2016 Ceibita community consent for mining project

On 30 June 2016 EMCO Mining (which changed its name to Inversiones Los Pinares (ILP) in 2017 and became part of the EMCO Group) approached locals of Ceibita to build an access road through their community to the processing plant and mining site. The company promised jobs and investment in Ceibita in return for agreeing to the access road. The official record of the meeting (Acta certificada #083-2016) was subsequently presented by Inversiones ECOTEK (a sister company to ILP and also part of the EMCO Group), which was created to develop the processing plant, as evidence that consultation had taken place in the form of a cabildo abierto (town hall consultative assembly). Other communities affected by the project, particularly Guapinol on the opposite side of River Guapinol that separates the two communities, were not involved in the meeting. Their concerns about the impact of the works on their water supply from the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers were not considered.

In February 2018, Inversiones ECOTEK obtained a provisional licence from MiAmbiente+ to construct the iron pellet processing plant. Its petitions for an operating licence included the record of the meetings held with Ceibita representatives in 2016 and 2017 as evidence of the legal requirement to “socialise” information about the mine and consult with the affected communities (REMA, 2020). The Municipal Committee in Defence of Common and Public Goods (CMDBCP) has argued that these measures did not amount to effective prior consultation with the communities affected by the project and was evidence of a process manipulated by the company and local authorities to benefit the company and particular community members.