The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo reactivated the American businessman James Randall Martin, whose mining concession was abruptly canceled in June 2022. Now it granted him a new lot, which—according to sources in the mining sector—was assigned to the Xiloá Mining Group, SA, (Grumixsa)a company linked to the Ortega Murillo family.
Since the revocation of the permit, Randall (Randy) Martin “disappeared from the national mining map,” said Amaru Ruiz, president of the Río Foundation. “He was never heard from again. We lost track of him,” added the environmentalist who constantly monitors everything that happens with the Nicaraguan mining sector.
That changed on Tuesday, April 7, 2026, when in the Official Gazette La Gaceta The company Plantel Los Ángeles – legally represented by James Randall Martin – was authorized to operate the “Flor de Azalea” lot, measuring 1,352.29 hectares and located in Villanueva, Chontales.
This lot had already been given in concession to the Grumixsa Group, which has taken over from the state-owned Empresa Nicaragüense de Minas, (Eniminas), after it was sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States. OFAC, for its acronym in English.
Martin “now appears with this new concession, and this is not just any concession. It is where Grumixsa is. That is, where the Maurra plant was, which was previously Eniminas, in Villanueva”, and then it was handed over to Grumixsa. On paper, neither the team nor the concession have been withdrawn from Grumixsa, but “now Martin appears with the same concession. How is that?” Ruiz asked.
James Randall Martin’s reappearance comes as the dictatorship looks for ways to curry favor with the United States, especially after expropriated the American mining company BHMB to give it to a Chinese partner. And even more so after Washington showed its disagreement with that theft.
The new concession to the American businessman was approved through the Mining Concession Title number PGJ DGM 009 – 2026, nominally signed by Norman Henríquez Blandón, head of the General Directorate of Mines, now attached to the Attorney General’s Office.
CONFIDENCIAL consulted investor Martin via WhatsApp, without obtaining answers.
Randall Martin sent a letter to Gustavo Porras
James Randall Martin received a mining concession in 2015 to operate in Chontales, where he opened the Los Angeles Plant in 2016. When the concession was revoked, the businessman sent a letter to the president of the National Assembly from Nicaragua, Gustavo Porras. In it he requested a meeting to discuss the threat of closure that loomed over the company. The closure would affect more than 1,000 artisanal miners, as well as 130 direct workers, it was alleged at the time.
After Martin requested the meeting with Porras, the company continued operating normally, purchasing material (brush) and processing it to extract the gold. Especially after “They restored the concession“, as confirmed at the time by an industry source. The details of what Martin spoke with Porras are not known, nor if that was the reason for allowing him to continue operating the concession.
In March 2023, the situation was reversed. At that time, the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), canceled the mining concession granted to Plantel Los Ángelesbased in the municipality of La Libertad, (Chontales). The source that confirmed the news was none other than the company’s own executive director (CEO), Randall Martin, in a communication sent to the staff’s workers.
At the time of closure, the mining company—which also operated in the department of Río San Juan—had a processing capacity of 150 tons of brushwood per day. The salaries paid, local taxes and other items represented an injection of $15 million into the local economy, according to the company’s website.
Details of the new concession
According to the publication in La Gaceta, James Randall Martin will have four years to begin exploration activities in any part of the approved lot. The concession can be assigned, transferred, divided, leased and merged with other concessions of the same class, “with prior authorization from the General Directorate of Mines.” Meanwhile, Martin agrees to pay the Revenue Administration closest to the site of the operation, 12,382 córdobas for the first year.
The figure rises year after year, reaching 37,145 for the second year, and 74,290 for the third and fourth years. Goes to 148,580, year five and year six; It rises to 198,107 córdobas in the seventh and eighth years. It rounds off 396,213 córdobas in the ninth and tenth years, and begins to pay taxes of 594,320 córdobas starting in the eleventh year. In total, 1,485,800 córdobas (about $40,569) in ten years.
You must also deliver 3% “of the value of the extracted substances”, as an extraction right or royalty. Of course, if it manages to extract and export something.
