The Canadian company Infinito Gold withdrew from a procedure to annul the resolution issued in 2021 by an international arbitration court, which determined that Costa Rica should not compensate that company for the failed attempt to create an open pit mine in Crucitas, in Cutris. of San Carlos.
In June 2021, the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) exonerated the Costa Rican State after an arbitration process that began in March 2014. The final and unanimous decision ruled out economic reparation for Infinito Gold, which claimed almost $400 million.
In October of that same year, the foreign firm requested to resume the arbitration process against Costa Rica before the ICSID, for which it filed a procedure to annul said ruling.
However, the official ICSID website stated on June 14, 2024 that the parties had submitted a request for termination of the proceedings in accordance with ICSID Arbitration Rules 53 and 43(1). The case remains pending resolution at the ICSID.
“Regarding the dispute between Industrias Infinito and the Costa Rican State, we maintain increasingly positive expectations about an outcome favorable to the interests of Costa Rica in this long dispute,” declared Manuel Tovar Rivera, Minister of Foreign Trade, to The nation.
The mining project in Crucitas
The arbitration filed by Infinito Gold in 2014 came after its failure to continue with its plan to operate an open-pit gold mine.
Infinito began operations in the country through a permit granted in 2002, during the government of Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (1998-2002), for the exploitation of open pit gold in Crucitas, in the Cutris district of San Carlos.
However, the project did not take significant steps until October 13, 2008, when President Óscar Arias and his Minister of Environment and Energy, Roberto Dobles, signed decree number 34801-Minaet, which declared it “of public interest.” and “national convenience.”
Dissatisfied with these decisions, the environmental groups Apreflofas and Frente Norte por la Vida (Unovida) went to the Contentious Administrative Court, which, on November 24, 2010, annulled the contract.
The judges detected irregularities in the permits and determined environmental damage due to the cutting of yellow almond trees, protected by law.
That decision was ratified in 2011 by Chamber I of the Supreme Court of Justice, which is why Arias’ decree was also annulled. He also ordered Infinito to compensate the country for the damages caused.
Running out of more legal spaces, Infinito resorted to international arbitration before the ICSID, an entity of the World Bank based in Washington DC.
