El Salvador Eyes $3 Trillion Gold Mine Beneath Its Soil

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster):  Seven years ago, El Salvador made global headlines as the first country in the world to ban all metal mining. The decision was hailed as a victory for environmental protection, celebrated by local communities, environmentalists and even the Catholic Church.

That was then.

President Nayib Bukele is now calling for a reversal of the landmark ban, claiming that beneath the country's fertile soil lies an untapped fortune. According to Bukele, the small Central American nation sits atop an estimated $3 trillion in unmined gold reserves—a potential jackpot that could radically transform El Salvador's financial future.

"We potentially have the largest gold deposits per square kilometer in the world," Bukele declared on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). He claimed that extracting just 4 percent of the country's gold deposits could generate approximately $131 billion, a sum equivalent to 380 percent of El Salvador's current GDP.

 "God placed a gigantic treasure underneath our feet," Bukele wrote, calling the 2017 mining ban "absurd."

It wasn't always this way. When Bukele ran for president in 2019, he supported the mining ban, which had been passed unanimously by El Salvador's Legislative Assembly in a 70-0 vote. The ban had broad support and was seen as essential to protecting the country's vulnerable water resources from contamination caused by mining operations.

But his views have since shifted. Since taking office in 2019, Bukele has become one of the ban's most vocal critics, pushing for what he calls "modern and sustainable" mining that, he claims, will safeguard the environment while unlocking the nation's hidden wealth.

Bukele, who previously made waves by adopting Bitcoin as legal tender and is simultaneously overseeing one of the biggest organized crime crackdowns in the world, now sees mining as a potential economic miracle. He argues that responsible resource exploitation could dramatically transform the nation's economic prospects.

This week, Bukele doubled down on his proposal, and his critics were quick to respond. They fear that reopening mining could lead to the contamination of water sources, especially given the amount of freshwater needed for mining operations and the risks posed by heavy metals used in the process.

"The president claims that 'responsible mining' can be done, but there is no evidence to support this claim," Pedro Cabezas, a member of the Central American Alliance against Mining (ACAFREMIN), told Newsweek. "There are no examples of 'responsible mining' that haven't caused serious impacts. The effects in El Salvador would be terrible," he warned.

Courtesy: www.newsweek.com