RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Ministry of Energy and Non-Renewable Resources informed this Friday (17) that by 2025, when the current legislature ends, four new mining projects would enter into production as part of its economic reactivation plan, which includes a relaunching of extractivism.
“After complying with the initial and advanced exploration periods, as well as the economic evaluation of the deposit, the projects La Plata (Cotopaxi), Loma Larga (Azuay), Curipamba (Bolivar), and Cascabel (Imbabura) will become mines to produce and export metallic minerals,” says a statement from the ministry.
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Through the second quarter of this year, the four mining projects have made investments of US$307.42 million, it adds.
Minister Juan Carlos Bermeo informed that “through the second quarter of 2021, these four projects have generated 4,680 direct and indirect jobs, which demonstrates the confidence of investors in the current Government”.
The “Government of Togetherness”, as President Guillermo Lasso’s government calls itself, assured that these projects are promoted under policies “focused on developing legal and responsible mining, through strategic processes that allow attracting potential investments aimed at the economic and social reactivation of the country.”
Industrialized mining in Ecuador, much more backward than in neighboring Peru or Chile, is one of the development engines that Lasso’s government wants to promote and, according to different projections, it is believed that it could contribute 4% of GDP, that is, almost 3 points more than at present.
At the moment, Ecuador has only two projects of this type of mining, Fruta del Norte and Mirador, both in the south of the country.
Apart from them, the most active mining portfolio consists of three “strategic” mining projects under development: Loma Larga, San Carlos Panantza and Rio Blanco, and several so-called “second generation” projects: Cascabel, Cangrejos, Curipamba, La Plata, Llurimagua and Ruta de Cobre.
According to the Ministry’s communiqué, the Loma Larga (gold), Curipamba (gold) and La Plata (gold) projects will enter the production phase in 2023, while Cascabel (copper) will start in 2025.
Ecuador’s emerging mining industry faces strong opposition from environmental groups and the indigenous community, who warn of the damage it could cause to the environment, including contamination of water sources and land.
However, the government, burdened by the lack of liquidity and the need to offer employment solutions to the population in times of crisis, asserts that responsible mining can be carried out with minimal ecological impact.
Since taking office in May, Lasso has been trying to strengthen the legal conditions for investment in his country, and has assured that his government will offer a range of projects in different sectors worth US$30 billion, half of them to develop the oil industry, which it intends to double in four years to one million barrels per day.