecting the water of 50 communities. Some species, such as the Longnose Harlequin Frog and the Rocket Frog, have only been reported in the forests of a mining concession and nowhere else in the world.

3) At least 48 water sources that supply the population of rural communities in the Intag area with this vital liquid are located entirely within the mining concessions. In addition, there are more than 200 natural sources of water for human consumption and food sovereignty for local peasant families.

4) Several mining concessions of BHP-Billiton and Cornerstone overlap the Los Cedros, Cebu and El Placer-La Florida Protected Forests, as well as thousands of hectares of forests registered in the Socio Bosque forest conservation program, where mining activities will directly contribute to the degradation of the sites’ biodiversity and worsen the climate crisis.

5) All mining concessions in the Intag Zone, without exception, intersect with the protection zone known as the Buffer Zone of the Cotacachi Cayapas National Park, considered one of the most biologically important on the planet. In the buffer zones, as should be obvious, only sustainable activities that serve as an environmental buffer should be allowed.

6) 100% of the concessioned areas in Intag are within the ACUSMIT, the Intag-Toisan Municipal Conservation and Sustainable Use Area, approved by municipal ordinance in 2019, in whose strict protection and conservation/recovery macrozones no mining activities are allowed. This is not the only municipal ordinance in Cotacachi County that prioritizes conservation and prohibits mining. In 2000, an ordinance was passed declaring Cotacachi an Ecological County. The Ordinance, as well as the ACUSMIT, is still in effect.

7) Intag currently has 38 Community Hydrological Reserves covering some 12,000 hectares of cloud forests and micro-watersheds. All but one of the reserves are located within the mining concessions. Apart from contributing to climate stability and biodiversity conservation, the reserves supply thousands of inhabitants with clean water, and are jealously protected by the communities. Any activity that degrades the vegetation cover is prohibited in the reserves, as is hunting and logging. Mining is expressly prohibited within the reserves.

8) According to a preliminary environmental impact study for a small copper mine in the Llurimagua area prepared by Japanese experts, Intag’s copper deposits are mixed with highly toxic substances. The expert authors of the study predicted the contamination of our rivers with arsenic, lead, cadmium and chromium. Likewise, massive deforestation is predicted, which would lead to the drying of our climate, and the relocation of four communities. Subsequently, they reported the presence of an even larger deposit.

With all this background, we call on you to preserve our right to live in peace and in a healthy environment, rights enshrined in the Constitution of Ecuador, laws and international agreements. We will not allow those business practices that have proven to be sources of conflict in our communities, nor mining activities that cause degradation of our forests, biodiversity and especially our water sources. Therefore, we strongly reject the unconsented presence of mining companies, and, even more so in times of global climate emergency, and we call on national and international bodies to join us in defending the Intag area and in building a future without extractivism.

Signatures follow below:

It is worth mentioning that these organizations, unlike the ones that support mining, have never received a penny from the mining companies.

Sanctuary for life in Ecuador

A Constitutional Protection Action could protect the Rights of Nature over the economic rights of transnational companies in Ecuador's Intag Valley.

Originally published in The Ecologist by Rebekah Hayden

The Intag valley in the Imbabura province, high up in north-west of Ecuador, should be a peaceful place. Forested mountains are blanketed so thickly in fog that the sub-tropical rainforests are known as cloud forests.

These forests shelter a biodiverse treasure in the plants and animals found here – many of which are critically endangered or at risk of extinction. Some are found nowhere else on earth. A study in 2018 found 287 endangered species in the Intag area alone. That number keeps going up as new species are discovered.

On the valley floor, farmers hold small plots of land, growing coffee, bananas and other subsistence crops. Yet beneath the subsoil lies bright seams of copper. To get to it, chunks of the valley and the mountains must be torn apart.

Mining

Atelopus longirostris. Image credit: Carlos Zorrilla

The Intag region has been a hotbed of conflict since the early 1990s, when miners exploring for copper discovered the valley’s mineral riches, and the community first voiced their opposition. Since then, communities in Intag have denounced mining companies for violations of permits and licenses. Two mining companies have since been forced out by peaceful, but determined community resistance.

Backed by local government, communities have presented evidence of serious human rights abuses, contamination of the Junín river, illegal logging, unauthorised land-use, and demanded the area be recognised as a mining-free zone, highlighting the region’s other sources of wealth, including its biological diversity and ecotourism potential.

A preliminary Environmental Impact Study conducted in 1996 found even a small copper mine in the Intag region would lead to massive deforestation and contamination of waterways with heavy metals. It predicted relocation of four communities, a reduction in rainfall and an increase in climate instability, a serious concern for a region already at grave risk of climate change.

Despite all this, the government continues to parcel up the land and sell it to transnational companies.

The Llurimagua copper mining project has a complicated history. Ecuadorian state miner ENAMI and Chile giant Codelco started exploring the site in 2015 – but only after it had been secured by hundreds of police. Conflict over how to split the profits, community resistance and a damning environmental impact study has stopped any exploration since 2018.

In 2019, the Comptroller General and the Ombudsman's report on the mining project found glaring violations to the law and strongly suggested the forest within the mining area should be given rights due to its biological significance. ENAMI is now planning to sell off its share.

Mining 

Also in Imbabura, but fifty kilometres north-east of Llurimagua, Australian miner SolGold holds the Cascabel mining concession, which could equal Chile’s Escondida copper mine in size if it is developed. In 2019, Ecuador's Comptroller General published the results of a special investigation revealing many irregularities linked to the project.

Just below Cascabel, operations are degenerating into fiasco at a concession held by Hanrine, a subsidiary of Hancock Prospecting, and owned by Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart.

In 2019, the military had to kick thousands of illegal miners off the concession, while in recent months Hanrine’s General Manager was arrested for possession of military-style weapons and its main mining camp was burnt down. Illegal mining has contributed to a range of social problems at nearby townships, and now locals are wary of large industrial mining as well.

BHP also has a concession close to SolGold’s Cascabel project. Like the others, it is an area lush with primary and secondary cloud forest. On August 27, local authorities called for a halt of all mining projects in the area for fear of stoking social conflicts and environmental contamination.

Impact

BHP is emerging as the mining company which might have the largest impact on the region. Not only does it hold five concessions in the Intag area, but as a majority shareholder in SolGold holding a 14.7 percent stake, it stands to benefit from their concessions as well. BHP have been under a standstill agreement with SolGold which expires in October, allowing it to make a bid on the company. BHP is also a major contender in the race to buy ENAMI’s share of Llurimagua, along with Hanrine.

If BHP wins its bids for both SolGold and ENAMI’s share of Llurimagua, not only would it have the largest number of concessions in the region, but its holdings across Ecuador would total over 300,000 hectares.

As the biggest mining company in the world, BHP likes to appear socially and environmentally responsible. That has not been the experience of people on the ground in the Intag.

BHP’s concessions in Intag cover thousands of hectares of the local governments’ watersheds, primary and secondary forest reserves, farmland and the water sources for several communities. They also cover farmland, and seven communities who view the sale of land for mining as illegal, as they were never consulted by the government or gave consent – in direct violation of the Ecuadorian Constitution.

BHP obtained permits and conducted its first explorations for copper without community consent, and has repeatedly tried to divide the community. In January 2020, the affected communities voted to declare the area a mining-free zone. It is nearly three years since BHP has been able to access the concession.

Protections

BHP has a clearly worded charter that states it will not explore or extract resources within or adjacent to the boundaries of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Protected Areas, or operate where there is a risk of causing the extinction of an IUCN Red List Threatened Species.

Yet five of BHP’s concessions lie within the Cotacachi-Capayas Ecological Reserve Buffer Zone, the habitat of several IUCN-listed species; there are at least two IUCN-listed species at LLurimagua; and many more across the concessions it might inherit if it bids for SolGold as well.

With BHP’s AGM coming up on October 14, there is a small hope that shareholder pressure may caution BHP to not invest further in these projects.

Ecuador is unique in the world for not only recognizing that nature has rights, but embedding these in its Constitution. DECOIN (Organizacion para la Defensa y Conservacion Ecologica de Intag), the team leading the Llurimagua Rights of Nature case, believes Rights of Nature are equivalent to the right to life, and that both of these rights are violated by the economic rights of transnational companies.

The Los Cedros Biological Reserve is also making a case with the Rights of Nature clause at the Constitutional Court, arguing that it should give Protected Forests greater protections from mining and other extractive industries.

Good living 

Carlos Zorilla, a founder of DECOIN, says a positive ruling for the Lluriamgua case would have a much wider impact than only safeguarding Protected Forests. It would prohibit extractive activities in all habitats where endemic species are found. All endemic species would be included – whether the species have protection or not. Given Ecuador’s high rate of endemism, it could stop a large part of the country from being mined.  

A public awareness campaign based around Buen Vivir or “good living”, a cornerstone concept of the Ecuadorian Constitution – Intag as a Sanctuary for Life – is strongly backed by the Cotacachi County Government, with the Mayor publicly expressing an interest in creating a local law to declare all of Intag and Manduriacos a Sanctuary for Life. This would put it at loggerheads with the national government, which has been threatening local governments with criminal proceedings if they pass anti-mining ordinances.

The first Constitutional Injunction (Medidas Cautelares) to immediately stop the Llurimagua mining project was heard by the Cotacachi court on 11 September.

The case hinges on two species of frogs threatened by the Llurimagua mining project: the Longnose Harlequin Frog and the Confusing Rocket Frog. The former was listed by the IUCN as extinct until its unexpected rediscovery last year; both are endemic to forests covered by the mining concession. Another two dozen species including the Andean Eagle, a species of spider monkey, and the spectacled bear are also in danger of extinction.

At the hearing, Ecuador's best-known herpetologist Juan Manuel Guayasamin gave a testimony on the endemic frogs, while mammal biologist Professor Diego Tirira, University of Sussex biologist Mika Peck, and Javier Morales from the Ombudsman’s office presented Amicus Curiae (Friends of the Court) on the importance of the region and the threats various species face.

Communities

By contrast, the government’s attorneys only brought forward a flawed Environmental Impact Study with 235 observations they were still “working to resolve”.

Carlos Zorilla said: “A problem facing all court cases based on the Rights of Nature is that it is rare to find a judge or lawyer who properly understands it. 

"If we lose, we will take the case all the way to the Supreme Court, as we feel there is indisputable evidence that mining in Intag’s forests will violate the Rights of Nature, causing the two endemic frogs to go extinct, and push others closer to extinction.”

Regardless of the outcome of the case, it should not be incumbent on communities or courts to ensure the good behaviour of mining companies or governments. They must come to recognise themselves that mineral rights do not give them the green light to commit gross environmental crimes or human rights abuses.

The world needs places that stay untouched; where the risk of what we might lose outweighs any potential economic benefit. Intag is one of these places.

Australian mining companies plunder Ecuador’s gold and copper

First published in Green Left by Anthony Amis

In 2008, Ecuador was the first country in the world to enshrine the rights of nature in its constitution. But, as Anthony Amis reports, international mining companies have been given the green light to exploit the country’s copper and gold reserves.

Illegal mining in Buenos Aires, part of the Hanrine mining concession in Ecuador. Image credit: Ecuvisa

The Ecuadorian government is desperate for foreign capital injections to ease its weakening economy, caused in part by falling oil prices.

The small South American country has become a magnet over the past four years for mainly Australian and Canadian mining companies wanting to cash in on the desperation and mine its untapped mineral resources.

Mining companies have arrived in Ecuador, largely after its copper and gold reserves. “Copper is the new iron ore”, according to one Australian mining executive. Companies are already designing their marketing strategies around the need to mine copper to supply the world’s renewable energy sector.

For most of Ecuador’s history there has been small-scale gold mining. The country has not been exposed to the large-scale mines that have been pushed forward in neighbouring countries, such as Chile, since the 1970s, or Peru in the 1990s. This situation is rapidly changing.

In 2009, the government of Rafael Correa (who was president from 2007-17) enacted Ecuador’s Mining Law and in 2010 created the national mining company ENAMI. The new law however, was seen as a major disincentive to multinational companies, because of a constitutional mandate that suspended the granting of new mining concessions and the expiration of several existing concessions. It was also unpopular due to a windfall tariff of 70% on the difference between the sale price and baseline pricing.

Indigenous opposition

Indigenous groups also opposed the law and mining in general, particularly in the Amazon basin, and big protests occurred in 2007 and 2009. Mass protests by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) also occurred in 2012, culminating in a march to the capital, Quito, in March 2013.

The decision to auction off 3 million hectares of the Amazonian rainforest in the Yasuni Nature Reserve to Chinese oil companies in 2013 further raised the ire of indigenous groups. Ecuador, at the time, had a US$7 billion debt to the Chinese Government.

Some refinements to the Mining Law occurred in 2012 and in 2015 the Correa government created new mining investor-friendly taxes and government incentives and policies to further attract mining. These included the creation of the Mining Ministry (now the Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources Ministry).

By March 2016, guidelines for granting metallic mining concessions across the country were created. Local communities and, in particular, indigenous communities, were kept in the dark as to these developments.

Moreno's mining boom

In May 2017, Lenin Moreno came to power and in 2018 the 70% windfall tariff was lifted by his government. Moreno went cap in hand to the International Monetary Fund for a US$10bn package of loans, which meant cuts in government spending. Mining was seen as a means of generating revenue and was expected to bring in US$715 million of taxes for the government by 2021.

Many conservationists first became alerted to the mining company “invasion” in 2017 when volunteers at the 5000ha Los Cedros Reserve, located in the northwest of the country noticed forest disturbances on the edge of the reserve, which they attributed to illegal miners.

Los Cedros was created in the late 1980s through a grant from the Australian Government’s AusAID program and contains some of the most biodiverse forest on the planet. It has been fiercely protected since that time, with 1200 scientists from around the world supporting its long term protection from mining.

After conducting further research, campaigners soon realised that 68% of Los Cedros had been under a mining concession for several months to Canadian mining company Cornerstone Capital Resources.

More investigations followed and the alarming discovery was made that the concession over Los Cedros was only the tip of the iceberg. A third of the entire country of Ecuador (7.17 million ha) had been opened up to mining concessions, with a massive amount of concessions on protected forests and indigenous lands.

Australian mining interests

Melbourne Rainforest Action Group formed in 2018 to research which Australian mining companies were investing, exploring and ultimately mining in Ecuador.

The company with the largest number of concessions (more than 70) is little-known Brisbane-based exploration company Solgold. Solgold had been exploring in Ecuador since 2011, so had the edge on other companies by establishing a foothold in the country. Their prized asset was a concession located in the north of the country called Cascabel, which had initially been “owned” by Cornerstone, which kept a 15% interest in the concession.

Solgold CEO Nick Mather was involved with Waratah Coal, one the first companies to propose mining in Queensland’s Galilee Basin. Waratah was snapped up by Clive Palmer in 2008 and Mather went on to help develop the coal seam gas industry in Queensland. Australian miners BHP and Newcrest Mining also have an interest in Solgold, each owning 14% of the company. BHP also has further mining concessions in north-western Ecuador, very close to Los Cedros. Their exploration was resisted by local communities in the Intag Valley and BHP raised the ire of many after their exploration activities badly polluted the Manduriaca River.

Melbourne-based Newcrest Mining’s main interest is in the south-east of the country, in the headwaters of the Amazon. Production began this year at a massive underground mine, Fruta Del Norte, which Newcrest has a 32% stake in. The company developing the mine was the Swedish firm, Lundin Mining.

Forty kilometres north of Fruta del Norte, production has also just started at the huge Mirador mine, owned by Chinese firms China Railway Construction Company (CRCC) and Tongling Nonferrous. This mine, also in the headwaters of the Amazon, plans to have the world’s tallest tailings dam, three times higher than any other.

In light of the disastrous tailings dams collapses in Brazil over the past few years, there are very real concerns that a similar dam collapse at Mirador could destroy thousands of kilometres of waterways in the Amazon.

Further investigations found that Australian mining magnates Gina Rinehart and Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest were also active in Ecuador. Rinehart’s company, a subsidiary of Hancock Prospecting, Hanrine, owns several concessions just south of Cascabel and Forrest’s company Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) owns a swath of concessions throughout the central and southern areas of the country. FMG’s concession ownership in Ecuador (about 70) is second only to Solgold, as far as Australian companies go, although its on-ground activities have, so far, been limited. FMG has been active in Ecuador since June 2016.

Gina Rinehart

Rinehart mining camp burnt. Image credit: El Universo

Hancock Prospecting first visited the country in September 2016. Just before concessions were granted to Hanrine in early 2018, a gold rush occurred on one of its concessions called Imba 2.

Up to 10,000 miners from a dozen countries soon flooded into the concession near the small community of Buenos Aires. The gold rush was huge news in Ecuador and it soon became apparent that the illegal miners were also under the thumb of local mafia cartels.

After 18 months, and the reported murders of a number of miners by organised criminals, two thousand troops were sent in to clear out the concession in July last year. Millions of dollars of damage to the concession was reported with some saying that the “foreign” owner of the concession should be held responsible for some of the clean up and security costs. El Comercio reported on August 26 that Hanrine's mining camp near Buenos Aires was set ablaze on August 25.

In August, the media reported that Hanrine’s general manager of operations in Ecuador, Carlos Miguel, had been arrested on arms charges. Miguel’s security company was contracted to provide security for the Ecuadorian embassy in London, a month after WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange entered it. There are suggestions that Miguel was arrested because of a dispute between Hanrine and the Chilean and Ecuadorian Government’s over control of a major potential mine called Llurimagua, again in the north west of the country. An offer of $400m had reportedly been made by Hanrine, which supposedly would buy out the Ecuadorian Government’s share.

Other Australian companies involved in Ecuador include Perth-based Sunstone Metals, which owns two concessions in the north and south of the country, with one directly bordering Los Cedros.

Another Perth-based company, Titan Minerals, recently took over the Canadian company Core Gold, which owns a processing plant and concessions in southern Ecuador, and Tempus Resources which owns two mining concessions in rainforest in close proximity to the Fruta Del Norte mine.

Local resistance to the mining and exploration is ongoing. Ecuador is a very volatile region. A Chinese-owned mine called Rio Blanco was shut down in 2018 after being fire bombed. Numerous communities are fighting back over loss of control of their lands, including their drinking water supplies.

Solgold has been the target of some protests and BHP is copping plenty of attention in the Intag Valley from a number of communities. Ongoing protests have also occurred in the country’s south east near the Fruta del Norte and Mirador mines, which are located on the lands of the Shuar people.

If Rinehart is successful in her pursuit of the copper resources of Llurimagua mine, she will also encounter the wrath of the Intag Valley community, which has long voiced its opposition to mining in the region.

 

Mining at Llurimagua – a social and environmental catastrophe

Selling the World a Social and Environmental Catastrophe: Ecuador’s Llurimagua Mining Project
By Carlos Zorilla

The government of Ecuador has been busy trying sell its share of the troubled Llurimagua copper project to a third party of late. Right now it is owned by two state-owned mining companies, Ecuador’s ENAMI and the Chilean giant, CODELCO, the world’s largest copper producer. Big names like BHP have been mentioned, as well as lesser players, like Hanrine (subsidiary of Australian Hancock). There is even evidence than a Chinese firm is interested.  The government’s main selling point is that the concession could hold “one of the richest copper deposits in the Andes”.  What they don’t tell you that it is one hell of a conflictive area, where countless human rights violations have been documented, and where the communities have battled against the development of the mine since 1995 and kicked out two transnational mining companies.

Prospective Buyers Beware

Contamination from exploration activities, 2017. Junin community reserve. Image credit: Carlos Zorilla

Government officials and the press also conveniently leave out that the only way the government and Codelco was able to insert themselves in Intag was  by illegally and violently occupying the whole Intag valley in 2014 with the “cooperation” of 389 elite police and military personnel. And then, only after a campaign of intimidation by falsely arresting a community leader and jailing him for 10 months without sentencing. And, I’m sure the government officials are telling prospective buyers that where Codelco and Enami are planning on exploring and previously explored, is within the Junin community forest reserve and in the middle of an unexplored pre-Incan site. Right?

Oh, and then there is that minor issue the copper ore laying beneath primary cloud forests that are part of the Tropical Andes, by far the most diverse of the world’s 36 Biodiversity Hotspots.  In fact, the forests within the mining concession harbor HUNDREDS of animal and plant species in danger of extinction. Many are critically endangered, and some are found here and nowhere else on the planet.  Another minor detail the greenwashers might be forgetting to mention is that, in Ecuador, since the 2008 Constitution, Nature has rights. Species extinction would certainly violate such rights.

Did I forget to mention that in 1996 Japanese scientist produced a preliminary Environmental Impact Study for a small copper mine? What they predicted might turn you off to mining in Intag. “Massive deforestation”; drying up of the local climate; contamination of rivers and streams with lead, arsenic, cadmium and chromium, and relocation of hundreds of families from four communities are just some of the findings.  Two years later they reported the ore deposit could be 5 times larger. Add the fact that the ore is, according to the latest estimates, very low grade (0,44%), that by all indications it seems to be very deeply buried, that the area gets between 3 and 5 meters of rain annually, that it is located in a seismically active part of the Andes, in extremely steep terrain, and you have the ingredients for creating one of the world’s worse environmental nightmares.  Especially since Codelco is “guesstimating” the ore body might possibly hold 17 million tons of copper, incrusted in 4 billion tons of ore. If it’s ever confirmed, the ore body would be 55 times larger than what the Japanese used to base their apocalyptic social and environmental impacts on. Then there is the pesky issue of profitability. Low grade deposit, deeply buried, mixed with arsenic and lead plus, at the very low-price tag of USD $2.00 per ton to remediate the mining site, the project would become instantly unprofitable. But then again, who’s worrying about numbers?

If these reasons are not enough to dissuade any reasonable thinking person, there are plenty others.

For more information check out:

www.decoin.org   and www.codelcoecuador.com

For quick oversight of impacts of advanced exploration in Intag: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-kztjjSHrQ

Gold, Guns and Gina Rinehart’s mining concessions in Ecuador

Carlos De Miguel III, the General Manager of Hanrine Ecuadorian Excploration and Mining SA, a subsidiary of Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting, was apprehended by police for an alleged illegal weapons cache. Mr De Miguel was found with several pistols, rifles, and more than 9,500 rounds of ammunition.

Gina Rhinehart in Ecuador
CREDIT: MATT GOLDING, Sydney Morning Herald

A spokesman for Hancock in Australia said in a statement that Carlos De Miguel held “the correct permits for these weapons which are approved by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Defence. The spokesperson went on to note "the safety of employees at Hanrine is very important to Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd (HPPL), and executives of HPPL visit the project from time to time, their safety while visiting Ecuador is also important.”

The discovery of the weapons cache raises one obvious question; why is Ecuador considered so unsafe that Hanrine executives need to possess such advanced weaponry and vast quantities of ammunition?

To understand the sovereign risks of doing business in Ecuador, we need to touch upon the history of Hanrine's mining concessions, and the clouds of controversy hanging over their purchase; along with the dangers of operating so close to the unstable Colombian border region. 

Police inspect a guns and ammo cache of Hanrine General Manager, Carlos De Miguel III in Ecuador. (Video still)

Hanrine obtained six exploratory concessions (totaling 27032 ha) located just south of Solgold-Cornerstone's Cascabel concession, in January and March 2018. According to Ecuadorian media reports, Hanrine was controversially awarded these mining concessions after the government had previously pledged to suspend the mining cadastre and cancel more than 2000 mining concessions.

On Dec 11th, 2017, Ecuadorian president Lenin Moreno had announced his mining policy u-turn following an uprising by indigenous groups and mass protests lead by the Prefect of the province of Azuay, Yaku Perez; along with the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE).

Indigenous groups led a long march from the province of Zamora to the capital Quito, in defense of water catchments and against large-scale extractive industries. The protests brought the capital to a stand still and led to the resignation of former Minister of Mining, Javier Cordova, who had failed to halt the allocation of mining concessions during the contested period.

Illegal mining in Buenos Aires, Ecuador
Illegal mining in Buenos Aires (Hanrine Mining Concession), Ecuador. Image credit: Ecuavisa 2018

The nationwide protests eventually led to a popular referendum in February 2018 in which Ecuadorians approved, among other proposals, to prohibit metal mining in protected areas, intangible zones and urban centers. President Moreno even publicly declared that mining had left a hundred rivers "severely" contaminated in the country.

Moreover, concerns have also been raised by the Ecuadorian press about the process by which Hanrine obtained these 6 disputed concessions in just a few short weeks rather than the 8 months or more it usually takes to secure mining titles. On 27 September, 2018, the assemblyman for Imbabura, Marcelo Simbaña, formalised a complaint before the General Comptroller of the State regarding inconsistencies in awarding the mining concessions to Hanrine.

Hanrine concessions
Gina's Hanrine concession areas in yellow. Image credit: Rainforest Action Group

In February 2018, just a month after awarding Hanrine the disputed concessions, a state of emergency in Buenos Aires is declared. Police and military are called in to begin confiscating hundreds of tons of mining material and clear out the illegal 'wildcat' miners and heavily armed rebel groups that had prevented Hanrine workers from accessing their concession areas.

The Hanrine concessions sit dangerously close to the Colombian border, an area renowned for para-military drug trafficking, corruption and money laundering. The area has been subject to significant unrest, with thousands of illegal miners, a number of deaths (including a 14-year-old child), and complaints of organised crime, drug trafficking and prostitution rings running alongside the illegal mining. After numerous arrests for illegal mining, the artisanal miners formed The National Union of Miners in Ecuador at El Triunfo (August 2018) to argue for the legalisation of their small scale mining operations on Hanrine concessions.

Ecuador army entering Rinehart concession. Image credit: El Pais

In July 2019, a massive military operation is organised to put an end to the illegal mining and organised crime and violence it attracted, with only mixed success. It's quite clear Hancock Prospecting's subsidiary is operating in an incredibly dangerous and complex business environment, facing strong opposition from small-scale miners, indigenous groups and environmental NGOs that are united in their opposition to large-scale mining in the region.

In a surprising twist, Hanrine is also facing an increasingly hostile government. Tension between the Ecuadorian Government and Hanrine is now building. According to the complainant, the arrest of Carlos De Miguel is a premeditated attack to block his activities as manager of the company he represents "due to clear and evident private interests of the minister  [Maria Paula Romo], who in due course will have to explain them to the country."

Is a legal challenge between embattled Hanrine and the Ecuadorian Government in the wind? 

Stay tuned for future updates on this high-stakes legal battle currently underway in Ecuador.

 

Full English-language articles here and here and Spanish-language sources here and here

Elected local officials threatened with jail for opposing mining

(MiningWatchCanada, Ottawa)

The elected President and Vice President of a rural municipality in northwestern Ecuador have been threatened with criminal, administrative, and constitutional charges if they approve any measures to prohibit mining. The threat came in response to concerns expressed by the Decentralized Autonomous Government (GAD in Spanish) of “6 de Julio de Cuellaje” parish, in the diverse agricultural and cloud forest region of Intag, that the government of Ecuador was taking advantage of the COVID-19 emergency to impose the Llurimagua copper-gold project against local opposition.

Graham Richards. Image credit: Mining Watch Canada

GAD President Ángel Widberto Flores Pilatuña and Vice President Graham Richards received a letter from the Ministry of Energy and Non-Renewable Resources (MERNNR) on May 27, which threatens them with criminal, administrative, and constitutional charges if they approve any anti-mining related norms at the parish level:

“Any approval of a normative or administrative act by the GADs which attempts to prohibit mining activities could result in the imposition of legal actions before the justice tribunals… and also prosecution under the criminal code.”

The letter was responding to a communique that the parish government wrote to President Lenin Moreno on April 18, 2020, to express its concerns regarding the government’s signing of a joint venture agreement with Chilean mining giant, Codelco, to push forward the controversial Llurimagua project. The letter noted that the government is taking advantage of the pandemic sanitary emergency situation to push the project through without the consent of the local communities, a move which they consider illegitimate and illegal, and highlighted the region’s resistance to industrial mining for over 25 years.

In response to the threats, several Ecuadorian organisations released a statement condemning the move, stating that “the government, in collusion with mining companies, CANNOT put “strategic projects” over and above human and constitutional rights. ...The actions of the MERNNR demonstrate...that Ecuadorians are living in a mining dictatorship.”

This is the latest of a series of actions that governments and mining companies have taken during the COVID-19 pandemic to repress widespread anti-mining sentiment across the globe and in Ecuador, reveals a new report.  In May, the Ecuadorian government approved a protocol for mining companies to operate during the pandemic, which included providing military convoys for mineral transportation. This came just after three public officials were arrestedin the province of Morona Santiago for attempting to block trucks going to Lundin Gold’s Fruta del Norte mine for fear their entry into the remote Amazon region could help transmit the virus.

Despite the threats, the GAD is not backing down. “We will not allow the government or companies to steamroll over our legitimate decisions and push through mega-mining. This pandemic cannot be used as an excuse to impose these projects on us, or our future generations,” said GAD Vice-President Graham Richards.

Cuellaje is facing multiple mining threats: Chilean copper giant Codelco, Australian mining giant BHP, and Canadian junior mining company Cornerstone Capital Resources all have concession rights in the area. Mining activities are widely opposed in the region due to its ecological sensitivity and its rich and diverse small-scale agricultural production, ancient forests, and vibrant tourism sector.

For more information contact:

  • Graham Richards, Cuellaje Parish (Spanish and English), +593 98 846 1692
  • Kirsten Francescone, MiningWatch Canada (Spanish and English), +1 (437) 345-9881