The government renewed the concession to the miners of Abangares, but the group must make adjustments in their techniques. During the traditional tour to Guanacaste, President Carlos Alvarado and the Minister of Environment and Energy, Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, signed Resolution R-148-2018-MINAE to extend the permit.
The authorities extended the validity of the Artisanal Underground Gold Mine Exploitation Concession for 10 years to the National Association of Miners (ANAMI). The extraction rate is 120 cubic meters per day, according to MINAE.
But the concessionaire has until February 10th, 2019 to stop using mercury and cyanide leaching techniques in the gold recovery process. If by that date the group does not eliminate those methods, the concession could be cancelled.
The Association must submit to the Directorate of Geology and Mines the new gold recovery methodology to be evaluated and approved. The Ministry stressed that the resolution benefits 45 households that make up the ANAMI. The project is aimed at the social solidarity economy. The Government explained that in the canton of Abangares 10% of the population is engaged in the extraction of gold and 70% is engaged in the production and marketing of products.
According to Antonio Castillo’s study Mining industry and coligallerismo in Abangares: an analysis from the historical perspective, published in 2006, during the last two decades of the nineteenth century and the first three of the twentieth century, industrial mining on a large scale appropriated the Costa Rican geography, in a race that started from the Monte del Aguacate, passing through Puntarenas, to culminate in Abangares.
According to the academic paper, artisan miners who extract gold were considered thieves at the time of the great mining industry from 1890 to 1930, when foreign companies and even authorities persecuted them. Later they became a part of the economy.
This week the Deputy Minister of Environmental Management, Celeste López, presented the feasibility project for the installation of a processing plant for precious materials and the Regulation of the Artisanal Mining Code that will go to public consultation. López explained that the objective of the initiative is to determine the convenience of installing a processing plant for precious materials in Abangares, using environmentally friendly technologies.