Nicaragua has granted a Chinese-owned company linked to one sanctioned by Washington the right to prospect and dig for gold across 262 sq km (101 sq miles) of rainforest, about a quarter the size of Hong Kong.
The 25-year concession over the block, named Jade, went to Linze Excelente Mineria, a company that appeared in Nicaragua’s mining registry only last year. The block is in a corner of the country where prospectors first struck gold in 1880.
Corporate filings list Lijun Dong as legal representative of both Linze Excelente and Nicaragua Xinxin Linze Mineria Group, a firm the United States blacklisted in April. Shiliang Yang, who signed the Jade title, also appears as a lawyer for the sanctioned company.
The US Treasury sanctioned Xinxin Linze in April, saying it had received tens of thousands of acres from the Nicaraguan government and shipped more than US$25 million in gold to the United States in the first half of 2025.
Gold is one of the few sources of hard currency left to Daniel Ortega, who has governed Nicaragua for most of the past four decades and now rules alongside his wife Rosario Murillo.
Washington has sanctioned the family and its business network since a 2018 crackdown that killed hundreds of protesters, and Managua has turned to Beijing in response, breaking with Taiwan in 2021 and implementing a free-trade agreement in 2024.