Posters placed by activists from Carrizalillo on the entrance sign to Equinox Gold’s Los Filos mine in Guerrero State, Mexico. Photo supplied by the author.

With all eyes on the shock-and-awe tariffs, slashing and burning of federal services, mass deportations, hate mongering and expansionist threats of the far-right billionaires running the White House, little attention is being paid to how elements of Canada’s corporate elite are throwing their own weight around.

As gold prices reach record highs, Vancouver-based Equinox Gold is trying to pressure the community of Carrizalillo in Guerrero, Mexico into accepting austere cuts to their land use and social cooperation agreements as a condition for continued investment in the Los Filos mine. Their ultimatum is creating a dangerous situation for the community that may deteriorate further with the very recent expiry of these agreements on Monday, March 31.

The company’s behaviour is enabled by the ongoing state of impunity enjoyed by Canadian mining operations abroad. It reinforces the “Canada Brand” that mining-affected communities in Latin America are all too familiar with: a state of affairs in which standing up for community rights is often a deadly venture.

Equinox Gold is said to be Ross Beaty’s “swan song”—potentially the last precious metals firm that this west coast mining magnate could put his Midas touch on before his retirement. A geologist by training, Beaty has been called a “broken slot machine” for his repeated success in the industry, having founded companies such as Pan American Silver, among others.

Equinox was founded less than 10 years ago and acquired the Los Filos mine in Guerrero in 2020. This was part of an aggressive growth strategy to become a major gold company in the Americas. At the time, the company had six mines in operation and Los Filos was its top asset. Five years later, Equinox operates eight mines in the Americas, including the recently inaugurated Greenstone mine in northern Ontario, which surpasses Los Filos in size, mineral reserves and low costs.

In early March 2025, with gold prices well on their way to $3,000 an ounce, Equinox announced its planned merger with another Canadian mining company, Calibre Mining, which has mining operations in Nicaragua and the United States, as well as a mine under construction in Canada. Equinox boasts that this combination could make it the second largest gold producer in Canada, although it is not clear if its shareholders will support this decision.

Even so, Los Filos remains a large asset for Equinox Gold and, in 2024, the company obtained record revenues from the mine which has the potential to operate for over a decade more. To remain profitable, the company needs to invest in a new processing plant estimated to cost several hundred million dollars. This seems within reach for a company able to take on over a billion dollars in debt just last year to become the 100 percent owner of Greenstone, with plans to pay it off in short order.

Instead of investing in the plant now that Greenstone is ramping up, the company has conditioned its investment decision on drastic cuts to its community commitments in Mexico.

Carrizalillo is well-known in Mexico for the terrible impact of the Los Filos mine on its land, water and health, as well as for the community’s history of struggle.

The open pit and underground gold mine literally envelops Carrizalillo, which has been transformed since 2008 from a community reliant on farming, livestock and mezcal production into one dependent on........

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