[3] The project is owned and operated by Ecuacorriente S.A. (ECSA), a subsidiary of the state-owned Chinese company CRCC-Tongguan Investment Co. Ltd, which comprises Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Holdings Co. Ltd. and China Railway Construction Corp. Ltd.[4] Development of the Mirador mine was opposed by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), leading to the 2012 Ecuadorian protests.

[5] China is the world's largest consumer of copper, and the country has increasingly prioritised investment in non-ferrous metals as part of its foreign policy, especially in Latin America where there are many untapped reserves.

Ecuador has been reliant on oil exports for international financing, and has sought foreign investment to develop copper reserves in the Amazon as a source of funding for national infrastructure projects.

[9] Resistance to the mine has been related to the Shuar indigenous cosmology as an expression of environmentalism of the poor: resistance to the project has been affected by Shuar laws restricting individual land ownership in favour of community land titles; lawsuits have been brought citing rights of nature and requirements for free, prior and informed consent.

[9] Although the conflict concerns tangible territorial transformations, it is also a struggle over meaning and the human-nature relationship, including the idea of Sumak Kawsay which is part of the Constitution of Ecuador.

The mine was purchased by the Chinese companies Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group (TNMG) and China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC) in 2010.

[4] Mirador mine covers approximately 2,995 hectares (7,400 acres) in the Cordillera del Condor mountain range in southern Ecuador.

Another study in 2006 increased the pit size to 347 million tonnes with a 22 to 39 year mine life, and resources grading 0.62% Cu, 0.196 g/t gold, and 1.57 g/t silver.

[9] An inter-ethnic coalition representing Shuar communities, local farmers, and ranchers opposed the mine as a threat to their traditional lifestyles.

[9] Opposition to the mine generated widespread protests led by CONAIE in 2012 demanding protection of water and increased consultation about extractive projects with Indigenous people.

[19] A study of documents related to the displacement of local people concluded that ECSA did not follow its own program approved by the government for buying land in the project area, and incurred no fine or penalty for this fault.

[12] Many families were removed through the government's use of a legal mechanism called servidumbre (similar to eminent domain), which allows land seizure for projects in the “national interest”.

[11] Residents also say that the mine has contaminated their water supply, and that people bathing in the local river, "emerge with rashes and lesions on their skin.