NGO calls for permanent ban on metallic mining in El Salvador

An NGO has reiterated its call for El Salvador's government to approve a bill prohibiting metallic mining in the country, warning the industry harms the environment and communities. The national committee against metallic mining, which put forward the bill for a permanent halt to the industry in 2006, said mining is "not compatible" with the social and environmental "reality" in El Salvador and does not offer "substantial economic benefits." Any economic gains are "irrelevant" compared to the "negative impact" mining has on health and the environment, the NGO said in a statement on Facebook, including cyanide and mercury contamination and the demands mines place on water supplies. Unlike other countries, El Salvador has the "opportunity" to ban all metallic mining and set an "important precedent" in protecting communities' water supply and environment and avoiding violence against environmental campaigners. Outlawing metallic mining will also lend "greater legitimacy" to calls by the government for neighboring Honduras and Guatemala to suspend mining projects on the border of El Salvador, such as Canadian miner Goldcorp's (TSX: G, NYSE: GG) Cerro Blanco gold-silver project in Guatemala, which threaten to contaminate El Salvador's water supplies, the NGO said. El Salvador's environment and natural resources ministry (MARN) and the ministry of economy presented a draft billaiming to suspend all administrative activities relating to metallic exploration and mining in August 2012. But the NGO is "totally" opposed to the suspension, spokesman Carlos Flores was quoted as saying by news agency Efe, favoring a complete ban. Projects in El Salvador include Canadian Pacific Rim Mining's (TSX: PMU) El Dorado gold project, which is located in Cabañas department.