Pacific Rim/OceanaGold

A Binding Treaty about corporations can be an instrument to guarantee the respect of our rights and territories

Dario Bossio - Iglesia y Minería

“Historically we have known the dealings of the corporations in our lands, in our countries. We have known firsthand how human rights are violated in our territories. Before these violations happened, and up to this date, we were not in possession of a judicial instrument that can help communities to access justice and have companies respect and not prey on our rights and our territories. In that sense, I consider of utmost importance that we can constitute of this legal tool and obtain access to it. In the measure that we can have this tool and give it life, and make it real, it will not be just an empty promise.”

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OceanaGold announces it will stay in El Salvador despite prohibition

P. Cabezas

mesaMembers of the National Roundtable Against Metallic Mining demanded the immediate removal of Australian/Canadian OceanaGold mining company of El Salvador after the Attorney General's Office reported that the mining company Oceana Gold had paid the $ 8 million dollars awarded by the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment disputes, ICSID.

“After the Legislative Assembly approved a law prohibiting mining exploration and exploitation, it makes no sense to maintain a company like Minerales Torogoz, OceanaGold's subsidiary in El Salvador, whose sole mandate is gold exploitation.” said Vidalina Morales, president of the Santa Marta Economic Development Association, during a press conference.

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PRESS RELEASE: OceanaGold, “the gold mining company of choice”? Not in El Salvador or the Philippines

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PRESS RELEASE

June 23, 2017

(Ottawa/Washington, D.C./Melbourne) Reviewing OceanaGold reports issued in the lead up to its June 23 annual general shareholders meeting in Toronto, it is difficult to tell that the company was at the centre of international controversy over two of its mine projects in 2016 and early 2017. Ignoring significant problems in El Salvador and the Philippines, however, will not address the reputational risk that the company continues to face.

In October 2016, a World Bank tribunal found against OceanaGold in a seven-year, multimillion-dollar suit against El Salvador. The ruling found that the company had not met legal requirements to obtain a mine permit and ordered it to pay the Central American country US$8 million in legal costs. When the company had still not paid up by late March, the tribunal ordered the company to pay interest on its debt. Nonetheless, the debt remains outstanding.

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Pressure Grows on Mining Giant to Pay $8 Million to El Salvador

Telesur

Despite a deadline from the lawsuit passing, the company owes El Salvador US$8 million. 

Over 280 organizations from around the world sent an open letter to Canadian-Australian mining giant OceanaGold on Tuesday, demanding that the company adhere to an earlier ruling by a World Bank body that ordered the company to pay the government of El Salvador US$8 million after a years-long legal battle.

 OceanaGold, formerly Pacific Rim, was given 120 days to either to pay the US$8 million fine or to submit a plea to have the fine overturned, a deadline which ran out last week.

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In El Salvador, OceanaGold Must ‘Pay Up and Pack Up’

MiningWatch

After seven years, four murders and US$24 million in total legal costs, in October 2016, a little-known World Bank tribunal trashed OceanaGold’s claim that El Salvador either owed it a mining permit for a proposed gold mine or US$250 million dollars.

The Washington D.C.-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) panel decided that OceanaGold’s predecessor Pacific Rim Mining never met the legal requirements under El Salvador’s mining law to obtain a permit to exploit gold and must pay the Central American country US$8 million towards its legal costs.

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A wake-up call for Trump's trade agenda

By Robin Broad and John Cavanagh : The Hill

This week, labor, environmental, religious and other groups, representing over 180 million people from around the world, sent a letter to a corporate mining CEO — a letter that is also a wake-up call for President Trump's trade agenda.

The letter highlights the problems with the so-called "investor-state" provision in trade deals, first created through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) 23 years ago. This provision unfairly prioritizes corporations, encouraging them to file lawsuits against governments that implement public health and other measures that impede future corporate profits.

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