In 2011, the Marlin Mine posted profits of $607 million. Of that, one half of one percent went to the Guatemalan government. That single statistic captures the tension at the heart of this gold and silver operation in the San Marcos Department of western Guatemala, where the mine straddles the boundary of two municipalities -- San Miguel Ixtahuacan and Sipacapa -- at elevations between 1,800 and 2,300 meters. Discovered in 1998, developed through a chain of corporate acquisitions, and brought into production in 2005, the Marlin Mine became one of the most contested extractive projects in Latin America, pitting indigenous communities against international capital in a dispute over water, land, consent, and who gets to define what counts as harm.
The Marlin deposit was found through regional exploration in 1998 by Montana Exploradora, S.A. Francisco Gold Corporation purchased the claim in 2000; two years later, Francisco merged into Glamis Gold, which brought the mine into production in 2005. The following year, Glamis was acquired by Goldcorp, the Canadian mining giant. Each corporate transition moved the mine further from the communities living around it and closer to the boardrooms of Vancouver. The operation combined open-pit and underground mining, with ore crushed, milled, and cyanide-leached in tanks before being refined on-site and smelted into dore bars -- rough ingots of gold and silver. Over 50 percent of the 1,900 workers were local residents at the time of hiring, and 98 percent were Guatemalan. In 2008 alone, the operation spent more than $90 million on supplies and services within Guatemala and paid over $20 million in taxes.
Maya communities near the mine reported poisoned water sources, livestock dying after drinking from wells, and what they described as the destruction of their ancestral land. Goldcorp maintained that it had not discharged water into local rivers, that 89 percent of process water was recycled, and that monitoring by the company, an independent community association, and two Guatemalan government ministries had found no contamination. In May 2010, Physicians for Human Rights and the University of Michigan released an independent study -- initiated by the Archbishop of Guatemala, Cardinal Rodolfo Quezada Toruno -- that sampled 18 area residents and 5 mine workers. Residents closer to the mine showed higher levels of certain metals, but none exceeded U.S. Centers for Disease Control standards. The study found no correlation between metal levels and occupation or reported health. River sediments below the mine showed elevated aluminum, manganese, and cobalt, but drinking water samples fell within U.S. EPA limits. The authors called for a more comprehensive study. The question of whether the metals were mine-caused or naturally occurring remained unresolved.
Before Goldcorp even acquired the mine, residents of Sipacapa had filed a complaint with the World Bank Group's compliance office, alleging the project was developed without adequate consultation and in violation of indigenous rights. The ombudsman found that the company had interacted extensively with communities but that its disclosures were too technical for residents to assess the likely impacts. In Sipacapa, 13 community consultations preceded a municipal referendum in which 11 communities voted against mining. A Guatemalan court ruled in 2007 that the vote was a legal expression of popular will but not legally binding. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights went further, calling on Guatemala to suspend the mine's operations. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchu urged President Alvaro Colom to comply. In June 2010, the government announced it would begin the administrative process to suspend operations -- while simultaneously assuring residents that water supplies showed no evidence of contamination. By December 2011, the IACHR revised its position, dropping the call for closure but requesting that the state ensure potable water access for 18 communities.
The Marlin Mine sits 300 kilometers from Guatemala City by a mix of paved and gravel roads, in a landscape where the western highlands begin their descent toward the Pacific. Approximately 87 percent of the ore body lies within San Miguel Ixtahuacan. The mine had identified reserves to sustain production until 2017, with adjacent discoveries expected to extend operations further. For the communities living on this land, the question was never simply whether the water was safe by the standards of a laboratory in Michigan. It was about who had the right to decide what happened to the mountain -- and what happened when the gold was gone. A Guardian report from 2014 noted that a mine protester had been beaten and burned alive, a reminder that the stakes of resource extraction in Guatemala extend far beyond the technical and into the deeply human.
Located at 15.23N, 91.69W in Guatemala's San Marcos Department, in the western highlands approximately 300 km by road from Guatemala City. The mine site occupies terrain between 1,800 and 2,300 meters elevation, straddling the boundary of San Miguel Ixtahuacan and Sipacapa municipalities. From altitude, the open-pit operation and tailings infrastructure are visible against the green highland terrain. The nearest significant airfield is Quetzaltenango Airport (MGQZ), approximately 80 km to the southeast.