Green Macaw gets in the way of Infinito

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias and Environment Minister Roberto Dobles find themselves in the hot seat for their support of an open pit mine in Costa Rica.

The two men are being investigated for misuse of authority by the country’s attorney general’s office.

The controversy is centered on the permission granted to Calgary-based Infinito Gold (IG-V) for its Crucitas gold project.

A local resident, who lives near the project which sits in northeastern Costa Rica, just 3 km from the Nicaraguan border, launched a complaint against Infinito shortly after the company began cutting trees atop what are to become two open pits.

Allegedly, Yellow almond trees were part of the cull and the trees are protected by an environmental law passed last September.

Infinito had its environmental impact study approved in February of this year and then Arias signed off on the exploitation permit in late April.

The granting of those permits was made after the government deemed the project would generate revenues and jobs towards the country’s national interest.

Arias has served as president since early 2006. It has been his second term as he served from 1986 to 1990 as well a period in which he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the conflicts that were raging in Central America at the time.

In a statement to the press, Arias said he signed off on the project because he believed the country’s environment ministry had done its homework on the project, and that their approval signalled that the project was sound.

The Supreme Court suspended government approval after the citizen’s appeal until it rules on the case, but has not set a date for when a decision will come. In Costa Rica, all citizens have the right to take their case before the Supreme Court, a policy that has resulted in much legal inefficiency in the nation of some 4 million people.

Environmental groups argue that the construction of the open pits and eventually the tailings pond, would fell virgin rainforest and destroy habitat of a bird known as the Green Macaw.

But on a recent Northern Miner site visit the company said the area where trees were to be cut were secondary growth forest.

Some media reports have been misleading, painting an image of a company operating in pristine forest. In fact, much of the ground Infinito is operating on has already been cleared by ranchers, and the company has an active tree planting program that is linking up what forest remains on its property to larger forests outside of its permit.

Infinito’s reclamation project plans to replant the entire area once mining is done (mine life is estimated at 13 years) which would result in some 50 trees being plant for every one that was cut to make the mine.

In Toronto on Oct. 27 the company’s shares closed at 24 on 34,000 shares traded. Its shares were trading for 43 on Oct. 20 the day before it announced it had suspended operations at Crucitas.