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April 23, 2025


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The Hazardous Machinations of Canada’s Mining Elite in Mining-Affected Communities Across Latin America
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By Jennifer Moore

“With all eyes on the shock-and-awe tariffs, slashing and burning of federal services, mass deportations, hate mongering and expansionist threats of the far-right billionaires running the White House, little attention is being paid to how elements of Canada’s corporate elite are throwing their own weight around.”

With gold prices on their way to $3,000 an ounce and governments of the West butting heads and re-positioning policies related to taxes on trade, there is no concern in the global extractive industry sector - global north-based mining companies are pushing as hard as ever across the planet to get control over money making minerals.

“As the dangers facing mining-affected communities and land defenders continue to mount in Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador and other countries, Canadian mining companies such as Equinox Gold confirm their reputation as bullies, blind to everything but their profits, who use their political, economic and legal advantages to impose their will.”

Rights Action shares this article that we relate directly to multiple “hazardous machinations” of Canadian (and U.S.) mining interests in Guatemala and Honduras, past and present!

The Hazardous Machinations of Canada’s Mining Elite
In mining-affected communities across Latin America, standing up for community rights is often a deadly venture
By Jennifer Moore / April 2, 2025
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Posters placed by activists from Carrizalillo on the entrance sign to Equinox Gold’s Los Filos mine in Guerrero State, Mexico. Photo supplied by the author.

With all eyes on the shock-and-awe tariffs, slashing and burning of federal services, mass deportations, hate mongering and expansionist threats of the far-right billionaires running the White House, little attention is being paid to how elements of Canada’s corporate elite are throwing their own weight around.

As gold prices reach record highs, Vancouver-based Equinox Gold is trying to pressure the community of Carrizalillo in Guerrero, Mexico into accepting austere cuts to their land use and social cooperation agreements as a condition for continued investment in the Los Filos mine. Their ultimatum is creating a dangerous situation for the community that may deteriorate further with the very recent expiry of these agreements on Monday, March 31.

The company’s behaviour is enabled by the ongoing state of impunity enjoyed by Canadian mining operations abroad. It reinforces the “Canada Brand ([link removed]) ” that mining-affected communities in Latin America are all too familiar with: a state of affairs in which standing up for community rights is often a deadly venture.

Equinox Gold, Canadian mining magnate Ross Beaty’s swan song

Equinox Gold is said to be Ross Beaty’s “swan song”—potentially the last precious metals firm that this west coast mining magnate could put his Midas touch on before his retirement.

A geologist by training, Beaty has been called a “broken slot machine” for his repeated success in the industry, having founded companies such as Pan American Silver, among others.

Equinox was founded less than 10 years ago and acquired the Los Filos mine in Guerrero in 2020. This was part of an aggressive growth strategy to become a major gold company in the Americas. At the time, the company had six mines in operation and Los Filos was its top asset. Five years later, Equinox operates eight mines in the Americas, including the recently inaugurated Greenstone mine in northern Ontario, which surpasses Los Filos in size, mineral reserves and low costs.

In early March 2025, with gold prices well on their way to $3,000 an ounce, Equinox announced its planned merger with another Canadian mining company, Calibre Mining, which has mining operations in Nicaragua and the United States, as well as a mine under construction in Canada. Equinox boasts ([link removed]-) that this combination could make it the second largest gold producer in Canada, although it is not clear ([link removed]) if its shareholders will support this decision.

Even so, Los Filos remains a large asset for Equinox Gold and, in 2024, the company obtained record revenues from the mine which has the potential to operate for over a decade more. To remain profitable, the company needs to invest in a new processing plant estimated to cost several hundred million dollars. This seems within reach for a company able to take on over a billion dollars in debt just last year to become the 100 percent owner of Greenstone, with plans to pay it off in short order.

Instead of investing in the plant now that Greenstone is ramping up, the company has conditioned its investment decision on drastic cuts to its community commitments in Mexico.

Carrizalillo, a history of struggle

Carrizalillo is well-known in Mexico for the terrible impact of the Los Filos mine on its land, water and health, as well as for the community’s history of struggle. The open pit and underground gold mine literally envelops Carrizalillo, which has been transformed since 2008 from a community reliant on farming, livestock and mezcal production into one dependent on the mine.

While the community had 120 mezcal producers 20 years ago, it has just one mezcal maker today. The ejido’s arable and grazing lands have been almost entirely taken up by the mine and the community now sleeps, prays and goes to school less than 400 metres from the mine’s cyanide heap leach pad.

Carrizalillo’s land use agreement for Los Filos ensures a key source of income for community members. The social cooperation agreement addresses issues such as access to jobs and contracts at the mine, as well as scholarships for their young people and partial coverage of medicines to address the proliferation of complex medical conditions that have arisen since the mine went into operation. It also includes clauses to address their need for a water treatment plant to deal with the loss of water sources and contamination of others.

None of the three Canadian companies that have owned Los Filos, including Goldcorp, Leagold and Equinox Gold, have ever fully complied with this aspect of the agreement.

Green-washing of Ross Beaty, “one of [Canada’s] leading environmental philanthropists”

This is perhaps unsurprising for an industry notorious for environmental devastation. It is ironic that Beaty has built a reputation in Canada not only as a mine investor but also “one of our leading environmental philanthropists ([link removed]) ”—this despite lasting environmental harm and degradation ([link removed]) from mines his companies operate in the Americas, including Los Filos.

The Carrizalillo community’s agreements were hard won. Just before the Los Filos mine entered commercial operation in early 2008, Carrizalillo successfully challenged ([link removed]) Goldcorp over the illegal purchase of their collective use lands, which cannot be sold according to Mexico’s Agrarian Law. They also initiated an 83-day stoppage at the mine and won improved terms in their temporary land use agreement.

In 2014, the community stopped the mine again, this time for 33 days ([link removed]) and won further gains, including stronger commitments to help address escalating violence, such as scholarships to send their young people away to study. They also won commitments related to health and water. The community currently estimates household expenses of CAD$5,600 to $7,000 per year on bottled water.

In September 2020, shortly after Equinox took over Los Filos, Carrizalillo initiated a mine stoppage ([link removed]) over the company’s non-compliance with the social cooperation agreement, related to issues such as lack of drinking water, overpriced medicines and shortage of unionized jobs. This stoppage was the longest yet, lasting about 100 days, following which a new agreement was reached. But the relationship remained tense.

Equinox Gold responded by calling the community’s actions criminal, accusing them of extortion and suing them in a Unitary Agrarian Tribunal. According to the Ejido de Carrizalillo, this lawsuit was settled through mediation after several years of litigation.

Now, the company is focused on trying to ensure “long-term stability ([link removed]) ” at the mine and to make it hard for the community to review or renegotiate their agreements again. After threatening to suspend the mine for months, the company announced on April 1 that it has “indefinitely suspended operations ([link removed]) ” at Los Filos.

With gold prices still on the rise and numerous mines in operation, Equinox has intimated to investors ([link removed]) that it can weather the suspension of Los Filos. Carrizalillo, however, faces the prospect of displacement and a serious risk of violence.

One of the open pits at the Los Filos gold mine near Carrizalillo, Mexico.

Equinox’s ultimatum and escalating threats against Carrizalillo

In early February 2025, Carrizalillo denounced ([link removed]) the use of threats and coercive tactics in the renegotiations, calling for a reset in talks. Since then, they have decried the stigmatization campaign against them as well as other escalating threats.

In a February 5 letter ([link removed]) addressed to the president of Equinox Gold, CEO Greg Smith, Carrizalillo states that they seek the resumption of respectful negotiations, independent of two other communities who, the company insists, must be at the table and who live eight to 10 kilometers away from the mine, which has spared them the environmental impacts to a large extent. They also call for negotiations independent of Guerrero state officials, whom they denounce for taking the company’s side at the negotiating table. Guerrero officials have also echoed the company’s ultimatum in the press to blame the community for uncertainty around the mine’s continued operation.

In this letter, Carrizalillo notes that the company seeks to cut their rental agreement by approximately 63.8 percent, reduce social benefits by about 40 percent, and sign agreements for 20 years. Carrizalillo has indicated willingness to accept up to 40 percent cuts in rent and a longer-term agreement, but is not prepared to go as far as the company wants.

A 20-year agreement would essentially mean giving up the opportunity to renegotiate or review compliance with the agreement. Since Carrizalillo reached its 2007 agreement with Goldcorp, their agreements have ranged from one to six years in duration. No company has yet owned the mine for longer than 12 years.

To bring public attention to their concerns, the community held a 12-hour protest ([link removed]) outside the mine gates on February 19.

Equinox’s CEO Greg Smith and the company’s Vice President for External Affairs and Social Responsibility Georgina Blanco have responded in writing, refusing to consider the community’s terms for the negotiations. In the meantime, since late February, the threats against the community—especially community leaders and their family members—have been escalating.

The community reports that, since February 23, more than a dozen community leaders, their family members and a community advisor have received anonymous death threats by text message and delivered by courier.

They have also denounced the company for using its radio station at the Los Filos mine, called La Filosita, to broadcast messages singling out Carrizalillo community leadership.

One such message (a recording of which was made available to the author) states that their leadership is the only roadblock to new agreements, and suggesting that they are putting at risk the future of their workers and children “who deserve a better life.” The community suspects the Los Filos social responsibility manager of being involved in these acts.

On March 1, two senior company officials, including the general manager for Los Filos, and Equinox’s Senior Vice President in Mexico, Armando Fausto Ortega, made a surprise visit ([link removed]) to Carrizalillo. In a recording of his statement made available to the author, Ortega threatened that “if their leaders do not sign the agreement today, unfortunately the company will have to close the mine.”

Since March 3, some 25 community members have received notices for contract termination. One such notice ([link removed]) underscores their participation in the February 19 protest as the reason “for early termination of the contractual relationship for goods and services,” accusing the community of wanting to “[attack] the Company’s interests […] to inflict the greatest possible economic damage, and to obtain, through extortion, undue benefits.”

The same notice threatens possible criminal proceedings against the ejido member, but there is no indication so far of what alleged causes or crimes could give rise to such claims. Carrizalillo has also reported the dismissal ([link removed]) of the majority of workers from the community.

In the face of these escalating tensions and threats, as well as the stigmatization of Carrizalillo community members, nearly 100 organizations from Canada, Mexico and around the world sent an open letter ([link removed]) to Equinox on March 13, expressing concern about the potential for further violence against the community as a result. For its part, the community has been appealing to federal government officials to ensure their safety in any talks with the company.

The open letter states that Carrizalillo had already faced the forced displacement of half of its population in 2015, as well as more than 60 murders in the last 15 years. Such extreme violence has also been reported ([link removed]) in connection with Toronto-based Torex Gold’s mining operation about 45 kilometres north of Los Filos, as well as others elsewhere in the country, as industrial mines in Mexico have become targets for extortion by organized crime, often in collusion with state authorities ([link removed]) . Equinox’s response to the open letter did not address the threats ([link removed]) .

Now that the agreements with Carrizalillo have expired and the company has suspended Los Filos, the community has set up camp outside the mine, having previously announced ([link removed]) that they will seek compensation and environmental restoration of their land.

Reviving the “Canada Brand”

Ten years ago, the Justice and Corporate Accountability Project reported ([link removed]) on the prevalence of targeted violence and criminalization at Canadian mine sites across Latin America. Violence at Los Filos mine figured in the report, which described such practices as characteristic of the “Canada Brand,” and attributed them in part to Canada’s reliance on non-enforceable voluntary codes of business conduct.

As the dangers facing mining-affected communities and land defenders continue to mount in Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador and other countries, Canadian mining companies such as Equinox Gold confirm their reputation as bullies, blind to everything but their profits, who use their political, economic and legal advantages to impose their will.

(Jennifer Moore is an Associate Fellow with the Institute for Policy Studies and former Latin America Program Coordinator at MiningWatch Canada.)

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To support land and environmental defenders, and human rights, justice and democracy defense struggles in Honduras and Guatemala, make check to "Rights Action" and mail to:
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TESTIMONIO Canadian Mining in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala
Edited by Catherine Nolin (UNBC) & Grahame Russell (Rights Action)
(Between The Lines, 2021)

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