Protesters will protest the reopening of the Crucitas Mine after the owners got a major victory over environmentalists.
The Costa Rican Supreme Court (Sala IV) ruled last Friday that a small Canadian mining company can proceed with its open-pit gold mine, striking down complaints from environmental groups that the project was destroying virgin forest.
“After reviewing the official studies we did not find that this mining project will negatively affect the environment. So the project will go ahead,” Vanlly Cantillo, a court spokeswoman said.
For years the Crucitas mine near the border of Nicaragua was closed until last weeks court ruling allowed it to open, a victory against environmentalists who had complained that the mine owner Infinito Gold Ltd (IG.V) would be breaking the law by cutting down trees in forests that are home to such wildlife as the endangered great green macaw and other precious birds.
Crucitas will be Costa Rica’s first major gold mine with a capacity to produce 85,000 ounces of gold annually. An U.S capital investment of $66 million was raised to start the mine with an indicated resource of 1.2 million ounces of gold, according to the company’s website. Obviously, Costa Rica Minister of Energy and Mining helped spearhead the permits, and will receive a few million in revenue.
Almost all the investment came from U.S. and only a few Canadian businesses and not from Costa Rica. The leftist Grupo Costa Rica en Acción called the company “foreign fraudsters.” It also called the Sala IV, “… accomplices of the Óscar Arias administration.”
“Now we must show Costa Rica that Crucitas will be a model of sustainable mining,” said Infinito Gold’s President John Morgan.
With approximately half of its surface covered in lush forest, Costa Rica is a world leader in eco-preservation.
When President Oscar Arias reversed a moratorium on open pit mining after taking office and declared the Crucitas project of “national interest,” – this sparked an eco-war with environmentalists. And it is expected that Laura Chinchilla, the country’s president-elect who takes office in May, and who is protege of Arias is also expected to follow closely the policies of Arias government, which is another strike against environmentalists.
The mine will be hiring local residences, so many in the vicinity can’t wait for the project to begin because of the economic benefit.
I believe that Costa Rica has it´s own beauty and it`s a privileged place. We can´t permit that our nature will be destroyed. We can´t eat money we need our land, our water and our nature to live and to work.
Without our wealth we won’t be Costa RICA never again!
i hate the open sky mining!!!!!!
because i´ve 16 years old and i don´t want to live in a country that will be destoyed!!!!!!!
Please don´t allow this!!!!!!!!
just so you know most of as costarican people are againt this project
@All About Balance: This is NOT about jobs for Costa Ricans. Who do you think benefits from traditional natural resource exploitation? FOREIGN CORPORATIONS. Eco-tourism is one of the current foundations of Costa Rica’s economy, but pulling minerals out of the ground never brings wealth to developing countries anywhere. But destroying primary forest hurts the whole world, and destroying the country’s environmentalist image hurts its real economy, eco-tourism.
The fact is….not every development is good for a country, but there has to be a balance between the citizens need to work and right to work and preserving every square inch of the forest for foreigners to come in and guawk at. A small open pit mine is not a bad way for Costa Ricans to enjoy a little wealth.
You got to love this country! First Costa Rica gets recognized world wide as one of the “greenest tourist destination” and than the president signs a document saying that open sky mining is of “national interest” LOL!