Randy Martin, CEO of the Plantel Los Ángeles mining company, sent a letter to the president of the National Assembly, deputy Gustavo Porras, in which he requests an appointment to discuss the threat of closure that hangs over the company, which could affect more than 1,000 artisanal miners, as well as 130 direct workers.
On Monday the 27th, the administration of the mining company, which operates in the municipality of La Libertad, (Chontales), received a notification from the General Directorate of Mines, of the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), informing it of the cancellation of the concession that allows them to buy and process mineral, as they have done since 2015.
Although the cancellation is a decision made, the company is following the legal advice to appeal the Ministry’s decision, a process that could take several weeks before reaching a final verdict, so the mining activity remains the same.
CONFIDENTIAL consulted with two professionals who work for the company, who refrained from explaining the actions to be carried out, limiting themselves to saying that “right now we cannot comment”.
In the letter addressed to Porras, CEO Martin asserts that “we will begin to execute everything that Nicaraguan law allows us, in order to clarify the situation that has led the authorities to make this drastic decision.”
“Regardless of the results, I want to state before you my own commitment and that of Plantel Los Ángeles, to support the workers in everything that is within our reach, as well as to comply with all our labor obligations conferred (SIC), in the Law Labor and the Collective Agreement”.
Finally, the president of the company tells Porras of his decision to travel to Nicaragua for the next week “to review the issue with the relevant authorities,” for which he assumes that “it would be pleasant” to meet with the president of the National Assembly. “to present the situation in a personal way, and clarify what you consider opportune”.
Plans to invest almost USD 27 million in five years
During the launch of its new marketing policy designed for the artisanal miners of La Libertad and Santo Domingo, announced during the First Artisanal Mining Meeting in 2021, the general manager of Plantel Los Ángeles, Alejandro Domínguez, recalled that the company began operating in November 2016, “under a mining for all approach”.
At that time, an initial investment of 6.5 million dollars was made, whose declared goal was the production of 11,100 ounces of gold per year. By 2020, despite the arrival of the pandemic, the company organized itself to continue producing without stopping activities, which allowed them to extract 14,786 ounces of gold, a year in which total exports of that metal, exceeded 666 million dollars.
The 2020 data indicates that the company injected 1.7 million dollars in wages, distributed among a payroll of 116 workers (including 13 women), in addition to allocating 12.5 million dollars to pay for the ore that the artisanal miners sold them; another 3.5 million for taxes, 1.2 million to pay its suppliers, and 3.1 million to cover other expenses, with the intention of producing 16,570 ounces of gold in 2021.
In the investment category, the company allocated 700,000 dollars in 2020, and 1.2 million in 2021, to make improvements to the plant, which included laboratories, structures and equipment, and planned to invest an additional 25 million dollars to expand its model. of business, building three new gold processing plants in different regions, which would allow the inclusion of 3,000 more artisanal miners, in a period of three years.
