El Salvador overturns metals mining ban, defying environmental groups President Nayib Bukele pushed for the legislation that will grant government sole authority over mining activities.
El Salvador’s legislature has overturned a seven-year-old ban on metals mining, a move that the country’s authoritarian president, Nayib Bukele, had pushed for to boost economic growth, but that environmental groups had opposed.
El Salvador became the first country in the world to ban all forms of metals mining in 2017.
The legislation does prohibit the use of mercury in mining, and seeks to declare some areas incompatible with metals mining as protected nature reserves.
All 57 of Bukele’s allies in the Central American country’s 60-seat legislature voted for the president’s legislation to overturn the ban.
