[5] According to US think tank Public Citizen Pacific Rim did not complete a feasibility study required for a mining permit, and in July 2008 ceased exploratory drilling.
[6] Expatriate Salvadorans and local activists connected with the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) political party campaigned for the project to be discontinued over human rights issues, and concerns of pollution arising from the extraction of gold and silver[7].
Robin Broad and John Cavanagh, authors of The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved a Country from Corporate Greed, wrote that in 2008-2009 Pac Rim was anxious to make alliances with politicians in El Salvador.
[17][18] In June 2010, Pacific Rim CEO Thomas Shrake testified before the Canadian parliament's Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, stating that suggestions that the company had been involved in the murder of anti-mining activists were "simply outrageous" and that they would be "contrary to everything we believe and practice."
He also noted that the mine operation and employees had been victims of attacks, including "mobs" that damaged their property and hacked down trees planted as part of the company's reforestation program.
[21] When Pacific Rim invoked the CAFTA international arbitration provision in 2009, initially seeking $77 million in damages, the Salvadoran government called the action "an attack" on its national sovereignty.
[22] Other gold mining companies with operations in Central America, such as Goldcorp, said they may use the Pacific Rim case to adjudicate disputes of their own.
[23] In October 2012, Pacific Rim signed a deal with Crowell & Moring to represent their case in the final phase of arbitration, which was being handled by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).