“Nicaragua’s government grants new mining concessions to Chinese companies”, 13 March 2026

…a new 2,500-hectare open-pit concession has been granted to the company Palacagüina Mining, represented in the country by the Chinese national Minhui Sun…

The permit is located in the municipality of San Juan del Río Coco, in the department of Madriz, a region bordering Honduras…

Between 2021 and 2026, the government led by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has granted concessions across 72 different lots to 16 companies of Chinese origin.

The environmental NGO headed by Amaru Ruiz has warned that the areas granted include protected territories and zones inhabited by Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities.

These lands are therefore subject to mineral exploration and exploitation, which has generated concern among social and environmental sectors…

The main concern lies in the sheer scale of the land granted to foreign companies, the lack of transparency in the process, and the risk posed to natural and Indigenous areas.

The complaints also point to the lack of guarantees regarding the experience and financial capacity of the beneficiary companies, as well as the absence of public information about investments and the potential socio-environmental effects of these activities…