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The Sunday Magazine

Update: A World Bank tribunal backs El Salvador in dispute that began with Canadian mining company

El Salvador wanted to prohibit all mining. A once-Canadian company said no. After seven years, a World Bank tribunal dismissed the mining firm's $250 million claim against El Salvador. Karin Wells's documentary about the dispute aired in January, 2013. It's called "High Stakes Poker".
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March to protest Pacific Rim mine in El Salvador in September, 2014. A World Bank tribunal ruled in El Salvador's favour in October, 2016. (Pacific Rim was acquired by the Australian-Canadian mining firm OceanaGold.)

It took seven years, it cost $12 million in legal fees. But the tiny Central American country of El Salvador has scored a massive international legal and moral victory. 

A Canadian mining company, Pacific Rim, with no more than a handful of employees, sued El Salvador at a World Bank tribunal for the right to develop a gold mine in the middle of the country. El Salvador said no. The national government cited environmental concerns and claimed the right to call a halt to the project.

Pacific Rim was sold three years ago to an Australian-Canadian mining firm, OceanaGold, which continued to bank-roll the suit.

On October 14, 2016, the World Bank tribunal ruled that El Salvador had the right to make its own policy. It also ordered the mining company to pay $8 million towards the little country's legal costs.

The Salvadorans called it "mission accomplished" .  

Three years ago, Karin Wells produced a documentary on the subject.

It was called "High Stakes Poker".

We reprise it here.


 

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