2021 Protest against renewed mining company activity at Cerro Blanco

In May 2021, the Central American Alliance against Mining (ACAFREMIN) issued a public statement condemning steps taken by the local subsidiary, Entre Mares de Guatemala S.A., to conduct a survey of some of the communities in the vicinity of the Cerro Blanco mine in order to orchestrate the company’s apparent consultation of local communities and their seeming approval of the project.   ACAFREMIN reported that Bluestone Resources, a Canadian corporation and new owner of the Cerro Blanco project, which is operated by the local subsidiary, Entre Mares, was seeking to move ahead with plans to develop the project as an open pit mine rather than through the underground tunnelling of the original mining project. ACAFREMIN noted that the companies had recently built roads, painted schools and promised jobs in order to obtain support from the local population of Asunción Mita.  Despite the much larger threat of environmental damage posed by the new open pit mining plan to water sources in Guatemala and El Salvador, Entre Mares and Bluestone Resources have not submitted a new Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), necessary to obtain a mining permit. Neither the companies nor the government have made available to the communities in Asunción Mita impartial and reliable information on the new mining plans and their potential impact on the environment, raising serious questions about the nature of the consultation process with local communities. In June 2021, ACAFREMIN, including Colectivo Madreselva in Guatemala, organized a protest against the mine. They warned of the renewed efforts of the mining companies and the Guatemalan mining authority to press ahead with the project and denounced  their failure to comply with legal requirements. This includes making publicly available a new EIA as well as open and transparent consultation with affected communities, including in El Salvador.