SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — On Monday, the Congress of El Salvador made a significant decision by approving a new law to lift the seven-year-old prohibition on metal mining within the country.
This law, advocated by President Nayib Bukele, was approved with a vote of 57 in favor and only 3 against. It will permit mining activities in most areas, excluding nature reserves and sensitive watershed regions, and is expected to be enacted following the president’s endorsement.
The legislation also prohibits the use of hazardous mercury in the gold mining process and mandates that private companies form joint ventures with the government to establish mining operations.
Environmental advocates, alongside representatives from the Roman Catholic Church, have voiced their opposition to the mining revival, mainly due to concerns regarding potential harm to the environment. Earlier in the year, President Bukele described the previous ban as “absurd.”
Archbishop José Luis Escobar Alas has urged the president to maintain the mining ban, which has been effective since 2017. In a recent homily, he warned that lifting the ban would have devastating effects on the nation.
This sentiment was echoed by around 100 environmental activists and civic members who gathered to protest near Congress, with Adalberto Blanco, part of the Permanent Roundtable on Risk Management, stating, “They are giving us a gift, on Dec. 23, 2024, of pollution for our water, our land.”
A poll conducted by Central American University José Simeón Cañas revealed that a majority of the Salvadoran population opposes the idea of mining being reinstated.
In November, Bukele, who enjoys considerable popularity, proposed the notion of extracting gold, highlighting the untapped gold resources in the country as a potential source of transformative wealth for El Salvador.
He estimates that the country’s gold reserves could be valued at around $3 trillion.
Currently, exploration has identified deposits of gold and silver; however, large-scale metal mining has not yet commenced. As such, the extent of the country’s gold reserves remains uncertain.
Additionally, President Bukele’s political party maintains a substantial majority in the El Salvador Congress, and the political opposition has been severely weakened.
