The resignation of Sergio Murillo to the presidency of the Nicaraguan Mining Chamber (Caminic), is a new challenge for an industry that is close to a billion dollars in exportsa fact that put them in the target of the sanctions of the United States Government, together with the energy.
On January 10, it became known that The United States had sanctioned the president of the Board of Directors of the Nicaraguan Mining Company (Eniminas), retired Major General Ramón Humberto Calderón Vindell, as well as five other regime operators headed by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
Six weeks later, the dictatorship’s response was appoint the general manager of Eniminas, Ruy López Delgado, as president of the state company… until a new round of sanctions included López Delgado and Eniminas itself. Since this is just another company, and not the industry regulator, On October 24, the General Directorate of Mines was included in the list of sanctionsof the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM).
“The sector is very convulsed. In the union, there is very little that can be done, ”he told CONFIDENTIAL -under commitment to keep his name confidential- a former director of a chamber attached to the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (Cosep).
Resignations in business unions
Murillo is not the first to make a decision like that. What happens is that those who resign do so trying to make as little ‘noise’ as possible, although they don’t always succeed.
At the end of October 2021, the businesswoman Lucy Valenti resigned from the presidency of the National Chamber of Tourism (Canatur), less than a week after his colleagues Michael Healy and Álvaro Vargas, president and vice president of Cosep, were kidnapped by the dictatorshipand turned into two more political prisoners.
Two weeks later, the president of the Nicaraguan Chamber of Industries (Cadin), Marcos Pierson, also resigned, alleging that his professional obligations required him to travel constantly, so he could no longer fulfill his union commitments.
The resignation of Murillo, who began to get involved in the union at the beginning of the last decade, and was in his second term as president of Caminic (between 2019 and 2021, and then, from 2021 to 2023, a position that he was due to deliver in February) , suggests that the political environment in which these companies operate is more rarefied than the one that surrounds all the others.
Regarding the sanctions of October 24, a professional with experience in the Nicaraguan mining industry said that, after the initial surprise that affected the executives of the companies in the sector, he considered it very reasonable to believe that some might be considering the convenience to look for other, safer horizons to carry their capital.
Stock price is still affected
This Tuesday the 22nd, it was learned that Condor Gold had hired an English company to help it find a buyer for your mining operation in Nicaraguawhich is mainly concentrated in the La India Mine, in León, as well as a couple of mining concessions in Siuna and Boaco.
In the same way, one day after the extension of executive order 13851 was known, La Gaceta of Tuesday, October 25 published the decision of the MEM to accept the resignation by Caliber Mining Nicaragua, to three concessions that had been awarded to it, and that of Minerales Matuzalen, which renounced another concession, without any official confirmation of the reasons for such withdrawal.
The aforementioned professional had warned that “this (the sanctions) may lead to the closure or withdrawal of some of these companies… but it is certain that some will try to leave. This announcement could mean that they cannot even sell their assets and have to leave them abandoned, passing to the control of ‘others’, who must already be rubbing their hands”, he graphed.
While they continue to try to navigate possible complications arising from the sidewalk of politics, companies cannot ignore the damage they suffer in the day-to-day stock market. After the announcement on Tuesday, the price of Condor Gold shares fell again, both in London (where its share lost 11.8% of its value), and in Vancouver, where the loss is already 5.71% in two days of transactions.
