Cases / Mining · El Salvador · 2017–2024
El Salvador lifts its 2017 ban on metal mining
Short record: the main facts, with sources. A full case file has not been prepared.
Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
Not on record
- The record does not name which of my species, waters, soils or forests were harmed.
El Salvador lifted its 2017 ban on metal mining in December 2024, a reversal ACI Prensa reported. The sources reviewed give no environmental assessment for the areas now open to mining.
What?
El Salvador's 2017 ban on metal mining was reversed in December 2024. ACI Prensa
Where?
El Salvador, nationwide.
When?
Ban introduced in 2017; reversal reported in December 2024. ACI Prensa
Who?
Gained
None on recordLost
- Residents, church groups and local organizations that backed the ban — the 2017 ban they had supported was lifted
Harmed
None on recordWhy?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
How?
The Legislative Assembly lifted the ban by vote, which the sources reviewed put at 57 of the 60 seats.
6 of 6 questions answered from the record
What happened
The record, in order.
ACI Prensa reported in December 2024 that El Salvador's 2017 ban on mining had been reversed.
A case summary records that Pac Rim lost its investment claim of more than 250 million dollars against the ban, with costs of 8 million dollars.
In court and with insurers
Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.
Lawsuits and rulings
- Defendant wonPac Rim claim against El Salvador over the mining banNot stated in the sources reviewed · investment arbitration · Pac Rim → El Salvador
The case summary records that Pac Rim lost its claim of more than 250 million dollars; costs of 8 million dollars are recorded.
Insurers
No insurer decision on record.
What we don't know
Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.
Nature
- Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.
Record
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: Bukele said the potential mining area holds 50 million ounces of gold, identified in work on about 4% of it.
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: a poll found 61% of respondents expected mining to harm the environment.
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: El Salvador was the first country to ban all metal mining, in 2017.
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: Cristosal left the country in July 2025.
- None on record The sources reviewed do not name the companies that would gain from reopened mining.
- Insufficient The sources reviewed do not state the government's stated reason for the reversal, beyond the unverified gold claim.
Did the harm stop?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Who paid?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Sources
Voices on record: — Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations— Communities and civil society— Researchers
Press and investigations
- 2017 mining ban reversedACI Prensa · 2024-12
Connected cases
Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
- El Salvador won Pac Rim claim; 2017 metal mining ban repealed in 2024 El Salvador · 2016–2024
- Legislative Assembly of El Salvador (Government) — here: voted to lift the ban; there: repealed the 2017 ban in December 2024
- Pac Rim (Company) — here: claimant in a lost investment arbitration over the ban; there: claimant