Lawsuit filed to revoke environmental permit for Ecuador's Curipamba mine

Ina a joint action, around 30 individuals have requested that a judge in Ecuador's Bolívar province annul the environmental consultation for the US$293mn Curipamba copper and gold project, owned by Adventus Mining and Salazar Resources.

The injunction was submitted last week by members of the rural communities of Buenos Aires, Bellavista and Jerusalem against the environment ministry, which carried out the environmental consultation.

The ministry did not conduct the consultation in Buenos Aires and Bellavista because they are considered to be outside the area of influence of the mine concession, while the residents of Jerusalem refused to participate in the process, arguing that it was incomplete and biased.

The injunction was presented to the judge of Las Naves canton, Segundo García Benavidez. The plaintiffs said that the environmental consultation process for Curipamba, which concluded in December 2023, violated their right to participation and the right to environmental consultation.

As reparation measures, those who signed the lawsuit requested the revocation of the environment ministry's approval of the environmental impact study and the award of the environmental license, which are essential to begin construction of the mine.

Opponents of mining activity in Ecuador constantly petition local courts with lawsuits, particularly injunctions, to stop mining projects.

Last March, a judge in Cotopaxi province accepted a suit for processing the environmental consultation for Canadian firm Atico Mining's US$176mn La Plata polymetallic project, and ordered the provisional suspension of the information phase of the consultation.

The primary ruling in that case could be issued in the coming weeks and the final ruling might be announced towards the end of the year, Andrés Ycaza, an expert lawyer in mining law at law firm the Flor, Bustamante, Pizarro & Hurtado, told BNamericas.