The Ejido of Carrizalillo has written an open letter to Equinox Gold CEO Greg Smith and Board Chairman Ross Beaty calling on the company to commit to fair negotiations of their temporary land use and social agreements for the operations of the Los Filos mine in Guerrero, Mexico. The agreements are set to expire at the end of March.
The community, who lives within several hundred meters of the mine's leaching pad and whose land is nearly entirely occupied by the mine, rejects the company's use of threats and coercive tactics during supposed negotiations over the last year.
The community emphasizes their willingness to negotiate, but not under what they call unfair and coercive conditions that the company, headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, has tried to impose. Nor do they accept company attempts to continually blame the community for the mine's underproduction in recent years, which Carrizallillo considers is a problem with local management.
Carrizalillo requests that the company replace its current representatives in the negotiations and negotiate one-on-one with the community, without forcing them to be at the same table with other communities that are not affected to the same degree by the mine and with whom they do not have a history of negotiating over land use. Nor do they accept the presence of government representatives who they claim have also sought to coerce them into accepting the company's austere terms. The community underscores that they have already agreed to more than a 60% reduction in the amount for which they rent their lands.
If the company is unwilling to negotiate their contract renewals in a fair manner and wishes to close the mine, as Equinox has repeatedly threatened during the last year, the Ejido insists that they must also be at the table to negotiate the terms of closure with respect for existing laws and jurisprudence, given the tremendous impacts that the mine has had on their lands and health.
This conflict between the Canadian mining company and the community of Carrizalillo is rooted in a decade of struggles, including past shutdowns and unresolved health and environmental issues. In 2020, the Los Filos gold mine was shut down for three months due to disputes between the mine’s owner, Equinox Gold, and the nearby community of Carrizalillo. The community, which had been trying to resolve issues related to breaches of a social-cooperation agreement, set up a camp outside the mine after months of unsuccessful negotiations. They cited problems such as water contamination, overpriced medicine, and a lack of unionized jobs. Despite their efforts, Equinox dismissed their concerns, leading the community to exercise their right to halt the mine's operations. Equinox responded by labeling the community’s actions as criminal and accusing them of extortion. The company’s CEO at the time, Christian Milau, also made dismissive comments about the community’s health concerns, further straining relations.