This has apparently been in the works for a while[0] in response to a ridiculous percentage of El Salvador's fresh water being poisoned by mining runoff. Good for them, this looks like it solves a lot of problems.<p>Does anyone know what sort of impact this will have on their economy?<p>[0]<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/mar/30/el-salvador-makes-history-first-nation-to-impose-blanket-ban-on-metal-mining" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/mar/30/e...</a>
At first glance, I think this measure makes a lot of sense - profits from mines mostly leave the country.<p>That being said, I'd expect this will lead to a surge in illegal mining operations, which will likely be a lot more environmentally hazardous.
Ages ago, a buddy predicted we'd eventually just mine our own trash for precious metals. As opposed to recycling, I suppose. Call it "extreme recycling".<p>I wonder how close we are to that future.
How dare El Salvador try to use facts to claim that these foreign companies mining their resources don't help their communities but only pollute it!<p>The anarcho capitalist solution is that the country should privatize their water supply so that outside companies can then legally buy up the lakes and pollute as much as they want! After all the companies will have paid people for it - the people only would have to live there :)
In _Collapse_, Jared Diamond makes the argument that almost all modern mining of metals would be economically unprofitable if all the negative externalities (i.e., cleanup costs) were taken into account.
I suspect their head of state will die in a plane crash within a year. Either that or there will be a military coupe. Double your bets if any of those shut down were American mining companies.<p>And before you start saying I should take off my tin foil hat, look up the 1973 coupe in Chile, the Iranian Contras, United Fruit and the documentary Confessions of an Economic Hitman.<p>I hope El Salvador keeps mining banned. I really do. But the track record is that NATO countries tend to "fix" things when their interests are threatened.
This is interesting.<p>Blocking access to a resource would redirect efforts towards other activities.<p>Countries with abundance of resources or no restrictions to harvest them are not always more prosperous, as explained by the concept "resource course": <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse</a>
The problem here is that our technological society needs metals to operate. But getting those metals is making a big mess in less-developed places like this, for the benefit of the more-developed places.<p>So, the solution is simple: mine asteroids. No one cares about pollution in space.
This becomes interesting. Many gemstones are also essentially metal ores. I wonder if this will affect gem and mineral mining/collecting in El Salvador, which does have a decent reputation in the mineral/gem/lapidary circle.
A lot of Canadian mining companies doing really dirty work in Central America. Makes me ashamed to be Canadian. Glad to see El Salvador assert their autonomy.
Too bad we (U.S.) are a a large economy, the only way we could survive and implement this policy is if we get to space and get good at mining asteroids.
Have they lost the plot? Has HN lost the plot in the comments supporting this.<p>Why not just ban science?<p>We need metals to live and prosper.<p>If it was really that minimal as per 'NGO' advise then the pollution would be minimal.<p>Why not just make companies pay fines if they polute? The government obviously doesn't kowtow to them?<p>Perhaps if their people weren't so poor you could excuse banning things like gold and diamond. But this (as the article tells it, I doubt it's close to the full story) is like going back to the middle ages.