Another Canadian Mining Company in Honduras: Glen Eagle Resources Begins Operations in Choluteca
/Glen Eagle Resources, a Canadian mining company, has announced it will begin operations in southern Honduras. Glen Eagle will be operating a gold processing plant in a free trade zone (Industrial Mining Park or Parque Industrial Minero in Spanish) in the city of Choluteca. The plant will be used to process rock removed from a mine in San Juan Arriba, El Corpus (and potentially other mines in the area) by two local cooperatives.
The Industrial Mining Park legislation in Culculmeca was approved by the Honduran Congress and published in the official Gaceta on September 11, 2014. The Industrial Park is a public-private partnership managed by Comission for the Promotion of Public-Private Alliances (COALIANZA), the Honduran Institute of Geology and Mines (INGEOMIN), and the Secretary of Energy, Natural Resources, the Environment, and Mines (SERNA).
El Corpus has a long history of artisanal mining and is currently the site of at least two other mines run by foreign companies. In July 2014, eleven local miners were trapped inside the Culculmeca mine in the community of San Juan Arriba, El Corpus. Three miners were rescued and eight lost their lives. Shortly after the incident, the local and national government imposed a ban on artisanal mining in the area and militarized the area preventing many of the locals from entering the mines. This caused discontent and outrage from local citizens who have long depended on mining as their source of income and employment.
