After lying dormant for years, the Era Dorada project in Asunción Mita resumed this year and villagers say history is being repeated, despite promises of change
In the community of La Lima in Guatemala, Elda Dinora Ramírez, 58, looks towards a small well at the back of her home. Dusty wooden planks lie across the opening, concealing the faint gleam of water far below. “The well is drying up again,” she says.
Ramírez’s home lies less than a mile from Era Dorada – a goldmining project acquired by the Canadian multinational Aura Minerals in January 2025. After years of inactivity, the project was reactivated this year when the Guatemalan government granted Aura a construction licence.
Exploration began in 1997 under the then-owners Entre Mares, a subsidiary of Goldcorp, and the project has faced a significant backlash throughout its 29-year history.
“Until all this started happening, we had a happy and peaceful life here,” says Ramírez. “There was no talk of mining; everything was calm.”
After initial excavation began in 2007, residents such as Ramírez reported water shortages. They blamed the mine for pumping out large quantities of geothermal water that was filling the tunnels during excavation.
“The machines they use draw from deep down; they take all the water and the springs dry up,” she says.
Although the mine’s development was suspended in 2013 due to unfavourable market conditions, the project site continued to have water extracted in subsequent years.
With operations temporarily halted, locals around the mine reported that water levels in their wells began to recover. Then known as Cerro Blanco, the project was sold by Goldcorp to the Vancouver-based Bluestone Resources in 2017. In 2021, Bluestone announced a controversial plan to convert the project into an open-pit mine.
A year later, a community referendum in nearby Asunción Mita rejected the project, with 88% of voters opposing it.
“It was a great victory for the people,” says Yony Barrera, 51, owner of a hardware store in Asunción Mita and vice-president of an activist group campaigning against the mine.
In 2024, Guatemala’s new government annulled the environmental licence for Bluestone’s proposed open-pit mine, just months after it had been approved by the previous administration. But activists feared that work on the project would not remain dormant for ever.
“I knew it wouldn’t be over,” says Barrera. “This will only stop when they take the gold.”
Today, the mining site hums with life once again. Heavy vehicles judder past the rusted coils of barbed wire that mark the site’s borders, clouds of dust rising in their wake. Workers in hard hats and navy-blue overalls gather around the entrance.
The company predicts an annual production of 111,000 ounces of gold in the first four years of operation. In a statement, Aura says industrial operations have not yet begun, although construction and site preparation work are under way, and that vegetation clearance is authorised under its licence and is being carried out within limits set by the project’s EIA.
