Starting from 2021, four Chinese-linked companies, namely Zhong Fu Development, Nicaragua XinXin Linze Minería Group, Thomas Metal, and Brother Metal, had acquired about 21 mining concessions, covering nearly 300,000 hectares in Nicaragua. The concessions were results from sets of legal reforms from the Ortega-Murillo regime which allowed concession transfers without public bidding or adequate environmental oversight. Across the same period, other non-Chinese mining companies had their mining permit revoked by the Nicaraguan government, citing a "lack of development activity" as the official reason.

In contrast with the previous mining companies, the Chinese companies that obtained new mining concessions are reported to have markedly more opaque public information, with no traceable operational history, minimal transparency of a public-facing corporate structure, and no company website available. The companies face a deadline of commencement in extraction in 2026, and while large-scale extraction remained invisible as of June 2025, constructions have been spotted in 2024.

In September 2025, the newly established company Waslala Mine acquired mining concessions, bringing the total area of concessions granted to Chinese-linked companies, including Zhong Fu Development, Thomas Metal, Brother Metal, Linze Excelente Minería, and Waslala Mine, to more than 500,000 hectares.

In October, it was reported that the government awarded new mining concessions to Three Gold Coins Company, Little Stone Mine and Toyar Inversión Minera.

As of February 2026, it was reported that 16 companies of Chinese origin have been granted more than one million hectares for mining exploitation in the country, allegedly in protected areas and Indigenous territories, without transparency or prior, free, and informed consent:

• Thomas Metal
• Brother Metal
• Nicaragua XinXin Linze Minería Group
• Zhong Fu Development
• Waslala Mine
• Global Group
• Y.M. Mining Company
• Three Gold Coins Company
• Little Stone Mine
• New Era Mining Development Company
• Nicaragua Xiajing Minería Group
• Northern Mining Company
• Linze Excelente Minería
• Southern Mining
• Tutuwaka Mining Company
• Toyar Inversión Minera

All of these companies are registered in Nicaragua but are owned by Chinese parent companies. The BHRC attempted to reach out to both the companies and their parent firms. However, no information was available in public records. We were only able to reach out to Xinjiang XinXin Mining Industry, the parent company of Nicaragua XinXin Linze Minería Group, but received no response.