Communities Affected by the Cerro Blanco Mine host a Congressional Hearing

Congressional hearing on February 7th, 2022 with Congress member Aldo Davila. Community members from Asuncion Mita and El Salvador bring concerns to corresponding ministries over the conversion of the Cerro Blanco mine from underground tunnels to open-pit mining

The Cerro Blanco open-pit mining project threatens the right to health and a healthy environment for communities in Guatemala and El Salvador.

On December 21st, 2021, the mining company Elevar Resources, developer of the Cerro Blanco mining project in Asunción Mita Jutiapa, submitted to the Guatemalan Ministry of Environment an update of the 2007 Environmental Impact Study (EIA-329-2007) in which it requests a conversion of the underground mine into an open-pit mine, a form of mining that is much more damaging for the environment and dangerous for human health.

In 2017, the Canadian mining company Bluestone Resources, the parent company of Elevar Resources (formerly Entremares), acquired the rights to the project without taking into account that Entremares never overcame observations made by a technical team from the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) about the viability of the project and did not properly inform the population of Asunción Mita about the serious health, environmental, and water impacts that mining would have on their territory. This lack of information violates the right to free, prior, and informed consent of the population. In 14 years, Cerro Blanco has not managed to extract even one ounce of gold or silver. Evidence of the failure of the mine is that of the 63 infrastructure elements that were approved in the 2007 Environmental Impact Study (EIA-329-2007), only 19 have been built. However, from 1998 to 2020, the company has drilled 739 exploration boreholes and 17 dewatering wells, necessitating the continuous injection of thermal water in an attempt to lower the water table in the aquifer since 2007 so that mining can commence.

As a result, without having commenced the exploitation stage, the mine has already caused serious social and environmental impacts in the Ostúa – Guija – Lempa Basin, damaging and further placing the populations of Guatemala and El Salvador at risk. The permanent drainage of thermal water in the mine’s wells for more than 13 years has contributed to the drying up of water sources in the villages of Trapiche Vargas and El Tule, reducing the groundwater and forcing communities to deepen artesian wells in order to access water. This is occurring in the context of climate change and existing extreme drought in the Central American dry corridor.

As organisations from Guatemala and El Salvador and the communities of Asunción Mita, we express our concern about the socio-environmental impacts that this open-pit mining project could generate and demand that a new environmental impact study be carried out in tandem with a comprehensive assessment of the cross-border basin with the participation of both governments.

We do not accept that the project has been “upgraded” to process 10,952 tonnes per day rather than 1000. A project that was to extract 3.31 million tons in a 73.4 km tunnel now seeks to extract 144.8 million tons in reaching up to 370 m deep. Material that is subsequently turned into mining waste will be deposited on hillsides that will generate acid drainage and health-damaging residue. In total, the mine estimates that it will extract about 38.4 million m3 of water during the 12 years of exploitation, which will affect the local aquifer for more than 32 years. According to the model, the main rivers and streams affected will be Tancushapa, Tempisque, San Francisco, and the Ostúa river which drains into El Salvador. All will be significantly reduced in current, between 10% and 70%.

According to the update presented, the Ostúa river will also be used for the discharge of extracted water. Despite the fact that the Guatemalan Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed El Salvador on December 21st, 2021 the Lempa river basin would not be affected as the river would not be used by the mining company. It is of concern that in the current monitoring plan presented for the effluent water there is no management plan for other heavy metals and the treatment plant only considers the treatment of arsenic.

All of these effects will cause displacement, poverty, disease, and conflict. Additionally, the operation of the mine, with 500 construction workers, will bring prostitution, trafficking, and violence for the women in the communities. This is not contemplated in the current impact study.

We also denounce to the competent authorities the lack of transparency in the acquisition of the project by Bluestone Resources and its subsidiary Elevar Resources. In its press releases, Bluestone Resources states that it already has the permits from the Guatemalan government and that it only needs the approval of the Environmental Impact Study to start operations for a period of 11 years to extract 3 million ounces of gold and 10 million ounces of silver.

Faced with this situation:

We call on the population to demand the definitive closure of the Cerro Blanco mining project. In 14 years of operation, Cerro Blanco has contaminated the Ostúa River, a tributary of Lake Guija, and the Lempa River, with arsenic and heavy metals. This contamination violates the right of the population of Asunción Mita, the communities of Metapán that live on the shores of Lake Guija, and more than 3 million Salvadorans who depend on the Lempa River’s right to water, a healthy environment, life, and health.

We demand that the governments of Guatemala and El Salvador, with the help of the Central American Integration System and Multilateral Institutions, urgently resume a binational commission at the highest level to promote the negotiation of a Regional Treaty on Transboundary Waters. This treaty should establish the protection of shared basins for the implementation of a Strategic Environmental Assessment of transboundary basins to guarantee water sustainability for the Guatemalan and Salvadoran populations.
Given the lack of scientific certainty about the true impacts of open-pit mining in an environmentally sensitive region, we demand that the precautionary principle be applied and that protective measures be adopted to guarantee the rights of the population.
We demand that the governments of the region adopt economic development policies to promote sustainability and the use of common goods for the benefit of the great majority of our region. Including the regulation of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in order to reduce the socio-environmental impacts that put the future and the lives of this and future generations at risk.

Signed

Asociación de Mujeres Ambientalistas de El Salvador

Alianza Centro American frente a la Minería

Consejos Comunitarios de Desarrollo de Asunción Mita

Colectivo Madre Selva

Red Trinacional por el Rescate del Río Lempa

Guatemala February 7th, 2022

Signed letter in English: