The decision of the Constitutional Council made public on Friday February 18 represents a major turning point for the continuation of the exploitation of gold concessions in Guyana. Seized of a priority question of constitutionality (QPC) raised by the association France Nature Environnement, the high court declared contrary to the Constitution of the provisions of the old mining code relating to the renewal of so-called “perpetual” mining concessions.
This censorship directly concerns four concessions of the Boulanger mining company in Guyana and, indirectly, it might have consequences for the controversial Montagne d’Or project, the subject of a legal and militant battle for more than ten years. This gigantic open-pit gold mine project, whose production was to start in 2022, is currently blocked following the president, Emmanuel Macron, estimated in May 2019 that it was not possible. “not compatible with an ecological ambition in terms of biodiversity”. Since then, the “climate” law of August 22, 2021, which included a reform of the mining code, has reinforced the rules for exploiting the subsoil.
“Unrecognized Charter”
The Board’s deliberation concerned certain provisions of the mining code prior to the law of August 22, 2021, and in particular its article L. 144-4. Pursuant to this article, the mining concessions instituted for a “unlimited duration” which were to expire on December 31, 2018 were to be automatically extended as long as the deposits were still being mined on that date. This is the case for the Boulanger concessions, but it also concerns other projects such as the one called “Espérance”. And it is on this same provision that the Russian-Canadian consortium Nordgold-Orea mining – formerly Columbus Gold – relies to obtain a twenty-five-year extension of its Montagne d’Or (15 km²) and Elysée (25 km²) concessions. ), located in western Guyana.
In its decision, the Constitutional Council recalls that, according to article 1 of the Environmental Charter – which recognizes the fundamental rights and duties with regard to the protection of the environment and was integrated in 2005 into the block of constitutionality French law –, “everyone has the right to live in a balanced and healthy environment”. According to its article 3, “every person must, under the conditions defined by law, prevent the damage that he is likely to cause to the environment or, failing that, limit the consequences”.
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