Catholic Church Urges El Salvador Not To Lift Gold Mining Ban

The Roman Catholic Church has urged El Salvador's president not to lift the country’s ban on gold mining, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

The Catholic Church had previously supported the gold mining ban to protect the country's water resources.

Archbishop José Luis Escobar Alas asked President Nayib Bukele to maintain the ban, which has been in place since 2017. “It will damage this country forever,” Archbishop Escobar Alas said during a homily.

Civic and environmental groups have echoed his concerns.

Last Wednesday, Bukele called the ban on metals mining “absurd” and argued on the social platform X that unmined gold could represent “wealth that could transform El Salvador.”

With Bukele’s party controlling Congress by a wide margin and political opposition weakened, a formal proposal to repeal the ban is unlikely to face significant resistance.

The ban, implemented in 2017, prohibits all aboveground and underground metals mining. A broad coalition, including the Catholic Church, supported the measure to protect the country's water resources.

There has been no large-scale metal mining in El Salvador since its enactment.

Bukele has proposed “modern and sustainable” mining practices that purportedly safeguard the environment, but environmentalists remain skeptical.

“It’s not true that there’s green mining; it’s paid for with lives—through kidney, respiratory problems, and leukemia, which aren’t immediate,” said Amalia López of the Alliance Against the Privatization of Water.

Critics are particularly concerned about the water-intensive nature of mining operations and the risks posed by heavy metal contamination.