Interesting1 Jun 2019 22:30
Owners of small mining operations in the southern Ecuadorian provinces of Loja and Zamora Chinchipi say that all the government support is going to large multi-national companies, and none to their companies. “We are getting no help at all,” said an U.S. resident who is a partner in one mine. “The red tape is almost impossible to cut and we have seen delay after delay in getting the permissions we need to operate. We are asking the government to treat little miners the same as large ones,” he said.
He added that his gold mining operation, which began operating in mid-2014, is seeing high rates of theft and that the government is offering no help in stopping it. “We are in the jungle and are entirely at the mercy of criminals who steal our gold at night. Where is the law enforcement?” He said as much as 50% of the gold recovered in his operation was being stolen. “This is not fair to our investors, who are taking the hit,” he said.
Among incentives that the Ecuadorian government is offering large mining companies are 30-year investment contracts that promise tax stability as well as accelerated depreciation standards.
“We have made the decision that mining is a central part of our development plans,” said Rafael Poveda, Minister of Strategic Sectors, which includes Ecuador’s mining ministry.
“We want mining to constitute the axis which will allow us to improve living conditions for communities and 15 million Ecuadorians,” he said at Toronto’s Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference on Monday.