Sergio Ocampo and Alfredo Valadez
Correspondents
La Jornada Newspaper
Saturday, October 18, 2025, p. 7
For failing to comply with corrective measures, the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (Profepa) closed five areas of the Los Filos/El Bermejal mine, owned by the Canadian company Equinox Gold, located near the Carrizalillo ejido, municipality of Eduardo Neri, in Guerrero.
Previously, Profepa had ordered the company to adopt urgent measures to correct the irregularities detected and eradicate the associated risks, indications that were not fully complied with, the agency explained.
He stressed that the closure of the five areas will be withdrawn until the company complies with all the measures that were imposed and Profepa verifies that they no longer represent a risk to the environment.
The first has to do with the underground mine, occupying a larger area than it is authorized to do. The second, with two waste tanks, which present stability problems.
The third, with the leaching yard, because it does not have infrastructure to prevent the entry of animals and has an accumulation of liquid that could spill out of that place. The fourth corresponds to an area where tailings are piled up that can be spread; the fifth was not specified.
The closure was imposed as part of the inspection procedure that Profepa began at the end of May, in response to neighborhood complaints about alleged environmental damage caused by the mine.
Since last May, the agency made three control visits to Los Filos, in which it verified that the regulations on the management of mining and metallurgical waste, tailings dams and sludge discharges were complied with. In this regard, the Carrizalillo Agrarian Board in Guerrero and the Mexican Network of People Affected by Mining stated that they hope that the closure “is a strong blow that makes its owners reflect on the terrible performance of its operators in Mexico.”
They described the action as an unprecedented act “that gives us confidence in our fight, since at the federal level it is confirmed that Equinox transgresses environmental regulations and uses its power to try to subjugate the communities.”
