The prohibition, announced in a statement following a unanimous vote, includes mineral exploration, exploitation and processing, whether by openpit or underground mining, as well as the use of processing chemicals such as mercury and cyanide. The country is the first to impose a blanket ban on metal mining, according to reports.

Following this decree, no government agency has the power to award licences, permits or concessions for metallic mining-related activities, and all administrative processes to obtain them now remain without effect.

The ban extends to traditional and/or artisanal subsistence mining, with people already engaged in such activities having two years to find another economic activity. The artisanal fabrication, repair and sale of jewellery remains outside of the ban.

The decision follows years of protest over mining on fears of contaminating the country’s limited water supplies.

This news puts an end to any hopes OceanaGold Corporation had of being able to develop, or sell, its El Dorado project. The company lost a case before the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes in October 2016 in which it sought damages from the government of El Salvador relating to its inability to develop the project.

OceanaGold previously said it believed “a modern resource industry that operates in a safe and sustainable manner and within internationally recognised best practices has the potential to unlock a sustainable and multi-decade development opportunity for El Salvador”.