Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) to reassess permit for San José del Progreso mine

Photo: PBI-Mexico accompanies the Civil Observation Mission on Human Rights visit to the San Jose mine, November 2012.

Mining.com reports: “[Vancouver-based] Fortuna Silver Mine stock fell 11% on Thursday [January 5] after a decision to re-asses the extension of the San Jose mine Environmental Impact Authorization.”

The article continues: “The company reported that its Mexican subsidiary, Compania Minera Cuzcatlan, has received written notice of a resolution issued by the Secretaria de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (SEMARNAT), re-assessing the 12-year extension to the environmental impact authorization (EIA) for the mine, located in Oaxaca.”

Background

In March 2009, residents protested the lack of consultation and consent for the mine by setting up an encampment at the site of the mine. By May of that year, 1,000 state and federal police evicted that encampment using helicopters, tear gas and dogs.

The mine began operating in September 2011.

El Universal reports there have been four deaths and eight people shot in direct relation to the mine between 2010 and 2012.

Community leader Bernardo Méndez was killed on January 18, 2012, after he and others confronted a municipal crew working on a water pipeline they suspected would divert water for use at the mine. And Bernardo Vásquez was killed on March 15, 2012, as he travelled back home from the Oaxaca airport.

The permit for the mine expired on October 23, 2021.

A new permit was granted to Fortuna/Cuzcatlan on December 14, 2021.

The Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) permit indicated the extension was for 12 years, but later noted it was a typographical error and that the extension was for 2 years.

Educa Oaxaca

On March 11, 2021, PBI-Canada and Amnesty International Canada 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.”

PBI-Canada and allies also hosted Neftali Reyes and Salvador Martínez Arellanes (an Indigenous leader from Santa Carina Minas) at public meetings about this mine in Ottawa and Toronto in November 2018.

PBI-Mexico has accompanied Educa Oaxaca since May 2013.

We continue to follow this situation.