Vancouver-based mining company seeks a review of the rejection of its San José II mine in Oaxaca, Mexico

Photo: A protest outside the Canadian consulate in Oaxaca days after Bernardo Vásquez, an opponent of the Fortuna silver mine, was murdered on March 15, 2012.

On July 28, El Economista reported on Compañía Minera Cuzcatlán (CMC), a subsidiary of Vancouver-based Fortuna Silver Inc., seeking a review of the refusal by the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) of the environmental impact statement (MIA) for its proposed San José II mine in San José del Progreso, Oaxaca, Mexico.

A statement from the mining company says: “CMC has filed an appeal for review with Semarnat, stating the reasons why we believe that the MIA San José II can be evaluated at a second opportunity. In this way we continue to protect our rights and those of 1,200 working women and men, mostly heads of Oaxacan families.”

Mongabay has previously reported: “According to the last MIA that the company delivered in September 2020, they intend to continue with their gold and silver extraction activities in the municipality of San José del Progreso until 2029.”

The environmental permit was reportedly for a 7,000-hectare expansion of the existing 700-hectare mine.

But in its rejection of this permit, Semarnat stated that the company had failed to comply with the provisions of the original permit issued in 2009, by building 75 irregular works without authorization.

La Coperacha reports: “The No to Mining Front, composed of 12 communities in the Central Valleys, [has now] reiterated its demand for the total cancellation of the mining project, because, it recalled, for 10 years the Canadian mining company has systematically violated the human right to a healthy environment.”

Instead, the Canadian company is continuing to seek an expansion of its mine.

On March 11, Peace Brigades International and Amnesty International co-hosted this webinar that featured Neftali Reyes of Educa Oaxaca and representatives from Magdalena Ocotlán discussing the impacts of this mine.

This Educa Oaxaca report on the webinar highlights: “The representatives of the community located just a few meters from the San José mining project, owned by the FSM company, reiterated that ‘the mining company is affecting us a lot’ with water pollution, mine waste, constant noise and the shortage of water.”

For more on this, please see the Educa Oaxaca website here and Oaxacan Collective in Defence of Territories here.

PBI-Mexico began accompanying Educa Oaxaca in May 2013.