El Salvador mining expert says gold isn’t always worth its weight.

– advertisement –

Humans began mining gold about 6,000 years ago. The soft, yellow metal that is easy to shape and never rusts was highly valuable, but extracting it can cause enormous environmental damage.

Luis Parada, an expert in international arbitration, warns of serious risks with the reopening of El Salvador to extract gold and silver, because the value of what can be extracted could be outweighed by the environmental and human costs.

A new law ends the 2017 ban, which came after lawsuits brought by mining companies prompted authorities to halt mining on environmental and legal grounds.

Parada, who has defended El Salvador in cases against two companies, highlights the risks of allowing mining to resume. He criticizes the mining industry for misleading “green mining” campaigns that downplay environmental devastation. He warns that the country could face major lawsuits and environmental damage.

During previous cases, Parada and his team have dealt with claims from companies such as Pacific Rim, which overstated gold and silver deposits. Extracting even small amounts requires destroying huge amounts of rock.

Parada confirmed that these sediments are small grains buried hundreds of meters deep, and are not large, with visible golden veins.

President Nayib Bukele recently touted mining as a major opportunity, describing it as “treasure beneath our feet,” citing studies that suggest El Salvador possesses 50 million ounces of gold.

However, Parada calls Bukele’s claims false, noting that Pacific Rim valued the deposit at a much lower amount, at $250 million, excluding extraction costs.

Environmental risks include open-pit mining pollution, threatening rivers such as the Lemba, which supplies water to much of the capital. The president did not address these risks.

Source: VOA.

– advertisement –