CXB Not only does Calibre own considerable US assets and have extensive ties to the US financial sector, but the company has also provided millions of dollars in gold revenue to the Ortega-Murillo regime and has been accused of being one of the regime’s biggest allies. From 2020 to 2023, the company paid US$117.7 million in taxes and royalties to the Nicaraguan government as well as nearly US$8.7 million to municipal governments in Nicaragua, most if not all of which are likely controlled by the central government as all 153 of Nicaragua’s municipal governments have been controlled by the Ortega-Murillo regime since the country’s 2022 municipal elections. Calibre Mining Corp. has provided three times more direct revenue to Nicaraguan authorities as a proportion of total revenue produced than they have to US authorities. From 2020 to 2023, Calibre Mining Corp. produced over US$1.51 billion worth of gold in Nicaragua, paying more than US$126.4 million to Nicaraguan authorities over that period, some 8.37 percent of total revenue generated. In 2022 and 2023, Calibre produced approximately US$163.4 million worth of gold in the United States, paying US$4.22 million, or 2.72 percent, in taxes and fees to US authorities.
Despite Calibre receiving more than US$134 million in financing from US-based investment firms and close to US$120 million in direct revenue the company has provided to the Ortega-Murillo regime since 2020, the US Treasury Department opted to sanction two companies, COMINTSA and Capital Mining, which appear to collectively control three concessions with a total area of 5,513 ha – less than half of one percent of Calibre’s total holdings of 1.13 million ha. Furthermore, while not much is known about the gold production at COMINTSA’s concessions, Plantel Los ngeles, which is now owned by Capital Mining, produces 14,500 ounces of gold annually, less than six percent of Calibre’s gold production in Nicaragua in 2023 – 242,109 ounces. Plantel Los ngeles claims to have paid US$4.25 million in taxes to the Nicaraguan government in 2020, compared to the over US$21.6 million paid in taxes and royalties by Calibre that same year. In 2023, Calibre paid nearly US$37.4 million in taxes and royalties to Nicaraguan authorities.
Aside from the lack of US sanctions, Calibre may be on the verge of even greater power and protection in Canada. David Splett, Calibre’s Chief Financial Officer, resigned in July 2024 to run for the British Columbia Legislative Assembly as a Conservative Party candidate. The election will be held on October 19, 2024, and the latest polls show an extremely close election between the Conservative Party and the incumbent New Democratic Party. Should Splett win and the Conservative Party form a government, it may be in a position to set provincial legislation and influence federal policymaking to shield Calibre from scrutiny for its business practices abroad.
Former Calibre Executive, with a Record of Devastating Latin American Communities, Seeks Elected Office in Canada
David Splett. Source: Conservative Party of British Columbia David Splett, Calibre Mining’s Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) from 2021 to 2024, has been nominated by the Conservative Party of British Columbia to run for the North Vancouver-Lonsdale seat in the British Columbia Legislative Assembly in the upcoming October 19, 2024, provincial elections. Splett credits(link is external) his 25 years of senior level experience in the resource extraction industry working in Canada, Mexico, and Latin America for giving him “extensive experience in policy making, cost controls, infrastructure project management, taxation, and sustainable development.” His campaign page(link is external) claims, “David’s commitment to community sustainability and operational excellence reflects his belief in the importance of giving back and making a tangible difference in the lives of others.”
However, examining the experiences of communities living near mining operations where Splett previously served in senior management roles reveals a drastically different reality. In addition to Calibre’s conduct in Nicaragua, Splett’s tenure at other major mining operations overlapped with serious abuses against local communities.
Splett served as the CFO of Latin America and the Mexico Country Manager for Vancouver-based Goldcorp between 2016 and 2019. His tenure coincided with extreme hostility between communities and the company’s Peasquito gold mine in Zacatecas, Mexico. Environmental and labor abuses led communities to hold several prolonged protests and blockades(link is external), disrupting operations at Mexico’s largest goldmine. In May 2019, residents from Cedros, Mazapil, marched(link is external) to protest against the mine’s impact exhausting critical water supplies(link is external). As one protestor summarized, “They are going to leave us with a sinkhole with totally contaminated land, water, and soil that are useless, and what is left for Zacatecas?”
In April 2019(link is external), during a blockade by the company’s truckers, the company suspended all grants, productive projects, trusts and social investments for communities, which a representative justified by saying, “The blockade leaders are trying to extort us and our company will not give in to this extortion.” In 2021, two years after Splett departed the company, the body of Jos Ascensin Carrillo Vzquez(link is external), a local activist at the forefront of the trucking protests(link is external), was found along a highway after he was kidnapped, tortured, and killed. A group of community organizations issued a statement(link is external) following his murder, demanding that the “mining company stop using armed groups as agents who are regularly trying to intimidate all social activists,” in the area.
From 2008 to 2013, Splett served as the VP of Finance and Administration for Antamina(link is external), one of the world’s largest copper and zinc mines located in the Andes Mountains of Peru. During this time, dust emitted from the mine negatively impacted the health(link is external) of impoverished communities and their crops and livestock. Tests done from 2006-2009 by government health agencies found elevated levels(link is external) of lead and cadmium in the blood and urine of villagers, a major health risk. The company was fined(link is external) for a June 2009 leak of copper, zinc, and lead into a river. In 2012(link is external), a pipeline rupture exposed hundreds of villagers to toxic materials(link is external), resulting in the hospitalization of over 40 people. Despite “strong local opposition,”(link is external) the mine proceeded with a US$1.29 billion expansion in 2010.
Protest in Zacatecas in 2019 against Peasquito gold mine © Flor Castaneda Splett’s track record managing mining companies responsible for serious abuses against local communities and environmental devastation in Latin America seriously undermines his stated commitment to ensuring sustainability and community well-being.