Xalapa, Ver.- (AVC/Flavia Morales) Mining company Caballo Blanco has applied for a new exploration permit to drill for gold and silver at ten sites on the Actopan property.

The mining company submitted a precautionary report to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources in July and, according to the documents site, on August 4 it began a formal assessment.

According to the Diamante Caballo Blanco I drilling project, it will take the properties called: Highway Norte, Las Cuevas, Bandera Norte, Bandera Sur, Red Valley, La Paila Sur, La Paila Este, Paila Deep, Mag Low and La Cruz.

“The 40 drill schedules programmed with 45 holes will be located at these properties,” the report said. 56 polygons of 50 meters x 50 meters with an affected area of ​​2,080 hectares are envisaged.

The project of this exploration program considers an area of ​​631 polygons with dimensions of 50 meters x 50 meters, in total 157.7 hectares will be affected.

The mining company has applied for an exploitation permit for the La Paila project and also announced to investors four viable projects with high mineral concentration: Autopista (north highway), Las Cuevas, Bandera Norte and Bandera Sur. In addition to two others: La Cruz and Red Valley where there are traces of ore.

So far, the mining company has submitted to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat), an environmental impact statement for the La Paila project, and two precautionary reports to announce the exploration of Bandera Norte and Highway North.

A few months ago, the The governor, Cuitláhuac García, signed a document in which he expressed his rejection of this economic activity.

“The state government reiterates its rejection of the mining of toxic metals, because its exploitation generates harmful and irreversible damage to the biodiversity, ecosystems and health of Veracruzan people,” the document states.

However, the Caballo Blanco mining company continues to apply for permits to carry out exploration for its open-pit gold and silver mining project.

In Veracruz, there are at least seven mining projects operated by companies with foreign capital from countries such as Canada and the United States, which operate in the municipalities of Actopan, Alto Lucero, Tatatila, Jáltipan, San Juan Evangelista and Las Minas , although in general, the Ministry of Economy reports 97 mining concessions in 27 municipalities.

The entity has become a space of dispute between the inhabitants who defend their lands and the companies which seek to exploit the mineral resources; The most obvious case is the area of ​​Actopan and Alto Lucero, where 21 concessions are registered, and foreign capital has joined forces to promote the necessary applications to the Mexican government to expedite the permits that allow them to expand their area of ​​exploration.

The Caballo Blanco project raised the alarm again after Candelaria Mining Corp joined forces with Canadian-owned Agnico Eagle Mines to promote the project to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat ). On September 1, Candelaria celebrated Agnico’s $6 million contribution and announced that of this amount, at least $1 million will be used for permits and related activities of the Caballo Blanco project.

Despite the struggle of the peoples of the region to refuse to grant the social license and thus prevent the exploitation of resources, environmentalists warn that Candelaria Mining Corp will use the economic support of its new partner not only to promote the necessary permits, but even for “purchase wills” that allow them to increase the value of these lands in order to extract minerals such as copper, gold and plants.

Caballo Blanco, the miner who doesn’t give up

The member of the Assembly of Initiatives and Environmental Defense of Veracruz (Lavida), Emilio Rodríguez Almazán, pointed out that since the beginning of this project in 1995, the concession has been resold at least 20 times and that this new investment would focused on the financing of a new phase of exploration to increase the value of the project either to resell it or to exploit it.

“In 2017, when they withdrew their environmental impact statement for mineral exploitation, they announced that they wanted to expand their exploration area in the Quiahuiztlán archaeological site in front of Villa Rica beach in Actopan (…) They don’t listen to the will of The peoples of the region don’t even have a social license that they won’t get in our state.

Right there at Actopan and Alto Lucero, the El Cobre mining project is in the hands of the Canadian company Azúcar Minerals LTD, which has taken eight concessions that were previously in the hands of Minera

Gavilán SA de CV in an area of ​​more than 16,000 hectares.