This is stated on the website of the International Center for Settlement of Relative Investment Disputes, although the information is brief.
According to information compiled by public international law professor Nicolás Boeglin, it appears that the case that the Canadian mining company Infinito Gold brought against Costa Rica in the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) could come to an end.
In his Public International Law blog, the UCR professor reproduced a recent notification that appears on the official page of the process on the ICSID site, which dates back to June 14 and says: “the parties present a request for the discontinuation of the process in accordance with ICSID arbitration rules 53 and 43(1)”.
In addition, the specialized site CIAR Global, dedicated to monitoring this type of arbitration processes, published this Monday that “the Canadian mining company Infinito Gold Ltd. has announced that it is withdrawing its request for partial annulment of the award in the arbitration opened before the International Center of Settlement of Relative Investment Disputes (ICSID) since 2014”.
Now, Boeglin himself makes the reservation that “at least officially, nothing has emerged from the ICSID, nor has any official announcement by the Costa Rican foreign trade authorities.”
In fact, the official channel Trece Noticias managed to consult the Minister of Foreign Trade Manuel Tovar about it, but the official was only able to offer an ambiguous response that did not clarify the situation at all.
The opacity of the entire situation is greater if we take into account that when analyzing the regulations invoked in the miserable ICSID communication, Boeglin found that it is not relevant. “It should be noted that Articles 53 and 43 (1) cited on the official ICSID website… are not provisions that apply to the indicated situation, which raises very valid questions,” he noted on his blog.
As stated, the Canadian mining company filed its lawsuit against the country before that body in 2014 and Boeglin recalled that in June 2021, ICSID announced an arbitration award “partially favorable” to Costa Rica, which caused the Canadians to file a request for partial annulment of that award in October of that year.
That administration is precisely the one that would have come to an end. What implications would that fact have, if true?
Since the beginning of his administration, Chaves has alleged that the process before the ICSID prevented him from proposing the solution that would appeal to the problem of illegal mining in Crucitas, always with a nod towards the mining exploitation of the site.
Only last January at a press conference did he argue that “there is an international award, the idea was in November that the award would be in our favor, that this company that was given a gift would not challenge it – the only thing that was missing was a little bow in a red box -, that concession and now he is acting wild and wanting to fight and asking for hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation. He added at the same time that “I announced publicly that we are not going to be able to do anything in terms of deciding whether or not to exploit the Crucitas gold, but that is amply covered.”
So it is not surprising that, like a shark that perceives its prey, the College of Geologists issued a statement in which it “places itself at the command of the president” to prepare a “road map” according to the words of its president Arnoldo. Rudín, who also expressed the usual promises of that union that the exploitation of gold will result in “benefiting the pension of the entire population, or financing the construction of schools, colleges, ports, airports, roads and even hospitals.”
That statement concludes with the other eternal promise of the College of Geologists that the exploration and exploitation of open-pit gold “can be done without damaging the environment, putting an end to the lies that point to some critical impact on the biodiversity of the area.”
