While we are waiting, here is something I found interesting
latinolink.com
Bolivia Moves Back Onto the Mining Map
By Philip Sanders
c 1996 Bloomberg Business News
LA PAZ, March 29, 1996 -- Bolivia's mining ministry hardly looks like a gateway to mineral riches, housed as it is in a small run-down building with all the charm of a 1950s hotel.
Yet the country's two mountain ranges and the plain between them contain deposits of gold, copper, silver, lead, zinc, tungsten, tin and nickel. Mining companies are betting there's more gold in the virgin jungles near the Brazilian border.
"I'm a convert to Bolivia,'' said Alan Carter, exploration manager for Emicruz Ltda, a joint venture between Britain's RTZ, the world's biggest mining company, and Bolivia's Comsur. "There is enormous potential in Bolivia. I am optimistic there'll be a world class discovery.''
RTZ is just one of more than 30 mining companies that have come to Bolivia over the past five years, attracted by its largely uncharted mineral wealth.
"There is a lot of land to lay mining claims to,'' Carter said. "This isn't like Chile, where it's hard to find a new claim.''
While geologists estimate that as much as 60 percent of the country may contain mineral deposits, only about 12 million hectares, or 9 percent, are covered by concessions. Vast stretches of the country, such as the eastern jungle, have never been explored.
Those natural resources could be the key to the future development of what is South America's poorest country. Over 70 percent of Bolivians live below the poverty line, with per capita income averaging $2,500 a year. Street protests are a daily event, with unions currently organizing a national strike.
Yet, mining companies aren't worried by the political strife. Protests are so common "they just become part of the background,'' said Stuart Moller, head of Toronto-based Barrick Gold's office in Bolivia. Mining companies have to take a long-term view, and "we don't think there is going to be any major turn-around in policy,'' he said. Unlike neighboring Peru, prospectors can travel in even the most isolated regions of the country without any fear of attacks by left-wing terrorists.
Mining has been an integral part of Bolivian life since the arrival of the first Spanish conquistadors. The country's national symbol is Cerro Rico, or "Rich Hill'', in Potosi, where silver has been mined for four centuries.
These days the hill is honeycombed with mines run by hundreds of worker co-operatives.
The 1950s and 60s were boom days for the nation's tin mining industry, most of which was nationalized after the leftist-led revolution of 1952. But the industry collapsed in 1986 along with tin prices, and most of the state-owned mines currently lie idle or are worked by small cooperatives for meager profits.
Bolivia's mining future probably lies in gold, the target of most companies prospecting there, analysts said.
"We are looking for a big, big deposit,'' said Barrick's Moller. "That means a minimum of 60 tons of gold. We wouldn't be here if we didn't think there was the potential to find it.'' Barrick is exploring in the far south in a joint venture with the state-owned Corp. Minera de Bolivia, or Caribol. It's also prospecting in another 11 concessions in the eastern jungle in a joint venture with Canada's Jordex Resources Inc.
Already, RTZ has found gold in the jungle, though it sold the deposit to its partner Comsur after deciding it wasn't big enough for RTZ to mine, Carter said.
Foreign investment in the mining industry is expected to rise this year from $37.7 million in the first nine months of 1995. Last year's investment, in turn, was up 233 percent from the year before. The industry accounted for 43 percent of Bolivia's exports last year, or about $500 million.
"While last year was the year of claims, this year is going to be the big year for investment'' as companies start to explore in earnest, Moller said.
Houston-based Battle Mountain Gold Co. has operated Latin America's second largest gold mine in Bolivia since the late 1980s.
Foreign interest in Bolivia is so intense that even the country's cumbersome and antiquated mining regulations aren't a serious deterrent.
Staking a claim can take six to eight months of frustrating paperwork. The law is also unclear over how much companies have to pay for their claims.
"Land is very cheap at 12.5 cents per hectare for the first four years of exploration work,'' said RTZ's Carter. That compares with $1 in Chile, 80 cents in Argentina and $2 in Peru, he said. That can make a big difference when claims stretch over hundreds of thousands of hectares.
Yet another reading of the mining law puts costs at 50 cents a hectare. A lot of it seems to depend on who you deal with at the tax agency, mining executives said.
The confusion should diminish considerably if mining legislation currently under debate in congress is approved. Under the proposed law, mining claims will be granted administratively, not judicially, and prices will be clearly specified.
The government is also assembling a complete record of all existing mining claims using on a grid system based on satellite photos.
The government also hopes to lure foreign investment in the largely moribund tin industry. State-owned Corp. Minera de Bolivia, or Comibol, plans to let private industry invest in existing tin mines this year. Comibol will merge two tin mines and the smelter Empresa Minera Vinto and issue new shares in the company equal to 50 percent of its capital.
Under the system known as capitalization the state won't receive any money, but the company has guaranteed investment for years to come financed by the share issue.
Comibol will follow a similar process for the tin mines that are no longer operating. Joint ventures with private industry can either reopen the mines or prospect for new deposits nearby. One of those projects will be Cerro Rico, where Comibol plans to exploit silver oxide deposits near the top of the hill, where the existing cooperatives can't operate.
Last change: March 29, 1996
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