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7 June 2012 | |

Gold Ambition

Despite setback at the ICSID, Pacific Rim will try other legal channels

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Pacific Rim Mining is a mining corporation based in Vancouver, Canada. The gold exploitation project in El Salvador the company is interested in is called El Dorado, and is located in the Northern department of Cabañas.

In addition, El Dorado is the name of a mythical place with golden streets the Spanish conquerors tried to arrive to, without any luck, when arriving to Latin America in early 16th Century.

Searching for that city lost in the middle of the jungle, the explorers
massacred many native communities.

Pacific Rim chose to reflect its gold ambition through an appeal filed to a World Bank’s tribunal, which a few days ago ruled in favor of El Salvador.

On June 1st, the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) ruled that the Canadian mining company cannot seek protection under the Dominican Republic - Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR).

The ICSID rejected the latest move by Pacific Rim: the Canadian company even opened offices in the United States to seek protection under the CAFTA-DR.

The company, according to a statement, will “immediately begin to prepare for the final phase of the arbitration”, this time resorting to the investment protection agreements between El Salvador and Canada.

"We look forward to proceeding to the final portion of the arbitration case to recover the value of the El Dorado asset. We are confident in the merits of this case”, said Tom Shrake, Pacific Rim CEO, according to EFE.

The mining expropriations promoted by El Salvador government,
according to Shrake, have caused the “loss of jobs, tax revenues and stability, as well as El Salvador’s standing in the foreign investment community”.

(CC) 2012 Real World Radio

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