The Daniel Ortega regime handed over a mining concession of 4,291.29 hectares for 25 years for the use of metallic and non-metallic minerals in the north of the country, the Ministry of Energy and Mines reported this Friday.
The Nicaraguan authorities granted the concession to the company Desarrollo Minero de Nicaragua (Desminic), a subsidiary of the Canadian Caliber Mining, “for the use of metallic and non-metallic minerals in the block called Jaspe, with an area of 4,291.29 hectares.” indicated the Ministry of Energy and Mines, through the Official Gazette La Gaceta.
The Jaspe lot is located in the Rancho Grande municipality, Matagalpa department, where protests have prevented the establishment of the mining industry in the past decade.
According to the authorities, the concession was granted after complying “with the cadastral requirements of the law”, and after having consulted “the Municipal Council of Rancho Grande, which ruled positively (…) on April 21, 2021”.
Desminic “has the documents indicative of technical and financial capacity to develop and carry out mining activities within the concession,” explained the Ministry of Energy and Mines.
Originally the mining company had requested the concession of 4,500.41 hectares, but the amount approved was less.
In exchange for the concession, the Government of Nicaragua will receive 0.25 cents for each hectare in the first year, an amount that will gradually increase until reaching the 12 dollars that Desminic will pay starting in the eleventh year.
Additionally, you will obtain 3% for extraction rights and royalties. The concession is the third that Nicaragua has granted Desminic this week.
Gold, main export product
Last October, La Gaceta reported that the Canadian Caliber Mining withdrew from at least three mining concessions in Nicaragua, one day after the United States Department of the Treasury sanctioned the General Directorate of Mines, attached to the Ministry of Energy and mines.
According to the US Treasury, the General Directorate of Mines has been used by the government of President Daniel Ortega to manage the mining sector, circumventing the sanctions that the US imposed last June on the state-owned company Empresa Nicaragüense de Minas (Eniminas).
It also accuses the Nicaraguan authorities of using the profits from the production and sale of gold to “oppress the Nicaraguan people” and even “support the invasion of Ukraine launched by Russia.”
Gold is the main Nicaraguan export product and the Caliber Mining company was the largest exporter in 2021, according to official figures.
Between January and August, the country exported 645.06 million dollars in this precious metal, of which 620.25 million dollars were sold in the United States, according to data from the Central Bank of Nicaragua.
The United States sanctioned the General Directorate of Mines as a measure to pressure the Ortega regime “to account for its escalation of human rights violations, continuous dismantling of democratic institutions, attacks on civil society and the increase in security cooperation with Russia,” according to the State Department.
