IKN

This was an interesting press conference today, held by the multi-community groups protesting the presence of Fortuna Silver (FSM) (FVI.to) at its San José mine in Mexico. The most interesting speaker is at the end (min 12 to the end) who explains to the local press that even though FSM announced in December that its permit for the mine had been renewed for 12 years, there has been no decision forthcoming from Mexico’s Semarnat environment people. Here’s a translation of what he said to the assembled press corps:

“Nevertheless and even though at this moment the permits are under evaluation in Semarnat, at the end of December the mining company said that Semarnat had authorized another 12 years of commercial production. We want to state that there is no official document that backs up this information. We have made exhaustive revisions of the judicial information and at this time, the company does not officially have those permits. We are therefore talking about a company that not only wants to ignore and violate the rights of communities to say “no”, but also one that ignores the functions that in this case are the duty of the Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources, i.e. Semarnat.”

Then at the end, the same speaker reiterates the accusation that FSM may have told the world it has been awarded its permit, but there’s been no word out of Semarnat or any permit or document published to the effect. In other words, he accuses FSM of lying through its teeth about the permit award. He says (translated):

“On the other hand, this mining operation has built 76 works without due permits and continues in commercial operation even though it does not have its environmental permits, and then dares to emit false declarations saying that Mexico’s State authorities have approved its permits. This is not true, there is no official document to back up this information from the mining company.”