From Mark Turner, of Inkakola fame/infamy, as of July 20:
What really happened: The local community has been moving for around four years to get the temporary suspension of the Loma Larga project ratified and in all that time, has faced legal injunctions and all sorts of delaying tactics to stop the case from coming to court. It finally happened last week and the judge in question had to rule on five points of law. He accepted only one, namely that the project did not comply with Ecuador’s prior consultancy laws because the local indigenous population had never been consulted on the project by the company (or previous owners). That four of the five pleas were turned down did not worry the locals because, in the words of the ex-Presidential candidate and leader of the regional movement against mining, Yaku Prez (21), “…it’s enough that the judge accept just one of the points for the project to be suspended.” He and his supporter group that attended the court hearing on Tuesday went on to call the verdict a “Historic triumph” and a major moment in the locality’s 30 year fight against the installation of a mine at Quimsacocha/Loma Larga (a project that was first in the hands of IAMGOLD (IMG.to) and then small junior and trainwreck INV Metals (INV.to) before being sold to DPM.to). All parties now await the written legal verdict before the next stages, which will probably include an appeal to a higher court by DPM. However and eventually, DPM must now seek permission from a community that is dead set against this project and as they are set to appeal, they surely know the trouble they are in by now. As for Yaku Prez, he had a lot more to say to the press than the company, for example (22):
“It was worth the more than three decades of struggle. 150 people were criminalized by the Correa government (during the protests), we had four people jailed, we were beaten up”, he said.
He compared the judicial process to a David versus Goliath fight. “The community faced the united forces of the Chamber of Mining, the Cuenca Chamber of Industry, The Chambers of Industry and Commerce from (Ecuador’s capital city) Quito, The National Chamber of Mining, The Ministries of the Environment, of Finances and of Energy and lawyers from the Presidency who acted as third party representatives against the will of the people.”
To be clear and no matter what DPM might say to the wider world, there’s a snowball’s chance in Hell of this project gaining the required social licence from any prior consultancy process and appeals court success notwithstanding, has probably killed Loma Larga as a viable development project, something you’d never have guessed from the tone of the company NR last week.