Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Nickel Mining Returns

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

GUATEMALA CITY, Sep 12 2005 (IPS) - A Guatemalan subsidiary of the Canadian Skye Resources will pick up on nickel mining in the northeast of this Central American country. Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel (CGN) bought the rights and properties from Exploraciones y Explotaciones Mineras de Izabal, which paralyzed its operations in the 1980s as a result of the decline in nickel prices and the growing protests of local residents against the environmental damages.

“We are in an exploratory phase to determine the existence of the nickel reserves. Then we will begin reconstruction of the processing plant,” said Arnoldo García, CGN general manager. A mining permit will be sought to begin extraction in 2008, with an investment of 539 million dollars, García told Tierramérica.

With the mining activity, “we will lose environmental goods like water sources, rock and trees. That great destruction has no reparation,” said Magaly Rey Rosa, an activist with the environmental Madreselva Collective.

Since last year, the Guatemalan government has issued 221 permits for exploration and exploitation of gold, silver and other minerals.