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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” 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 that this combination could make it the second largest gold producer in Canada, although it is not clear 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”—this despite lasting environmental harm and degradation 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 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 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 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” 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” at Los Filos.
With gold prices still on the rise and numerous mines in operation, Equinox has intimated to investors that it can weather the suspension of Los Filos. Carrizalillo, however, faces the prospect of displacement and a serious risk of violence.
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