{"id":3089,"date":"2013-11-04T22:52:11","date_gmt":"2013-11-04T11:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sjaroundthebay.org\/?p=3089"},"modified":"2013-11-06T12:33:54","modified_gmt":"2013-11-06T01:33:54","slug":"australian-mining-company-gets-involved-in-conflictive-project-in-el-salvador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sjaroundthebay.org\/?p=3089","title":{"rendered":"Australian mining company gets involved in conflictive project in El Salvador."},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t
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By Vladimir Pacheco, (published on this website 4-11-2013)<\/p>\n

Scars of civil war still fresh in the country\u2019s social landscape.<\/b><\/p>\n

After years of civil war El Salvador remains a fragile country both politically and economically. With a geographical territory a third the size of Tasmania, a population of 6.2 million and scare water resources, the country struggles to provide a decent livelihood for all of its citizens. Since the end of the civil war in 1992, successive governments of this small Central American nation have sought to industrialise the country by opening up the economy and encouraging foreign investment. Even though mining has not featured strongly in El Salvador\u2019s economic history, mining companies have taken advantage of the country\u2019s relaxed foreign investment rules to start exploration activities. Since the early 2000 as many as 10 transnational\u00a0mining corporations are prospecting for gold and other precious minerals buried under the northern mountains which provide the main source of clean water, fresh air and local agricultural production for the country.<\/p>\n

As gold mining corporations have lobbied to introduce a legal and logistical framework to set up industrial scale open pit mines through the northern region, they have met highly organised opposition from communities, civil society and church organizations that have repeatedly raised concerns over the use of excessive amounts of water, environmental degradation, public health impacts, as well as the social division that these projects may cause in a densely populated and politically polarised country with one of the highest levels of vulnerability to natural disasters.\u00a0 This fight in defense of a sustainable environment has been led by a highly organised movement of civil society organizations convened under the National Roundtable Against Metallic Mining<\/a>, as known as \u201cLa Mesa\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u00a0La Mesa has conducted a successful national and international campaign to stop mining in the country. For instance, in early 2009, the government of the rightist Antonio Saca acceded to public pressure and stopped issuing\u00a0mining exploration and exploitation permits. The current leftist government of Mauricio Funes has maintained the moratorium. In the meantime La Mesa has tabled a bill in the National Assembly that will ban metallic mining in the country but with the presidential election to take place in March 2014, the bill, in most likelihood, will not be debated until after the election result is known. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Corporate response.<\/b><\/p>\n

In response to the moratorium Pacific Rim, a company recently acquired by OceanaGold, sued the government of El Salvador for over US $77 million at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), under an investor state clause in the Central America Free Trade agreement with the US, CAFTA-DR. After the case under the ICSID was thrown out of court, Pacific Rim re-launched its law suit against el Salvador under local investment laws, and increased its demand to US $315 million. A veredict is expected in February, 2014.<\/p>\n

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