The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo dealt another blow to U.S.-owned BHMB Mining Nicaragua S.A. on Friday. This time, the regime stripped the company of the concession for the La Guadalupana lot—2,500 hectares located in San Juan de Río Coco, Madriz and handed it to a Chinese-linked firm.
In September 2025, the BHMB Mining Nicaragua plant—valued at approximately $80 million—was arbitrarily occupied by two Chinese companies, Zhong Fu Development and Santa Rita Mining, under the protection of the regime.
Now the regime has dispossessed the U.S. investors of the lot whose license to explore and exploit had been granted to them in February 2020. BHMB Mining paid all taxes and permits and obtained the full transfer of the concession rights originally granted under Ministerial Agreement No. 000-DM-697-2015. The authorization was certified on February 13, 2020, by Salvador Mansell Castrillo, minister of Energy and Mines, who is currently on the sanctions list of the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
The document shows that Minister Mansell approved in 2020 the transfer of the license to BHMB Mining for the La Guadalupana lot.
The regime’s decision appears to be retaliation after the seizure of the plant in September drew attention in Washington. The case became known through reporting by LA PRENSA, which documented the expropriation of the U.S. investors. The controversy prompted an unusual statement from the Attorney General’s Office on Saturday, February 21, asserting that there was “legal certainty in the mining sector,” without directly mentioning the company that had been taken over.
LA PRENSA has been calling Mansell for weeks to discuss the gold issue, but he has never responded. The concession period for the La Guadalupana lot is 25 years.
Read also: Ortega–Murillo Government Hands 8.5% of Nicaragua’s Territory to Chinese Mining Companies
Regime benefits Chinese-linked firm
Authorities granted the concession to a newly created corporation called Palacagüina Mining. Its president is Chinese national Minhui Sun, who holds residency ID number 000127761, according to a publication in La Gaceta, the official government gazette, on Friday, March 13.
The authorization was issued by the Ministry of Energy and Mines and certified by the Office of the Attorney General (PGJ), which assumed control of the Mining Directorate on February 11, signaling the direct control of the Ortega–Murillo family over the gold sector.
The PGJ is headed by Wendy Morales, a Murillo loyalist who has also been designated by OFAC for coordinating campaigns to suppress dissent in the country. Notably, in the Palacagüina Mining case, Minhui Sun delegated the submission of documents to Aníbal Vladimir Matus Buitrago, a lawyer linked to the two Chinese mining companies that arbitrarily took over BHMB Mining’s plant and to which the state transferred its assets following the intervention: Zhong Fu Development and Santa Rita Mining.
New company bears the name of the confiscated plant
The Ortega–Murillo regime’s operators did not even attempt originality in executing the order. The new Chinese company is called Palacagüina Mining—the same name previously used by the confiscated plant: BHMB Mining Palacagüina. The state authorization granted to the new company covers the exploitation of both metallic and non-metallic minerals.
According to public records, Matus Buitrago is also a member of the Nicaragua–China Chamber of Industry and Commerce, created in 2024 amid investments promoted after the restoration of diplomatic relations with China under the leadership of the dictators’ son, Laureano Ortega Murillo. He serves as the regime’s liaison with China, Russia, and Iran.
Regime capitalizes on high international gold prices
The gold sector is one of the country’s main economic drivers, generating more than $1.9 billion in exports during 2025 amid a historic surge in global gold prices.
In May 2024, the United States directly linked the sanctioned Laureano Ortega to the gold business. The U.S. Treasury Department named him in sanctions imposed on Compañía Minera Internacional (Comintsa) and Capital Mining Investment Nicaragua.
“Capital Mining is a Nicaraguan mining company and one of several regime-aligned firms that operate or have operated in Nicaragua’s gold sector. Capital Mining acts as an intermediary in the sector, charging other mining companies to do business in Nicaragua. The company is controlled by Laureano Ortega Murillo,” U.S. authorities said.
Investigations by LA PRENSA revealed the existence of an extortion scheme that allows the Ortega–Murillo family to control the gold business. In the arrangement, Capital Mining effectively serves as an intermediary, charging a 5 percent commission to artisanal miners while guaranteeing the shipment of the material to a plant owned by the Ortega family in Chinandega: Grupo Minero Xiloá (Grumixsa). Another company involved is Suministros y Montajes Electromecánico, which, according to witnesses consulted, charges commissions to established companies.
BHMB Mining case draws attention in Washington
The BHMB Mining case has had repercussions in the United States. Richard Grenell, special envoy for special missions for President Donald Trump, described the expropriation as “outrageous.” Meanwhile, attorney Jason Ian Poblete wrote an in-depth article published in LA PRENSA explaining the implications of the expropriation of the U.S. company.
“For U.S. policymakers, the BHMB case illustrates a structural point. The Chinese companies now operating in Nicaragua’s gold sector are not there by chance. They are there because Western firms face legal and reputational constraints that Chinese companies do not. When OFAC sanctions a Nicaraguan mining entity, Chinese partners absorb the concession. When a U.S. company is expelled, a Chinese company steps in,” Poblete wrote.
On March 11, the environmental organization Fundación del Río published a report accusing the Nicaraguan state of granting 8.5 percent of the national territory to 15 Asian mining companies. The company that received the San Juan de Río Coco concession does not appear on that list.
What happened this Friday forms part of the broader confiscation of assets from BHMB Mining investors—an operation that the Ortega regime’s operators have completed brazenly on the eve of the weekend.
