"Bluestone Resources stock falls after referendum against mining in Guatemala town", 20 September 2022

...Bluestone is developing its flagship Cerro Blanco gold project in southeast Guatemala, which is expected to produce about 300,000 ounces of gold annually when completed. But in a referendum on Sunday at Asunción Mita, a town located about seven kilometres away from the project, more than 85 per cent of voters said they were against mining activities...

The miner said the referendum, in which about 8,500 people, or nearly 30 per cent of the town’s registered voters, took part in, was biased, illegal and one that “unfairly portrayed public opinion,” in a press release...

Guatemala’s ministry of energy and mines supported Bluestone’s views in a statement...

However, some lawyers and activists in Guatemala have said the vote was legal since it took place as per the municipal code and the question posed to voters was not related to any specific mining installation, but on the licence for “land use and construction”...

Pedro Cabezas, coordinator of the activist group Central American Alliance of Mining, said the issue will likely be taken to court.

“The result of the referendum will either be denied or upheld by the courts, but the process is just beginning,” he said. “A lot of people are making statements, but the truth is, in the end what’s going to prevail are the decisions of the courts”...