2018 Community condemns Company-led “Consultation Processes”

On 15 January 2018, B2Gold, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Desarrollo Minero de Nicaragua S.A. (DESMINIC S.A.), held a consultation on the environmental impacts of its planned exploration to the west of “Tajo La Antena” project, a portion of La Libertad Mine project located near the Jabalí neighbourhood in Santo Domingo’s town centre (also known as, Jabalí Antena Underground project). The residents rejected industrial mining in their communities, citing concerns for environmental damage and disruptions to daily life, such as nightly land tremors caused by the mining equipment used to drill into the ground. The residents left the consultation and marched in the streets of Santo Domingo, protesting against industrial mining. The company advised that it would hold three further consultations and that opinions on the impacts of its project should be submitted in writing to the General Directorate of Environmental Quality (DGCA) (Articulo 66, 2018) (Note, the Articulo66 article also includes an embedded video of the demonstration).

The ineffectiveness of company-led consultations was also noted in an interview conducted with representatives of the Nicaraguan Centre for Human Rights (CENIDH) as part of The Legal Cultures of the Subsoil project. They noted that B2Gold held a consultation regarding the environmental impacts of an earlier portion of the project. Residents were given one-week’s notice of the consultation, which itself was not widely publicized.

In June 2017, a group of community and social movements announced the formation of the National Environmental Movement against Industrial Mining, with the objective of securing participation by community residents in consultations relating to industrial mining operations. This group’s members include the Save Santo Domingo Environmental Movement (MASSD) (No a la Mina, 2017).