The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo today canceled 12 mining concessions through the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEN), for failure to comply with the obligations established in Law No. 387, Special Law on Exploration and Exploitation of Mines, as published in the official newspaper, La Gaceta.
The canceled mining concessions are indicated as being inactive, insolvent with tax obligations or not having the Environmental Permit updated. Furthermore, the ministerial agreement states that the affected companies have not carried out exploration activities in the periods indicated in the concession title.
One of the affected companies is Arenas Nacionales SA (ANSA), located on the Motastepe hill and its surroundings and which until now was one of the largest sand suppliers in the country. The regime argues that it failed to pay taxes to the State.
The MEM added to its list of cancellation of concessions to Topacio, SA (TOPSA) specifically the “Las Presillitas” lot located in the Autonomous Region of the Southern Caribbean, the concession approval was granted in 1994 and according to its website, it was intended for extract topaz gold and was under exploration by the Australian company Oro Verde.
The most affected is Canteras SA (CASA) of the Imisa group, with the closure of nine lots, “Lajitas de Ampompua II”, “Ampompuá I”, “Lajitas de Ampompua”, “Dulce Nombre”, “El Ostocal”, “San Gregorio”, “La Pita”, “La Penca” and “Buena Vista”. The concession of the company Calizas, SA (CALZA) with a lot called “Cerro San Francisco” was also eliminated.
The ministerial agreement executed by the Vice Minister of Energy and Mines, Santiago Bermúdez, also orders the declaration of all the aforementioned lots as National Mining Reserve Areas and which become property of the State of Nicaragua.
The regime, through the Ministry of Mines, warned that they will continue with the evaluation of mining concessions so that they meet the established requirements, otherwise they will be eliminated.
In 2023, the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship granted 299 mining concessions, of which 172 were for metallic mining and 127 for non-metallic mining, the majority to foreign Asian companies, among them the Nicaraguan company Xinxin Linze Minería Group SA received a concession open pit mining in the department of Estelí.
In the first half of 2024, XinXin Linze Minera Group, Sociedad Anónima received a total of four mining concessions, totaling 42,980.71 located on lands in Jinotega, Estelí and Caribe Norte.
