Green vs. gold

Environmentalists warn gold mine would further endanger threatened species like the great green macaw. Image by Matt WyczalkowskiConstitutional Court to rule on open pit gold mine along the Nicaraguan border.

An open-pit gold mine may seem out of place in Costa Rica, self-touted as a world leader in eco-friendly policies. For President Óscar Arias, however, his push for what would become Costa Rica´s largest gold mine, does not contradict the tiny country´s environmental ideals, which includes becoming carbon neutral by 2021. Instead, he called the Las Crucitas gold project, near the border with Nicaragua, one of “public interest.”

Fervent opposition to the project has since driven the case to the country´s highest judicial court.

The seven-judge panel of the Supreme Court´s Constitutional Chamber is currently debating whether the mine, owned by Canada´s Infinito Gold Ltd., can move forward.

In October 2008, Arias, whose four-year term ends next year, issued a decree that ended a moratorium on the US$66 million-project, which is estimated to hold 1.2 million ounces of gold. The measure allowed forest clearing to resume in the area. Environmentalists argue that the zone is home to endangered species such as the great green macaw, which feed on the area´s almond trees. The company has countered that the bird had not been spotted during a survey of the area with judges and another court personnel and that the trees they had felled were part of secondary, not native, forest.

Defending mining

"Nicaragua has 14 mining projects, even from the Las Crucitas company, and I think that the rest of Latin America has similar projects or maybe even bigger ones," Arias said in October 2008, defending his decree.

But the mine´s activities were suspended shortly after his decree was issued, when 19 injunction requests, citing potential pollution, deforestation and other environmental and health damages, were filed with the Supreme Court. Arias´ then-Environment Minister Roberto Dobles, who advised that Las Crucitas was environmentally sound, resigned in March after coming under fire for granting a non-metallic mining concession to a local company whose board included his uncle.

The Attorney General´s Office is currently investigating both Arias and Dobles for the October 2008 decree, but has suspended its activities until the Supreme Court ruling.

In mid-November, the judges heard three days of testimony from environmentalists, scientists, local villagers and company officials.

The company argues that the mine will generate close to 300 jobs and 1,300 indirect jobs, in an area with few labor opportunities.

Andres Soto, a company spokesman, dismissed the environmental accusations.

"This is false," he said. "Crucitas is going to have a high-technology plant" that will contain the cyanide, a potentially toxic chemical used in gold mining, in five cement tanks.

"This is one of the principal strengths that Crucitas has," he added. "This means that the cyanide is going to be contained within the plant. It´s not going to have contact with the environment."

But Costa Rica, like other Central American nations, is prone to natural disasters, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and landslade that can cause the toxic chemicals used in gold extraction and processing to spread far beyond the originally contained area, something that the government and mining company has overlooked, said Alberto Cortés, a political and environmental sciences professor at the University of Costa Rica and a coordinator for a team of experts who presented one of the injunction petitions.

The court has until Dec. 17 to issue a ruling on the most recent case, which compiled the 19 injunction requests, in one final, 20th petition.

Environmental fears on both sides of the border

Costa Rican environmentalists are not the only ones with complaints about the project. The Las Crucitas mine, from which the company expects to mine 85,000 ounces of gold a year, sits near the border with Nicaragua, with whom Costa Rica has often had tense relations over immigration and border issues. In July of this year, the International Court of Justice ruled that the San Juan River, the waterway that divides the two Central American countries, is Nicaraguan territory, but that Costa Rica has rights to its closest bank.

But the San Juan River is the closest major waterway to the mine, and Nicaragua´s government and Costa Rican environmentalists have found a point of conciliation over the project. Nicaraguans, including President Daniel Ortega and several lawmakers, have protested and called Las Crucitas a threat.

"The government of Nicaragua should take greater action such as going to international conventions to stop this project that could affect its surface waters and regional acquifiers," said Marco Tulio Araya, of the Costa Rican environmental organization Union por Vida, or Unovida.

According to Infinito, the project could expand even more, as its exploration concession is around 800 square kilometers.

Poor environmental legacy for Arias

Costa Rica´s government seeks to step up the country´s image as an eco-friendly paradise in Central America, but infrastructure, real estate, mining and other industries undermine these efforts, some environmentalists argue. Chemical open-pit mining poses a particular threat, said Cortés.

"This is the government that has caused the most damage to the environment in the last 50 years," said Cortés. "There is no comparison in terms of exploiting natural resources."

Update on Friday, February 3, 2012 at 12:21 by City Parrots

Costa Rican Court Strikes Down Las Crucitas Gold Mine Project

Edison Valverde was one of the environmentalist who walked from San José to Crucitas on July 2010. On Wednesday, outside the court in Calle Blancos he celebrates a Costa Rican court's decision to strike down the Crucitas gold mine project located in the northern zone of Costa Rica.A Costa Rican court has annulled the mining concession previously granted to Industrias Infinito, S.A., and ordered the company to pay environmental damages.

A Costa Rican appeals court handed environmentalists a resounding victory Wednesday by ruling that a concession for a controversial open-pit gold mine at Las Crucitas, a small town in the country’s Northern Zone and near the border with Nicaragua, is invalid.

The court annulled the government mining concession previously granted to Industrias Infinito, S.A., a Costa Rican subsidiary of Infinito Gold, a Calgary, Canada-based mining exploration and development company.

The court ruled that environmental studies required to grant the mining concession were incomplete, and the mining contract was therefore illegal.

The current ruling stems from an appeal filed to the court by the environmental group The Wild Flora and Fauna Preservation Association. In July, the Costa Rican government announced it would not repeal the mining concession it had previously granted Industrias Infinito (TT, July 30).

The court also ordered the Public Ministry to open a criminal investigation of former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias for having signed off on a decree stating that the open-pit gold mine was in the public’s interest. The court found that since environmental studies were incomplete, Arias’ signing of the decree was illegal.

The investigation also will include Sonia Espinoza, former director of the National Technical Secretariat of the Environment Ministry (SETENA). The court found evidence of official misconduct on the part of Espinoza, who allegedly signed the permits that allowed the company to deforest a large area where the mine was to be built.

Espinoza was subpoenaed to testify during the trial. Initially she failed to appear, and it took an escort from court officials to bring her into the courtroom.

Judges also ordered investigations into several officials from SETENA’s Geology and Mining department and the Ministry of the Environment, Energy and Telecommunications, who allegedly participated in the decision to officially declare the mine within the public’s interest.

In a further ruling, the court also ordered Industrias Infinito to pay environmental damages for destruction caused during years of sporadic construction at the site. According to the court ruling, mine workers removed 2,391 trees and cleared a total of 121 hectares of land. The company also took over 76 additional hectares of land that had previously been used by farmers to grow crops and raise livestock.

Finally, judges ordered the National System of Conservation Areas to earmark funds to “restore the environmental balance” of Las Crucitas. Funds for the recovery project will come from the Finance Ministry.

Apreflofas attorney Alvaro Sagót promised to “squeeze them for every last penny to pay for the environmental damages.”

Industrias Infinito’s representative, Juan Carlos Obando, left the courtroom without commenting. A vocal crowd of protestors awaited him outside the court building, and Obando needed a police escort to reach his car. The Tico Times attempted to call him on his cell phone, but Obando hung up on a Tico Times reporter and then did not answer his phone.

For nearly two decades, the Crucitas gold mine has been a thorny issue for Costa Rica, a country that prides itself on its record of environmental protection. Environmentalists say the massive gold mining project – already partially built – would destroy thousands of trees, including the nationally protected Almond tree, a habitat for the endangered Green Macaw. The project could also potentially pollute the region's groundwater supply.

“Today is one of the happiest days of my professional life,” Carlos Coverdale, of the environmental group Preserve Planet, said in a statement.

“We've clearly demonstrated that the Crucitas Project is not viable. The whole country should be celebrating,” he said.

Indeed, after the verdict was made public at about 5 p.m. local time, cars honking their horns could be heard throughout downtown San José.

Lawyers representing the company are expected to appeal the ruling. “I believe there is an appeal process, (but) there are other options available to us,” Industrias Infito's president, John Morgan, said in September. Morgan said the company has not ruled out seeking international arbitration, a move that in the past has had limited success for other companies in Costa Rica.