On February 28, the Government of Honduras announced an end to open-pit mining of any sort. It would later clarify that this did not pertain to pre-existing mining operations.
“The approval of permits for extractive exploitation is cancelled due to being harmful to the state of Honduras, threatening natural resources, public health and because they limit access to water as a human right”, the Ministry of Energy, Natural Resources, Environment and Mines said in a statement announcing the move.
It followed the recent election of leftist President Xiomara Castro whose election manifesto had pledged to limit mining. The manifesto, according to Reuters, detailed 282 mining concessions handed out by previous governments through 2017, citing the country’s geology and mining institute.
At a news conference on March 4 in the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa, Reuters said that a reporter asked environment and mining Minister Lucky Medina if the government would stick to its declaration that Honduras will be free from open pit mining.
“The measure never had a retroactive effect to strip those who have already obtained their licenses, nor strip them of their previous (licenses),” Medina said.
“That’s an evidently judicial decision,” he added, in an apparent reference to any possible retroactive actions.
A government statement issued before Medina’s remarks underlined that the government “will supervise” some 28,000 hectares that have been granted in concessions for metallic and nonmetallic mining. That statement did not mention permit cancellations.
Medina’s comments were seen as likely to soothe concerns over the future of Canadian company Aura Minerals’ San Andres mine, an open-pit project in western Honduras. Reuters said that the Aura Minerals project has been met by stiff local opposition in part due to alleged disturbances to a Maya-Chorti indigenous cemetery. Agence France-Presse reported that environmentalists in Honduras have also been fighting against an iron oxide mine in Tocoa in the northeast which they accuse of damaging a forest reserve.
Honduras’s actions are not revolutionary as far as Central America is concerned. In 2018 El Salvador banned metal mining and Costa Rica outlawed open-pit mining in 2010.
While there is no expectation that the government here will match these revolutionary measures to protect the environment there must be a robust examination of the impact of open-pit mining and other forms of mining here, the benefit they bring to the state and the lasting damage that they wreak on the environment. There is also a significant human toll from mining pit collapses and the country must never forget the August 1995 tailings dam breach at Omai Gold Mines Limited that fouled the Omai Creek and the Essequibo River.
This newspaper has had a longstanding position that alluvial mining should be banned in recognition of the real damage that has been done to waterways and the pollution of the water supplies used by downstream communities. Needless to say, alluvial mining continues unabated never mind the piles of waste left in rivers that change their course and the toxic metals and pollutants that are released into these waters. With the price of gold as it is and the potent influence wielded by the gold mining community on the government there is unlikely to be any shift in policy although the wanton and reckless use of mercury for metal recovery has to be urgently addressed.
Today, the Konawaruk River in Region Eight serves as a damning sentinel of the damage that can be done from unrestrained alluvial mining for metals and other riches – much of which is lost to the country by smuggling without any benefits accruing to the state.
With 10 billion barrels of oil offshore – extraction of which should be guided by a depletion policy that takes account of the country’s climate obligations – Guyana should be re-assessing whether there should be limits on extraction in other sectors to mitigate the inevitable environmental damage.
The thinking of the Ali administration seems to be that the pedal will be pressed to the maximum in all extractive sectors including associated gas from oil.
In his February 22nd address to the country on the occasion of the 52nd anniversary of Guyana’s Republican status under the topic `Country Positioning’, President Ali reeled off a list of resources at the country’s disposal. He prefaced the list by stating that “We, as a people, must understand what our country has to offer and where it will be positioned in the future”.
He then went on to say we have:
* 19.5 gigatons of carbon worth conservatively US$195b
* Our forestry sector has an estimated value of US$500b
* The potential value of our Gold Reserves, at the current rate, is approximately US$35b
* Our total bauxite reserves have a potential value close to US$1b.
* Our quarrying reserves are valued at approximately US$1b.
* Our silica sand reserves are estimated at 1.5 billion tonnes, valued conservatively at G$37.5b.
* Our freshwater capacity is estimated at G$4b per annum.
He added: “These characteristics of our country position us to be among the best in food production, aquaculture, eco-tourism, environmental services, forestry, mining, and energy among many others”.
The President went on to say the “world has now started to realise this. It is our collective effort that will position us among the best globally in these and other sectors”.
Given the current rate of oil recovery, the government must seriously consider the benefits of extraction of other natural resources against the environmental damage caused, leakage of revenues and whether human rights and inter-generational equity shouldn’t be key factors in greenlighting decisions.
It is not often that an example of enlightened governance can be readily taken from Central America but in this instance Georgetown should take considered note of the stance by Tegucigalpa on open-pit mining.
