One of the largest mining companies operating in Nicaragua analyzes the new US sanctions

The Canadian company Caliber Mining Corp, one of the mining companies with the greatest presence in Nicaragua, ad this Tuesday that has communicated with the Treasury Department “to proactively review” sanctions imposed one day before by the United States to the Directorate of Mines (DGM) of the Central American country.

According to the company of Canadian origin and which has a presence in the United States, they do this in order to guarantee “full compliance with these provisions.”

The company Caliber Mining also renounced three requests for mining concessions, according to a publication in the official gazette, The Gazettethis Tuesday.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned the DGM to “hold the Ortega Murillo regime responsible for its attacks on freedom of expression,” and according to the US authorities, this measure could be extended to other areas.

Nicaragua has not reacted yet to Washington’s sanctions, despite the fact that they represent a blow to one of the country’s main sectors. In 2021 alone, about 80% of the gold produced in Nicaragua was imported into the United States, totaling almost a billion dollars.

Ricardo Zúniga, assistant secretary of the Department of State for Latin America, assured on Monday, in a call with journalists, that the announced measures “impose restrictions on any action that has to do with the National Directorate of Mines; that consequently complicates the ability of any entity [en Estados Unidos] to have a gold market relationship in Nicaragua”.

And the company Caliber Mining Corp said in this regard that it “reaffirms its commitment to continue complying with all relevant international laws and restrictions.”

On the other hand, the company stated that it will report on any market update “once additional information is available, after conversations with its advisers and the United States Department of the Treasury.”

Caliber Mining Corp, according to their site Webis a Canadian-listed, growing mid-tier gold producer focused on the Americas with a strong pipeline of development and exploration opportunities in Nevada and Washington in the US and Nicaragua.

Company projected production and sales of almost 200 thousand ounces of gold

In mid-June, the executive director of this company in Nicaragua, Darren Hall, told the local newspaper the press that for this year they projected a production and sale of between 180,000 and 190,000 ounces of gold.

Hall further said that they had more than 3,500 workers who “benefited” from the company’s work.

In 2020, the Canadian company invested 54 million dollars in Nicaragua in the development of its mining projects, Hall added to the press.

At the moment, no other mining company present in Nicaragua has made a statement.

Nicaragua has been experiencing a political and social crisis since 2018, when protests against President Daniel Ortega arose and were violently repressed, leaving more than 300 dead.

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