Canadian groups call on Dundee Precious Metals to permanently abandon efforts for Loma Larga project

Toronto-based mining company Dundee Precious Metals (DPM) is once again under fire for its environmental track record and relationship with local communities in Ecuador. Yesterday, 106 organizations and 48 university professors, lawyers, Indigenous leaders, and human rights activists sent an open letter to the company urging it to permanently shut down its Loma Larga project in southeastern Ecuador and comply with the law.

Although it appears almost impossible for the mining project near Cuenca to go forward, DPM has refused to officially abandon its claim.

Part of the Cuenca protest march that stopped the Loma Larga gold mine Project. The “March for water” was 100,000+ strong and was called the largest single-day protest in Ecuador history.

The letter is endorsed by 26 Canadian and 80 International civil society organizations and coalitions, representing 18 countries around the world. The coalitions include the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA) and the Americas Policy Group (APG), which together represent over 45 Canadian international development, human rights and environmental justice organizations, labour unions, faith-based groups, and solidarity groups.

The letter comes after a series of important setbacks for the company, including the revocation of its environmental licence by the Ecuadorian government and a complaint filed before the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) against the company.

In 2022, a local court suspended the Loma Larga project. This decision was ratified by the Constitutional Court of Ecuador in 2024, following two binding referendums in the cities of Girón and Cuenca, where residents overwhelmingly voted in favour of banning mining in the water sources where the Loma Larga project is located. Multiple independent technical and scientific studies have concluded that the project is not viable for environmental reasons.

Despite all the legal, environmental, and social challenges, the company has continued advancing the project and community programs. In September, after announcing results for its updated feasibility study, it affirmed that the study demonstrates “Loma Larga’s potential to deliver attractive returns for our investors and stakeholders,” heightening tensions at the local level.

The open letter highlights the actions carried out by the communities over the last 30 years, in particular the historic march on September 16, 2025, dubbed the “Fifth River of Cuenca”, where more than 100,000 residents of the province of Azuay flooded the streets of Cuenca, demanding the cancellation of the mining concessions to DPM Metals Inc.

This statement of international solidarity comes just a few days after an overwhelming vote against President Daniel Noboa’s proposal to rewrite the Ecuadorian constitution. Mining-afected communities saw the referendum as an attempt to “change the constitution to eliminate the rights of nature, which are sacred to us, and the right to free, prior, and informed consultation, which has been a fundamental legal instrument in our defence of water and territory,” Lauro Sigcha, president of the Federation of Campesino and Indigenous Organizations of Azuay (Federación de Organizaciones Indígenas y Campesinas del Azuay – FOA in Spanish).

In a context where Ecuador and Canada are seeking to ratify a free trade agreement that primarily aims to increase Canadian mining investment in the country, “this new blow to DPM also sends a strong message to Canada that Canadian mining investment is not welcome in Ecuador,” says Viviana Herrera, Latin America Program Coordinator, MiningWatch Canada.

As highlighted in the open letter, several members of diverse organizations such as the Federation of Campesino and Indigenous Organizations of Azuay (FOA) and the Cuenca Water Council have been criminalized for their participation in the march, and have had their bank accounts frozen. The legal proceedings against these water defenders are part of a broader context of criminalization targeting environmental defenders throughout the country and the region.

The demands of the group letter include respecting the court decisions of 2022, 2023 and 2024 and the two binding referendums of 2019 and 2021. The signatories also throw their support behind mining-affected communities’ calls for the company to refrain from any attempt to file lawsuits in arbitration courts, as Article 422 of the Ecuadorian Constitution prohibits the transfer of sovereign jurisdiction to international arbitration bodies.
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Credit: Mining Watch