The Price of Copper in Ecuador: The Struggle for Survival of the Shuar Arutam People
“We, the Shuar, are a warrior people. We have lived in the forest descending from the slopes of the Cordillera del Cóndor in Ecuador for thousands of years, and we fiercely defend it. Even the Spanish never managed to set foot here. We know our land well—its rivers, plants, and the spirits that inhabit it,” explains Josephina, an Indigenous leader of the Shuar Arutam people, in her home surrounded by medicinal herbs and fruit-bearing plants, where she burns wild garlic leaves in the morning to protect herself from curses.
The Canadian Giant and the "New Alliance"
“For us older Shuar, the forest and its plants are our primary source of life—our medicine and food. Unfortunately, for the younger generation, that’s no longer the case. They have other ambitions, they aspire to the Western model, and they think the only way to reach it is through business,” continues Josephina. The discovery of copper deposits on Shuar land by international mining companies has meant entire communities now face the risks of mining activity, as well as pressure from government bodies and multinational corporations.
Specifically, Josephina is referring to Solaris Resources, a Canadian company managed by the U.S.-based Augusta Group and listed on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges. Solaris plans to open a copper mine in the heart of Shuar territory. The "Warintza" project, which promises an unprecedented extraction capacity, boasts copper of "the best quality in the world," according to former Solaris CEO Daniel Earle.
The Warintza project was conceived in 2003 by Solaris Copper Inc. But from the start, it faced strong opposition from local communities. In 2006, the company's helicopters were forcibly driven out of the area, and then-CEO David Lowell was forced to sign an agreement with Shuar leaders swearing never to return.
The project remained inactive for the next 13 years due to community resistance. In 2019, however, the company returned with a new offer to the Shuar people: a "strategic alliance."
“This ‘strategic alliance’ seemed to mark the beginning of a new era, where decisions would be made by the communities, and benefits would be distributed equitably over time. But in the end, it turned out to be just another attempt to divide and deceive the communities, taking advantage of our economic needs and the lack of access to services,” says Jaime Palomino, former president of the Pueblo Shuar Arutam (PSHA), in an interview at his office in Sucuà.
In this model, only two communities—Yawi and Warints, the ones closest to the deposit—were selected as “beneficiaries,” violating the Shuar people's internal hierarchy. The highest decision-making body for Shuar territories is the Federación Interprovincial de Comunidades Shuar (FISCH), followed by the PSHA.
This division has created strong conflicts between neighboring communities, who find themselves bearing the costs of the mining project without seeing any economic benefits. The Maikiuants community, for instance, openly opposed the project, rejecting the agreements made by Yawi and Warints. In 2021, the “Indigenous Guard” of Maikiuants, led by women, blocked access to the mining area by burning trees and tires, refusing any dialogue with the company.
“These are strong measures, but we had no choice. It was the only way to make our neighbors and the company understand that Maikiuants is firmly anti-mining and we are willing to do whatever it takes to keep our territory intact. The people of Yawi and Warints got machines and money to spend on alcohol, especially the younger ones, but that’s not what it means to be Shuar. Being Shuar means resisting the invader,” says Josephina, sipping chicha (a traditional drink made from yuca) while sitting in a hammock.
Caption: A sign hanging in the Shuar community reads, “We are Shuar. Lowell will not divide us.” David Lowell, then-CEO of Solaris Resources, was originally driven out of Shuar territory in 2006. However, the influence of Solaris Resources, and its role in dividing Shuar communities, persists decades after.
Caption: Marcelo Unkuch, the new president of the PSHA, shakes hands with Solaris representatives in occasion of the signing of an agreement to strengthen collaboration for the realization of the Warintza Projects
The Copper Fever
But why the interest in copper? Driven by an urgent need to decarbonize energy sources and tackle the climate crisis, many governments in the Global North have placed energy transition at the top of their political agendas. Rather than promoting better infrastructure, micromobility and focusing on things like public transit, the mobility sector is pushing for a wholesale conversion of private cars to electric vehicles, which directly contributes to the continuation of extractivist mining, now justified by a “green” label.
To meet the growing global demand for energy consumption technologies and “green” mobility, there is an intense push to extract critical metals like lithium, nickel, cobalt, and copper. The latter plays a crucial role in various technologies due to its ductility, conductivity, and efficiency, which make it indispensable for solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, and electric vehicles.
This pressing need has led to increased investments in mining projects worldwide. In recent years, the Warintza project has attracted investors from France, Switzerland, China, and the United States, whose investments are essential to move the project from the exploration phase into full-scale extraction.
Environmental and Social Damages
“We don’t know the specifics, but we are certain that opening the mine could cause irreparable harm to our health and the ecosystem—contaminating our rivers and waterfalls, our chakras (gardens), and our animals,” says Indigenous leader Don Pinchu.
He’s not wrong. Mines like Warintza inevitably lead to massive deforestation for excavation, camps, and roads needed to transport products, along with air and water contamination. In Chile, for example, villages near the Chuquicamata copper mine have experienced higher incidences of cancer due to mercury and arsenic particles released into the air. Furthermore, there are significant risks associated with the collapse of toxic waste dams, which have proven deadly in other regions. The collapse of the Mariana and Brumadinho dams in Brazil, in 2015 and 2019, respectively, killed hundreds of people. These incidents raise serious concerns about the proposed dam infrastructure in the heart of a biodiversity hotspot like the Cordillera del Cóndor.
“Young Shuar must realize that in the long term, Solaris will bring nothing but poverty and misery. As long as we have the rivers to fish in and the forest to provide for us, we will be fine—better than we could ever be in the city. We don’t have the luxuries and services of Quito, but we have clean air, fertile land, and we live in peace. This is something many young people don’t understand, and because of ambition, they allow themselves to be bought by the company”
At the social level, as Josephina mentioned, the first “victims” of the mining project are the young people. The division it has caused is not only social—between neighboring communities—but also generational. The ambitions of the new generation, influenced by social media and Western lifestyles, are drawn to the economic opportunities that a multinational company can offer.
This leads to a disconnection from the land, from their cultural roots and language, and divergent perspectives for the future of the Shuar communities. “Young Shuar must realize that in the long term, Solaris will bring nothing but poverty and misery. As long as we have the rivers to fish in and the forest to provide for us, we will be fine—better than we could ever be in the city. We don’t have the luxuries and services of Quito, but we have clean air, fertile land, and we live in peace. This is something many young people don’t understand, and because of ambition, they allow themselves to be bought by the company,” explains Freddy, one of the few young people still attached to the land and the Shuar values.
International players are tipping the scales — and not in favor of the communities
On May 21, 2024, the Augusta Group, the majority shareholder and controlling company of Solaris, announced a deal to sell $35 million in shares to several Canadian financial institutions to expand the Warintza project, purchase additional mining concessions, and begin new drilling.
This deal awaits approval from the relevant authorities and the stock markets of New York and Toronto. However, it could concern Solaris’s board of directors given the recent victory by Indigenous communities regarding a $95 million deal for the purchase of 15% of shares by Chinese mining giant Zijin Mining Group.
The offer from the Chinese giant was blocked by the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC), the regulatory body overseeing financial transactions in Canada, after a complaint was filed by Shuar opposition in March 2024. The Shuar leaders accused the company of failing to consult the communities properly and falsely claiming to have received majority consent from the Shuar people.
Thanks to this strong resistance, Solaris shares hit an all-time low on July 17, 2024, damaging the company’s image and providing hope for Shuar leaders.
However, on the 11th of September 2025, Solaris Resources sealed a $200 million deal with Royal Gold, a US based precious metals streaming and royalty company, thereby obtaining long term liquidity in order to expand the mining area and forward the mining potential. At the same time, the company is working closely with Ecuador’s Ministries of Energy, Mines, and Environment on the technical review of its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), which is expected to receive approval by mid-2025. In its website, Solaris anticipates securing all necessary exploitation permits by mid-2026 and declares that “the recent re-election of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has ensured political continuity, helping to sustain a favorable policy climate that has allowed the company to keep advancing its permitting process and engagement with stakeholders.”
Solaris has also announced a “landmark” agreement with the PSHA, signed by its new president Marcelo Unkuck, completing a web of formal partnerships with all Indigenous organizations in the area. It’s being presented as proof of community support, but the picture is more complicated than that. “Consent can’t simply be signed into existence without the communities knowing” claims Josephina Tunki “probably some of the community members do actually want mining, but not all of us! We are facing a serious threat and we are very worried.”
Caption: The Cordillera del Cóndor, a remote mountain range straddling the border of Ecuador and Peru, is one of the most biologically diverse regions in the Amazon. Its rugged terrain and varied microclimates create unique habitats that harbor countless endemic species of plants, birds, amphibians, and insects. This ecological richness, combined with its cultural significance to Indigenous peoples like the Shuar, makes the Cordillera del Cóndor both a critical hotspot for conservation and a living laboratory for scientific discovery.
Josephina represents the voice of those Shuar Arutam people that continue to raise concerns about what this mine will mean for their land, their water, and their way of life. Even though the international corporate empire is supporting the replication of the extractivist model also in the green transition discourse, its important to be aware of the meaningfulness of the resistance of local groups to a mining project like “Warinza”. They remind us that the neoliberal extractivist model is not the only way forward and that for many communities well-being means to live in connection with nature and with traditions, not to own a last generation pick-up and go living in the city.
In the west, as beneficiaries of such oppressive model, we should support the fight of those directly affected by it, both by being responsible consumer and by demanding governments for more transparency on the supply chains of the goods we use and consume every day. Truly equitable and sustainable solutions cannot be obtained simply by substituting one energy source for another under the same extractive project. Corporate impunity can end only through a reconsideration of the role of governments in front of the violence of decision making processes that put economic interests above human rights and the environment. And for this to happened our voice as citizens must be heard more and more.
