Thank you for shedding some light on this issue. Yes, environmental problem is one of the considerations whether the land is able to become a mine, and I have seen Jason's reply regarding to this matter. I totally agree with Jason -- I am not so much worried about the environmental barrier, it's more about the resistance from the community, especially the indigenous people. As far as I know, Quinchia (Risaralda) is inhabited by some indigenous populations, and some parts are even considered as the indigenous reservations. So, the Quinchia region might be cultural sensitive because of this. Remember the previous Canadian company, Seafield resources, which declared bankruptcy after finished the PFS in Miraflores project? One of the main reason for such failure is that the gold price at that time is not favourable for the development into the gold mine, but it also has something to do with the indigenous community as well. This is why Metminco has been rebranded to Los Cerros (means "Hill" in spanish), it acknowleged the mountain in Quinchia is connected with the indigenous community, and it also delivers the simple message that they will proctect the original state of the mountain. From this, it tells me that open mining method is not possible since it could cause massive landscape damage. Reference 1. news about community resistance to Seafield resources: http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=13592 2. Article about Quinchia region, I have extracted the relevant information from here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14678802.2020.1741937?casa_token=XO0IWckDqHAAAAAA%3ANDkm2im7gq7RQsDokcHrkSgCbbM7d2I3gYDSJ1MlS95PsDDkvhIZLEQOj02T70d_4dYUqKJWfREeC0I
"Approximately 85% of the territory of the municipality of Quinchía has mining concessions, either granted or requested (not yet granted) by transnational companies. One of the title holders, Miraflores Compañía Minera, has 17 titles granted since 2011 that cover 80–85% of the Embera Carambá territory and part of the Embera Chamí territory. The mining company estimates it will extract 450,000 tons per year, and by extracting less than 2 million tons per year (the limit for gold), they do not require an environmental licence.90 To date, the company has only conducted exploration in Carambá territories which coincide with the title, but without prior consultation with the community. In 2014, the community, assembled as the Traditional Miners of Miraflores, demanded judicial protection for the right to prior consultation, which the community won. A pre-consultation meeting was held in 2016 to define the terms of the consultation with the Carambá community, but no agreement was reached. The Ministry of the Interior continued the consultation process with the Chamí community, on two titles other than those where the company carries out exploratory activities, issuing a consultation certificate for the entire project.Subsequently, a series of divisions began within the communities. In Miraflores, animosity and division was generated by disinformation practices and individual negotiation processes initiated by the company. The company conducted a census as part of the consultation process, finding 254 adult miners in 2013 and 193 in 2016, 28 of whom were identified as indigenous. The information collected included a characterisation of the technical skills of each miner in order to negotiate their abandonment as independent miners and/or their affiliation as employees of the company. The company held a general meeting to discuss the negotiation and subsequently made family visits to persuade the miners to become employees. The company perceives the struggle of the Carambá community, as an illegitimate political struggle."
Anyway, I still remain faithful in LCL because they are constantly connected with the locals, giving them a lot of benefits (from job opportunities to healthcare and education benefits), especially during this COVID period, I think a lot of residents have been slowly transitioned into the mining industry due to the COVID impact to the small-scale agricultural producers. So, I presume that LCL is making progress and slowly gaining the acceptance from the communities. If they can gain the mining approval in the Miraflores project ( I think Jason has been interviewed about this before, he said they could start testing the production stage once they gain the greenlight from the authorities (not sure from which interview)), it is a huge success in my opinion. Given that they had capital raise of 20m recently, I am not too worried about their funds and the impact from the volatile gold price, because they proves themselves they are sustainable in the next few years.
(20min delay)