"Strife with indigenous groups could derail Ecuador’s drive to be a mining power," 10 December 2020

Conflicts with indigenous communities have stalled operations at Ecuador’s San Carlos Panantza copper mining project... slated to start exporting copper this year, but a dispute with the Shuar indigenous community led ExplorCobres to halt the project nearly two years ago...Indigenous groups say the government did not adequately consult them about projects...

...“The government approved concessions years ago without providing information and without the knowledge of the Shuar-Arutam people,” said Josefina Tunki, president of the Shuar-Arutam. “The people have said ‘no’ to having this large-scale extractivist company in our territory.”

Indigenous activists said the mine’s first camp in 2016 displaced eight families and eliminated the ancestral village of Nankints, triggering a standoff with the Shuar people that year that left one police officer dead and five wounded...

ExplorCobres did not reply to a request for comment. In March, it issued a statement condemning the attack on the project....

The Shuar people filed a lawsuit to have the entire project scrapped and demanded damage payments from ExplorCobres for the forced displacement of its people, but the case was thrown out... The Shuar... will file a complaint with the International Labor Organization against Ecuador...

“We will never allow extractivist companies into our territory, we want to live in a territory without pollution,” said Tunki...