Ortega Regime Returns Seized Gold Plant to U.S. Mining Firm BHMB After $80 Million Lawsuit

The statement, published on May 27, said the agreement followed a “process of dialogue and coordination carried out in an atmosphere of cooperation and mutual respect,” leading to “an understanding aimed at the normalization and operational reactivation of the BHMB Palacagüina Plant in an orderly and secure manner.”

The facility was taken over in September 2025, in what was widely described as an expropriation. The details of the seizure were documented at the time in an extensive investigation by LA PRENSA. The U.S.-backed company held a ten-year operating permit and had been running the plant since October 2021.

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Treasury´s Sanctions

BHMB Mining Nicaragua S.A. is owned by BHMB Inc., a U.S.- and British-backed company incorporated in Florida. According to its owners, the company operated a processing plant in Palacagüina — in northern Nicaragua — valued at more than $80 million.

On Thursday, April 16, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced new sanctions targeting individuals and entities linked to Nicaragua’s gold sector. According to the Treasury itself, the measures respond to the Ortega-Murillo regime’s use of the industry as a key source of funding for repression and for the enrichment of the ruling family through corrupt practices, as well as to the recent expropriation of BHMB, a U.S.-owned company.

The ordeal reportedly began on August 12, 2025, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. Representatives from Nicaragua’s Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) informed the plant manager that operations had to cease immediately. Subsequent requests for clarification sent to authorities went unanswered.

Lawsuit Filed in the United States

Last March, it emerged that BHMB Mining investors had initiated legal proceedings in the United States against the Nicaraguan state, seeking more than $80 million in damages nearly six months after what they described as the arbitrary takeover of their gold-processing facility.

According to the company’s owners, effective control of the plant was transferred by Nicaraguan authorities to the Chinese firms Zhong Fu Development and Santa Rita Mining.

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Baruch Rapaport, legal representative for the expropriated company, told LA PRENSA at the time that the case centers on an “illegal direct expropriation without compensation, along with violations of fundamental principles of international investment law.”

He added that the legal basis for the claim before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) rests on protections granted under the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR), as well as the bilateral investment treaty between the United Kingdom and Nicaragua.

Following the seizure, Richard Grenell — a diplomat close to Donald Trump who served until October 2025 as his envoy to Venezuela — described the confiscation as “outrageous.”

Terms of the Agreement Remain Confidential

The Ortega regime said the agreement is intended to “contribute to the orderly development of activities linked to the project, in accordance with the applicable legal framework and under conditions that favor its proper operation and contribution to economic activity.”

The government also noted that the specific terms and conditions of the agreement “remain confidential.”

Last April, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on seven mining companies, including Zhong Fu Development S.A. and Santa Rita Mining Company S.A., identifying them as firms involved in the forced takeover of BHMB Mining Nicaragua S.A.’s gold-processing plant.

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