Following Constitutional Court ordered ban on mining, Cornerstone analyses options against Ecuador, including those under Canada-Ecuador BIT

In a ruling seen as a blow to the entire mining sector, Ecuador’s Constitutional Court upheld, on 21 December 2021, the Multicompetent Chamber of the Provincial Court of Justice of Imbabura’s 19 June 2019 judgment, which rendered null and void the environmental registration and water permits granted to Empresa Nacional Minera Empresa Pública ("ENAMI EP") for the mining concessions Río Magdalena 01 and Río Magdalena 02, and declared that the right to participation provided for in the Constitution of Ecuador had been violated. The Constitutional Court also prohibited activities – including mining and all types of extractive activities – threatening environmental rights within the Los Cedros Protected Forest ecosystem.