Posted on 08/08/2017 5:31:06 AM PDT by Kaslin
Well, this is certainly odd. A mining company that was poised to begin work a silver mine in Guatemala was shut down by the nation’s supreme court for not consulting with the indigenous peoples in the area. That seems standard. Even in the U.S., the Keystone Pipeline had to go through consultations with local Native American tribes to ensure their sacred burial sites would not be disturbed. They protested anyway, but that’s a story for another time.
The halt in production torpedoed the stock of the mining company—Tahoe Resources—and threatens the jobs for the thousands of workers who ventured to Guatemala to start mining for silver. The kicker is that there is no proof that indigenous peoples actually live in the area (via Daily Caller):
A Nevada-based mining company has been struggling to regain its footing after the Guatemalan Supreme Court suspended its license to operate one of the world’s largest silver mines over the company’s failure to consult indigenous peoples allegedly living in the area.Tahoe Resources faces a fundamental problem, though — the Guatemalan government’s latest census shows no indigenous people living in the San Rafael community where the mine is located.
The mining company says it did consult with the few indigenous Xinca who do live in the region, but that wasn’t considered by the country’s high court. In July, justices ruled in favor of environmental activists suing the Guatemalan government to halt operations at the Escobal mine.
Tahoe Resource’s stock price fell about 40 percent after the July 5 ruling, according to Bloomberg, and the company said a three-month suspension of their operating license could cost Guatemala $9 million in royalty payments and tax revenue. Tahoe will also defer spending $12 million to ramp up mining operations.
“We are extremely disappointed in the Court’s ruling suspending the license because we believe that there are no indigenous communities affected by Escobal’s operations,” Tahoe CEO Ron Clayton said in a statement on the court ruling.
Should the suspension go on long enough to threaten the viability of the Escobal silver mine, the livelihoods of the 7,600 workers and their families tied to the mine’s operations would be at risk. A handful of Guatemalan-born Tahoe employees actually migrated back to their home country from the U.S. to work at Escobal.
“We’re going to need a bigger bribe!”
They haven’t crossed the correct palms with enough silver.
This is a problem with Hispanic culture. The grafty politicians demand more than a project will earn and it collapses.
Not to worry!
They will soon reopen with a new name and all 7600 workers and more will be used as indentured help.
And they will work at night, so as not to disturb any of the animals in the jungle.
Might be time for the owner to go Galt:
“Francisco d’Anconia is one of the central characters in Atlas Shrugged, an owner by inheritance of the world’s largest copper mining operation. He is a childhood friend, and the first love, of Dagny Taggart. A child prodigy of exceptional talents, Francisco was dubbed the “climax” of the d’Anconia line, an already prestigious family of skilled industrialists. He was a classmate of John Galt and Ragnar Danneskjöld and student of both Hugh Akston and Robert Stadler. He began working while still in school, proving that he could have made a fortune without the aid of his family’s wealth and power. Later, Francisco bankrupts the d’Anconia business to put it out of others’ reach. His full name is given as “Francisco Domingo Carlos Andres Sebastián d’Anconia”.[2](from Wikipedia)”
There are no Xinca there because they’ve all moved to northern Virginia.
Wait....I know exactly what to do. We need a chest full of trinkets and beads...
Furthermore, what was the BIG transaction in the stock on 6-16-2017??? Was that a short sell? Looks very strange per the normal trading volume.
I’ve spent a lot of time in Gua. and they should’ve hired as many locals (indigenous) as they could; it would’ve paid off in unnecessary delays being avoided.
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