The project is dead. And no amount of slick public relations campaign can bring it back.
A complete stop-work order for their Junin mining project, their so-called "nest egg".
A nest egg with 17 less properties which the company lost recently (see prior blogs).
No environmental impact study- not even on the pipeline.
A self-evaluated drilling program analysis from their other Ecuadorian mining projects.
A possible buy-in with another mining company with no record of production, and a mine not worth throwing money on.
A government hell-bent on totally revising the mining legislation to drastically reduce profits for the industry, much like it did with the petroleum industry (the last move was to take 99% of the industry’s windfall profits).
All local governments, and communities still adamantly opposed to the Junin project.
Recent archeological investigation confirming previous reports of a rich archeological zone within the Junin mining concessions (mining is illegal in archeological areas).
National mobilization against large-scale mining growing all over Ecuador.
And from Ascendant and others like it, a lot of hype but nothing concrete and independently verified to show to the world.
In the meantime, the millions keep being spent, and no doubt the company will soon move to try to sell more shares to try to keep this Titanic afloat.
Does the name Bre-X mean anything?
Carlos Zorrilla is founding member of the grass-roots environmental organization DECOIN . He is a coffee farmer and has lived with his family in the Intag region since 1978.