Elusive green macaw stops Infinito for now

Construction at Infinito Gold’s (IG-V, IGFFF-o) Crucitas gold mine has stopped and Costa Rican President Oscar Arias and Environment Minister Roberto Dobles have found themselves in the hot seat for supporting the project.

The president and the minister are under investigation for misuse of authority by the country’s attorney general’s office on the basis that they supported a project that will harm a protected tree that, in turn, is home to an endangered bird: the green macaw.

A spokesperson for Infinito, Jim Decker, says the controversy stems from a cluster of environmental groups that are dead set against open-pit mining in the country.

Unfortunately for Infinito — and the president and minister — Costa Rica’s legal system allows any individual to be heard by the Supreme Court. An unthinkable scenario in most modern societies, it can allow anyone in the Central American country to halt a project, regardless of the merit of his or her claim.

In this case, the individual is one Edgardo Araya, a lawyer representing the group Asociacion Norte por la Vida.

Crucitas sits in the northeastern part of the country, just 3 km from the Nicaraguan border. After receiving its tree-cutting permit, Infinito began clearing trees atop its two future open pits in mid- October.

But three days into the cutting, on Oct. 20, the complaint was launched because a species known as the yellow almond was being felled. The tree, which is home to the green macaw, is protected by an environmental law.

But Decker says no such law exists — at least not yet. He says the law has been proposed and that the environmental groups are arguing that should it pass, rendering the permit to cut the trees invalid.

Infinito’s environmental impact study was approved in February and its exploitation permit was granted in late April.

Those permits were granted after the government deemed the project would generate revenue and jobs that would be in the national interest. President Arias then signed off on the final decree allowing for the tree cutting in early October.

Arias has served as president since early 2006. It is his second term, as he served from 1986-90 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 Crucitas because he believed the country’s environment ministry had done its homework, and that its approval signalled that the project was sound.

The Supreme Court suspended that government approval after the citizen’s appeal until it rules on the case, but has not set a date for a decision.

Environmental groups argue that the construction of the open pits, and eventually the tailings pond, would fell virgin rainforest and destroy the green macaw’s habitat — and all in an area that has not even been zoned for commercial use.

But Decker counters all these points.

First of all, he says a survey of the ground for Infinito’s environmen- tal impact study showed that most of the trees being cut are secondary growth.

Secondly, no green macaws were found in the area during a survey for the study, and lastly, he says it is plain wrong that the area isn’t properly zoned for mining.

“Our zone has been declared a mining zone, which means it is unsuitable for tourism and agriculture,” he says. The government made the classification roughly a year and a half ago.

What is more, Decker says there isn’t any ecotourism going on within 70 km of the property.

“Ecotourism is not next door to the mine by any means,” he says.

Some media reports have been misleading, painting an image of a company operating in pristine forest.

But on a recent visit, The Northern Miner observed that much of the ground Infinito is operating on has already been cleared by ranchers.

The company also has an active tree-planting program to link up what forest remains on its property to larger forests outside of its permit.

Infinito’s reclamation plans will see the entire area replanted once mining is done (mine life is estimated at 13 years). That would result in some 50 trees being planted for each one cut to make way for the mine.

Despite the setback, Decker is confident that construction at Crucitas will resume in a reasonable amount of time.

“This situation is not a showstopper,” he says. “It’s a timing thing and my guess it will take two months to straighten out, but it could take longer.”

At presstime, the company’s shares were trading at 24 apiece, down from 43 before the news.