The Canadian company Pacific Rim Mining Corp. has filed a lawsuit under the provisions of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), seeking to force the government of El Salvador to approve its extraction permit for the proposed El Dorado gold and silver mine. The government denied the permit after an initial study concluded that the environmental assessment for the project was insufficient.

The company alleges that the government is, according to CAFTA, abridging the “rights” of a foreign investor by denying it a permit to operate.

Read more in this article from Upside Down World. Find out more about Pacific Rim’s El Salvador operations (and those of other Canadian mining companies throughout the world) from Mining Watch Canada.