Nicaragua and China launched a Free Trade Agreement in January.
The Nicaraguan government gave the Chinese company Xinxin Linze Mining Group a new concession to exploit for 25 years a site in the north of the country, according to a resolution published Tuesday in the official newspaper La Gaceta that does not specify the minerals that will be extracted.
“On behalf of the State of Nicaragua, the Nicaraguan Xinxin Linze Mining Group would owe the company a mining concession for the use of metal and non-metallic minerals in the lot called Río Dorado,”The rule indicated.
The 3,628-hectare land is located near the town of San Juan del Limay, in the department of Estelí, about 180 km north of Managua.
It is the third concession given this year to Xinxin Linze,which received 2,091 hectares in the northern Caribbean in June and had already been made in April with a concession of 36.6 hectares in the same area.
The Chinese company will pay a 3 per cent royalty of the minerals extracted,not specified in the resolution, and shall commence operations within the next four years.
In 2021, Managua established relations with China after breaking with Taiwan, considered by Beijing as a territory of its own whose control it seeks to regain, even by the force of it necessary.
In JuneNicaraguan government announced the cancellation of nearly 30 mining concessions nationwidethrough orders from the Ministry of Energy and Mining published in the Official Gazette. The reason for the cancellations was “inactivity.”
Local media said Xinxin Linze is a subsidiary of mining giant Xinjiang Xinxin Mining Industry Company Limited, which has interests in nickel and copper, as well as other non-ferrous metals.
In addition to this company, two other Chinese miners have received concessions in Nicaragua: Zhong Fu Development and Thomas Metal.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo