El Salvador is sitting on a literal goldmine that could potentially boost the country's worth, but instead of digging up this buried treasure in hopes of solving financial woes, no one is allowed to touch the haul. Now, controversial President Nayib Bukele (who previously adopted Bitcoin as legal tender) wants to make the most of El Salvador's natural reserves.
To put it into context, $3 trillion represents 8,800% of El Salvador's current GDP.
El Salvador grabbed headlines when it became the first country in the world to put a ban on metal mining in 2017. The country had concerns over the environmental impact of mining and ecological effects, and after setting the wheels in motion, neighboring countries including, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Panama soon imposed their own mining restrictions. This was under President Salvador Sanchez Ceren, but in a dramatic U-turn, President Nayib Bukele is considering lifting it to uncover the buried gold. At the end of the day, money talks.
Posting on X, Bukele says that El Salvador is potentially looking at "the largest gold deposits per square kilometer in the world."
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He maintains that even if only mining 4% of El Salvador's gold deposits, the country could generate $131 billion - equivalent to 380% of its current GDP.
A vocal Bukele wrote, “GOD PLACED A GIGANTIC TREASURE UNDER OUR FEET."
As 27% of El Salvador residents are classed as living in poverty, claiming even some of this gold could be 'transformative' for the country.
However, France 24 notes that Bukele's 4% figure seemingly comes from a study written by unknown authors, which he refused to publish.
Bukele says: "El Salvador potentially has three trillion dollars, make no mistake it's not billions, it's trillions, three million million dollars in gold alone."
Highlighting other precious metals that could be worth other massive amounts, he continued: "We've also found gallium, tantalum, tin and many other materials needed for the fourth and fifth industrial revolutions.
"The gold is only... the potential gold is only one part of it, and it isn't even the most valuable."
Saying that as long as it's mined responsibly and can follow in the footsteps of Norway making responsible use of its natural resources, he's confident that El Salvador can "invest in recovering our rivers, our lakes, our forests and reforesting."
Not everyone is convinced that El Salvador can mine with the environment in mind, as Archbishop José Luis Escobar Alas pleaded for El Salvador to keep its mining ban. After Bukele called the ban 'absurd', Alas said: "It’s not true that there’s green mining, it’s paid for with lives, kidney, respiratory problems, and leukemia that aren’t immediate."
Still, with Bukele’s party in charge of the country's Congress by a 'wide margin', a proposal to reverse the mining ban isn't expected to meet much resistance.
After most Salvadorians have shunned Bitcoin and adopting it has scuppered El Salvador’s discussions with the International Monetary Fund about a $1.3 billion loan, it looks like Bukele is pinning all his hopes on the gold that's just out of reach of his hands.