Costa Rica President Rodrigo Chaves and several ministers met yesterday with deputies from various political parties to discuss mining in Crucitas. The government seeks to modify the current legislation to ensure that the State obtains better profits from gold mining.
Laura Fernández, Minister of the Presidency, advocated for amending the Mining Code, which establishes a profit for the country of 2% of the royalty. She pointed out that the current laws on this subject date back to 1948. Fernández emphasized the public interest and the need to find a solution to the “environmental disaster” in this area of San Carlos.
Meanwhile, Franz Tattenbach, Minister of the Environment, said, “we’re interested in protecting the environment, and to do so, we need actions of the necessary magnitude to combat the disaster we are facing.”
The only political party that did not participate in the meeting was Frente Amplio, who reminded everyone that open-pit mining is prohibited in Costa Rica. The government did not rule out the possibility that Infinito Gold Ltda. could exploit gold in Crucitas through the concession model.
“At this moment, there is no prohibition for Industrias Infinito, nor for any other company. In the future, depending on the model that may be chosen for the exploitation—if that is the way—there is no sanction for any company to participate in a concession process,” Manuel Tovar, Minister of Foreign Trade commented.
From the environmental sector, the exploitation of this mineral in Costa Rica should not be an option since it has been demonstrated that this practice does not yield good results.
“The problem is the experience we have had in Costa Rica. We see that there is poor management of the whole environmental aspect here, which generates damages. For example, at the Bellavista Mine, a very strong hurricane broke the tailings ponds, contaminated rivers, and this reached the sea. Recently, approximately two months ago, the same thing happened again at another mine, also in Miramar,” explained environmental lawyer Alvaro Sagot.
Meanwhile, the Association of Geologists believes that the option to extract gold legally could generate money that can be used in a solidarity fund of reserves for the benefit of the pension of the entire population, the construction of schools, bridges, airports, and hospitals.
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