Location El Estor Products Nickel | Country Guatemala | |
The Fenix nickel project is a nickel resource in eastern Guatemala first developed by Inco, a Canadian mining company, beginning in 1960. In 1965 the firm was granted a 40-year lease to operate an open pit min on 385 square kilometers by the Guatemalan government. The mine is located in El Estor in Izabal Department. The mine has reserves amounting to 36.1 million tonnes of ore grading 1.86% nickel.
The Fenix ferro-nickel project in Guatemala is owned by Compañía Guatemalteca de Niquel (CGN), formerly EXMIBAL, a subsidiary of Inco, which was 98.2% owned by Hudbay Minerals from August 2008 to September 2011 when it was sold for $170 million to the Russian owned Solway Group, headquartered in Cyprus. The operation had been on care and maintenance since 1980. Skye Resources, a Vancouver firm, had purchased the project from Inco in 2004 but was acquired by Hudbay in 2008. The Fenix Project in eastern Guatemala is a substantial brownfield nickel laterite mine and process plant.
HudBay Minerals and two of its subsidiaries are subject to an ongoing $12 million lawsuit in Canada over the killing of a prominent Mayan community leader at the Fenix Mining Project. The lawsuit alleges that on September 27, 2009, security personnel employed at the Fenix mine surrounded, beat and hacked at Adolfo Ich Chamán with machetes before shooting him in the head at close range in an unprovoked attack. An arrest warrant was issued for the Head of Security at the Fenix mine, Mynor Ronaldo Padilla Gonzáles. A non-governmental organization has referred to the murder as the “targeted killing of a well-known community leader.” Amnesty International has stated with respect to the murder allegation “[t]he allegations are very serious, and Amnesty International calls for a swift, full and impartial investigation into the death of Adolfo Ich Chamán and other incidents of violence, to make the results public and to bring those responsible to justice”.
HudBay states that it and CGN have cooperated fully with all investigations conducted by Guatemalan authorities in connection with the incidents which occurred on September 27, 2009, in El Estor. CGN carried out an internal investigation and determined that none of its employees or security personnel were involved in the death of Chamán.
In June 2013, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled that the Canadian company could be held legally responsible for crimes committed in Guatemala, including the alleged murder of Adolfo Ich Chamán and the alleged sexual assault of 11 women from Lote Ocho. A jury notice was filed in December 2013.
The Fenix mining project is also subject to ongoing land claims by local Mayan communities. In 2006, the International Labour Organization, an agency of the United Nations, ruled that Guatemala had breached international law by granting the Fenix mining concession without first consulting with local Mayan people. The ILO released a report discussing the violation in 2007.
In late 2006 and early 2007, Skye Resources (acquired by HudBay Minerals in 2008, renamed HMI Nickel and subsequently sold by HudBay in 2011) sought forced evictions of Mayan communities located on contested mine land. Homes were burned to the ground during these evictions.