The Honduran Civic Alliance for Mining Law Reforms has accused mining companies operating here of putting pressure on Congress to postpone approval of legislative changes. The companies “want to remove the debate from Congress and take it to a different arena, thus breaking the consensus of more than six years,” Pedro Landa, of the Civic Alliance, told Tierramérica.

The Association of Mining Enterprises proposed that the para-governmental National Forum of Convergence take over the discussion of the reforms, which would invalidate the entire course of the process completed.

The modifications, which were to have been approved Sep. 20, focus on halting open-pit mining, prohibiting new exploration in more than 30 percent of Honduran territory (112,412 square km), hiking mining taxes and requiring mitigation measures in areas affected environmentally by mining activities.