Summary

The San Carlos-Panantza copper mining project is a large-scale open-pit mining project planned for Ecuador. In 2010, a consortium of two Chinese companies — China Railway Construction Corporation and Tongguan Nonferrous Metals Group — purchased the Canadian company that had been exploring the site. If the project goes ahead as planned, it will cover 38,458 hectares — almost four times the size of the Mirador project, which is also operated by the same consortium.

The area is inhabited by the Indigenous Shuar peoples. They have opposed the project from the beginning. Opposition and protest intensified following the forcible eviction of the Nankints community in 2016, resulting in casualties among both protesters and security forces. Further delays to the implementation of the mining project have been caused by ongoing tensions, including the burning of a mining camp in 2020 and a 2022 ruling by the Ecuadorian Constitutional Court in favour of opponents of the mine regarding lack of proper consultation.

Location: Morona-Santiago Province, Ecuador

Companies: CRCC-Tongguan Investment consortium, comprised of two Chinese state-owned companies: China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) and Tongguan Nonferrous Metals Group (TNMG), whose subsidiary for this project is Explorcobres S.A.

Investors and financiers: The financing for the purchase of the Canadian company was provided through a 2010 $329 million syndicated loan by China Development Bank, Bank of China, and Agricultural Bank of China. There is no specific information regarding further financing for the project.

Project impacts and concerns:

1. Evictions and violence: In 2016, a militarised operation involving more than 2,000 security forces forcibly removed the Shuar residents of Nankints in connection with clearing land for the mine. This led to conflicts that lasted throughout the year, resulting in the death of a police officer and the wounding of several others, including Shuar protestors. Intimidation was also reported in the nearby Shuar communities of San Carlos Limon, Tsuntsuimi, and Kutukus. As of March 2017, a total of 508 people had been reported displaced by the overall San Carlos-Panantza mining project. Those evicted from Nankints were, as of July 2019, still unable to return to their homes.
2. Legal issues: In 2022, Ecuador’s Constitutional Court ruled that the failure of Explorcobres S.A. (the local subsidiary through which the CRCC-Tongguan Investment consortium operates) to properly consult the Shuar peoples regarding the project violated their constitutional rights and invalidated the granting of an environmental license for the project. However, in 2025, the Ministry of Environment, Water, and Ecological Transition issued a new environmental license again without consulting the Shuar communities in the project area. It is unknown whether a new legal challenge has been brought against this action.