judicial

Court ruling goes against Petaquilla

Judges ruled that Anam can impose sanctions on the mining company for not having an EIA.

VICTOR AROSEMENA/LA PRENSA

Petaquilla Minerals1068977

Petaquilla Minerals recently suffered a setback in the Panamanian Supreme Court after a ruling upheld the sanctions imposed on the company for working without an environmental impact assessment (EIA).

The company had filed a lawsuit to attempt to block an investigation by the Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente (Anam) into claims that the company had started work without an EIA.

Petaquilla had claimed that its government concession allowed it to start working, and that all the environmental issues the company had to resolve had been included in that concession.

Anam, however, cited a change in the law which required companies to produce an EIA even if they had a concession.

In 2005, Anam opened an investigation into claims that the company had started work at its site in the province of Colón without an EIA. The scope of the investigation was widened in 2006 when Anam officials learned that the company had began conducting other activities without developing an EIA. The company submitted its claim stating that the law violated the terms of its concession.

According to the company, the concession “occupies a higher position in the hierarchical order.” Harley Mitchell, Anam's legal adviser, disagreed with the company's position, stating that Anam was allowed to investigate companies for damages and fine them under an act known as the general law of the environment. The judges of the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court concluded that the company's position was not legally viable as “it must be pointed out that the contract has no hierarchy of law.” Mitchell said the company still has no EIAs approved for the proposed exploitation of gold and silver. However, he said that the study of an access road to the site has been approved.

Environmentalists and residents have been fiercely opposed to the project, and other mining ventures throughout the country.

There has been a call for the government to impose a moratorium on mining projects, but the Executive branch has not indicated it would be willing to impose that restriction.