Release: Mining Secrets (4.2 TB)
Forbidden Stories' cross-border investigation by 65 journalists & 20 outlets follows-up the photographs taken by a local reporter of the murder of a fisherman protesting a nickel mine in Guatemala
Today we announce 4.2 TBs of data from the Swiss-registered mining and investment company Solway (USD $624.2 million yearly revenue). Solway operates El Fenix nickel mine in Izabal, Guatemala. The new data consists of files and emails hacked from the company in the spring of 2021. DDoSecrets received the data from a source, Guacamaya and with Guacamaya’s agreement, waited for Forbidden Stories’ embargo to conclude to announce the data. Today the network of journalists publishes their investigation, called Mining Secrets.
From the Forbidden Stories’ introduction:
“Mining Secrets” uncovers damning scientific studies hidden from public view and shows how loyalties were bought through generous donations. Even worse, we found proposed strategies for displacing dozens of families by spreading rumors about community leaders, all in an effort to extract the precious resource of ferronickel.
Forbidden Stories is a French non-profit investigative network that continues the work of threatened or murdered journalists. In El Estor, Izabal, Prensa Comunitaria photojournalist Carlos Choc captured evidence of police killing Maya Q’eqchi’ fisherman Carlos Maaz at a protest on May 27, 2017. For his work covering the land and water defenders in El Estor, Choc’s home has been broken into and his work machines and cameras stolen. Choc has also faced intimidation from the Guatemalan judicial system including criminal charges. The journalists who captured the evidence of the police murder were the only people who were charged after Maaz’s death.
The Solway mine is near the banks of Guatemala’s largest lake, Izabal, and Carlos Maaz was a member of a union of fishers protesting pollution from the mine, after run-off appeared in the water where he worked, turning the water red.
The first Fenix mine near El Estor was opened by the Canadian company Inco. During the brutal US-backed military dictatorship in Guatemala in the 1960s, Inco inaugurated an open pit nickel mine, contributing to the displacement, murder and land theft carried out against the Maya indigenous people. When they closed their first nickel mine at El Fenix, Inco kept the land and mineral rights, and sold them to another Canadian company, Skye Resources, which was bought by a third Canadian company, Hudbay in 2008. In 2011, facing serious allegations of human rights violations at the re-opened mine, Hudbay sold their interest in Fenix to Solway.
Solway is a privately-owned Swiss consortium, founded by the Russian-Estonian billionaire Alexander Bronstein and registered in Malta, with operations and subsidiaries in Ukraine, Argentina and Indonesia. CGN and Pronico are the names for the Guatemalan holding companies for the mine and the nearby metals processing plant:
Solway’s statement on the police murder of Carlos Maaz reads in part:
“CGN/Pronico has been mediating negotiations with the protestors, representing themselves as the “members of artisanal fishing community of El Estor,” and supporting respected officials responsible for the matter since the fishing artisans requested an investigation on the Izabal Lake water pollution. The Company followed all legal rules and procedures imposed in the discussed case … Police forces called in by the state government to restore the order and guard the law in El Estor, while initiating negotiations the police were ambushed by bullets coming from unidentified sources.”
The 4.2 terabytes of data from Pronico is in the format of files and emails. The emails are in .pst format. This data can be downloaded in full from our site, split into two torrents for easier handling.
Please torrent and seed.
The Forbidden Stories’ investigation partners included:
Prensa Comunitaria (Guatemala)
OCCRP (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
El País (Spain)
Proceso (México)
El Faro (El Salvador)
iStories (Russia)
Tamedia (Switzerland)
RTS (Switzerland)
Radio France (France)
Le Monde (France)
The Intercept (United States)
The Guardian (United Kingdom)
Expresso (Portugal)
Die Zeit (Germany)
WDR (Germany)
Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany)
SVT (Sweden)
IRPI (Italy)
Times of Malta (Malta)
Guacamaya also provided a statement and a video of the hack to Enlace Hacktivista.