BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Aug. 26, 2021– Earlier this week, Friends for Conservation and Development (FCD) sounded the alarm on mining operations in Chiquibul National Park by Boiton Mineral Company which it says are putting at least 50% of Belize’s freshwater source at risk.
The company has been granted approval to mine for gold in the Chiquibul National Park and has since created a road clearing which the FCD says may cause an irreparably negative impact on a portion of the watershed that flows into the Belize River.
Government authorities carried out a joint inspection of the area and confirmed that the company was not in compliance with the ECP.
A release from GoB states, “The Government of Belize takes this non-compliance seriously and will be applying the appropriate penalties and fines for these infractions.”
This was after the company, Boiton, released a statement calling into question the authority of the FCD to blow the whistle on its activities in the Chiquibul.
The purported release from the company, published without a letterhead, says “BML questions what jurisdiction FCD has to dictate to GOB or licenses what they should or should not do and when.”
As is widely known, the FCD has been on the Belize/Guatemala frontier for years, protecting our Belizean forests from incursions and from the pillaging of natural resources by Guatemalans who come across the border.
They have, in many instances, carried out tasks that are the responsibility of GoB and at all times have acted as the country’s eyes and ears in the Chiquibul National Park.
Calls have been made since early 2014 to cancel the mineral rights licenses granted to the company in 2013. An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was, however, signed with the government in 2018.
The 2018 EIA from Boiton Mineral Ltd. states, “Within Belize’s local context, the proposed undertaking being planned by Boiton Minerals Limited is a first of its kind in several ways. It is the first underground mining project being planned, and the first owned and managed by Belizeans.”
The company is owned by George Boiton and has been in operation since 2000, but was not legally registered until 2008.
The company secured permission for mining the alluvial deposits of Ceibo Chico and Ceibo Grande. The FCD is now carrying out water quality testing in those areas.
A post from their Facebook page states, “Water quality testing is ongoing. This time the team conducted testing in the southern region of the Chiquibul National Park, covering the main tributaries of Ceibo Chico and Ceibo Grande.”