Ecuador to name moderate as deputy mining chief
Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:45AM EDT
reuters.com
QUITO, July 27 (Reuters) - Ecuador's new oil and mines minister, Galo Chiriboga, on Friday will name a moderate as the new deputy mining chief, only a day after an environmentalist holding the job resigned, a ministry spokesman said.
Chiriboga will name Jose Serrano, a lawyer who acted as economy minister in the past administration, later on Friday to head the post that defines mining policy and grants concessions.
His predecessor, Jorge Jurado, was an environmentalist who was at odds with miners over his push to enforce tighter control over the country's nascent mining sector and overhaul the mining law.
"The financial community is not that interested anymore in changes inside the ministry, but in the upcoming popular assembly," said Mark Turner, a Peru-based analyst with Hallgarten & Company.
Ecuadoreans will head to the polls on Sept. 30 to elect a 130-member assembly that will rewrite the constitution and is expected to overhaul the country's mining law and possibly even shut down some mining projects.
The appointment of Chiriboga, a former state oil company president, by President Rafael Correa last week was welcomed by mining companies who see him as a moderate.
Chiriboga has not commented about his future mining policy, but Correa was vowed to revise concessions and boost state control over natural resources.
Correa has also named a moderate to head the key economy ministry, a show of pragmatism in his leftist rhetoric that resembles that of his ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Ecuador lacks significant production of precious metals, but Canadian companies such as Corriente Resources (CTQ.TO: Quote, Profile, Research), Iamgold Corp. (IMG.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) and Aurelian Resources Inc. (ARU.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) have started exploring for gold and copper. Their shares have suffered from the government's sometimes hard rhetoric on mining. |
