If memory serves us correctly, May 7 of this year was the last time we sent a letter to Mr. Greg Smith, then CEO of Canadian company Equinox Gold, which went unanswered, like many other letters and official communications we have sent him. These letters serve as proof not only of his discourtesy, but also of contempt, racism, and discrimination towards us, attitudes that were “inherited” by their two main operators at the Los Filos mine: the company's vice president in Mexico, Armando Fausto Ortega, and their social responsibility manager, Hugo Vergara.
Almost four months have passed [since we started our encampment outside of the mine gate] without a response from Equinox's corporate headquarters. In this context, yesterday, in a surprising and unexpected move, Mr. Greg Smith left the company and has been replaced by Mr. Darren Hall who was originally appointed Chief Operating Officer during the festive merger between Equinox and Calibre Mining in June. Mr. Doug Reddy has also left, handing over his position first to Darren Hall [in June], and now to Mr. David Schummer, who will take over operations, after being in charge of other duties within Equinox's management.
These sudden and unexpected changes at the highest level of decision-making at Equinox Gold allow us to reflect on some points that we would like to share.
[Earlier this month] in Mexico, the company celebrated the signing of agreements [for expansion plans at Los Filos] with the communities of Mezcala and Xochipala without any economic or technical justification, considering that the company has refrained from any new investment in the expansion of Los Filos since 2023. As we pointed out two weeks ago, back in Canada, the company appeared to be unaware of this because they were focused on reorganizing their political and administrative headquarters, which has now taken its first step: the replacement of the former CEO and president, Mr. Greg Smith. Based on our analysis of the available information, his departure is basically due to his failure to bring financial stability to the company. Among the most important reasons for this are issues with its two main mines: Greenstone in Ontario did not reach its production projections and, at Los Filos in Guerrero, the company failed in its attempt to impose unacceptable terms in its agreements with our community. In addition, in Canada, the merger of Equinox Gold and Calibre Mining was interpreted by both industry analysts and the economic media as a strategy to reduce or avoid a more abrupt decline by the company, rather than signifying the birth of a leader in the gold market. Considering this, the celebration of the two agreements in Mexico seems to be prematurely reaching its end, and we are now entering a period in which the new administration should gain clarity about the problems it faces at Los Filos and then decide on new and important changes to either address or maintain the absurd and illegal indefinite suspension declared by the now-fired Mr. Greg Smith.
The arrival of Mr. Darren Hall as the new CEO of Equinox undoubtedly opens up the possibility for the company to take a different stance for which we hope that he will set aside the racist and discriminatory attitude of his predecessor and commit to communication based on respect, which is necessary to resolve the conflict. For us, there are only two possible routes to negotiate a path forward: 1) continuing mine operations under decent agreements; or 2) initiating the closure plan before the mine is shut down by the federal government due to the illegal acts it has committed, which would deal a major blow to its credibility with its investors in Canada. This is a new opportunity that we hope Mr. Darren will consider carefully.
Importantly, we dare to suggest that he should also make changes to the structure of the Los Filos project in at least two ways. First, for years—at least four—the company has been producing gold at a high cost, due to the technical inefficiency of the operation and not that of the workforce or the communities from whom it leases land, which the company has tried to argue in order to justify layoffs and fight to destroy the agreements with our community. The second concerns the shameful behavior that Vice President Armando Fausto and Social Responsibility Manager Hugo Vergara have shown and continue to demonstrate toward our community, about which we will make available all of the information at our disposal so that Mr. Darren Hall at least has our version of the story. These individuals have not hesitated to foster conflicts to such an extent that all our rights are currently being violated, so much so that the life of our community is at risk.
As such, we welcome the departure of Mr. Greg Smith and Mr. Doug Reddy for their racist and discriminatory role in decision-making over the Los Filos project. Further, we will be attentive to the changes that we assume will begin to take place under the new leadership of Mr. Darren Hall and Mr. David Schummer, whom we ask to listen to us so that we can establish direct contact and move beyond this conflict, which in a week will have gone on for four months.
Attentively,
Agrarian Representatives of the Ejido of Carrizalillo