Bolivia recently began overhauling one of its principal mining laws, with the goal of modernizing the industry and improving oversight. Civil society and Indigenous groups have raised concerns about the process, but officials say the new mining code will promote economic development and include environmental protections.
“We want a mining code that responds to the current needs of the sector, generates legal certainty, and establishes clear rules to support the development of Bolivian mining,” Marco Antonio Calderón de la Barca Quintanilla, the minister of mining and metallurgy, said in a statement.
The ministry says it’s held weekly meetings with key mining stakeholders about their concerns and proposals for the new mining code. This month, their ideas were given to a technical committee to consider while drafting a preliminary bill, which will be delivered to the national legislature for approval. The government hasn’t announced when the bill will be completed.
The current code was passed in 2014 and establishes the mechanisms for mining development, environmental oversight, and the participation of local and Indigenous communities, among other things. Updates will focus on strengthening mining rights, promoting investment, formalizing mining activity, and improving transparency, a ministry statement said. Updates will also involve “consolidating responsible environmental management.”
The details of potential changes haven’t been finalized or released. But local reports said some ideas have included new tax and royalty structures, removing the 30-year limit on mining contracts to extend them indefinitely, and restructuring the ministry and other mining institutions.
Other ideas include protections for people reporting illegal mining, and removing prior consultation of local and Indigenous communities as a restriction for accessing mining contracts.
For years, local and Indigenous communities have spoken out against foreign-backed mining projects that use too much freshwater and don’t provide adequate royalites to local communities. Others have denounced the illegal mining, mercury pollution, and deforestation that can result.
In the early stages of reviewing the mining code, civil society groups and Indigenous communities accused the government of excluding them from the process. They said their absence could ultimately weaken environmental reforms that the law needs.
They also expressed concern that the government’s priority is to increase the profitably of the mining sector, not to impose proper regulations.
“The environmental focus is just talk, because they are seeking to discuss a new mining code only with mining actors and not with actors who can contribute from the perspective of the serious environmental and public health impacts for which gold mining is responsible,” Ruth Alipaz, a representative for the National Coordinator for the Defense of Indigenous and Peasant Territories and Protected Areas, said in a July statement.
The Unified Confederation of Peasant Workers of Bolivia has been included on the technical committee, the government announced. Other representatives on the committee are from the government, mining cooperatives, and private companies.
Banner image: Bolivian miners during a march against illegal mining. Image by AP Photo/Juan Karita.
