Bolivia outlines mining supported by foreign reserves

Bolivia outlines mining supported by foreign reserves

“We are working on a trading company that will take over 100 percent of the gold production from our cooperatives and our mine,” said Ramiro Villavicencio, minister for the sector, which exports more than $3 billion annually.

Villavicencio explained that the National Production Gold Law project is currently in the process of socialization to strengthen the international reserves (RIN) of the highlands.

He commented that this regulation will make it easier to purchase this metal at a fair price while strengthening the situation of the RIN.

He reported that as part of President Luis Arce’s government’s Social Community Productive Economic Model, the site of a state-owned refinery of the golden metal is planned.

“At the Ministry and at Bolivian Mining Corporation (Comibol), we have the capacity to reach refined gold as needed,” he said, without giving further details on this strategic project.

The headline said that this portfolio and Comibol will also open a Technological Minerals office in Santa Cruz to exploit the so-called rare earths.

“We have cobalt and copper deposits in San Luis-Potosí, and in Cochabamba we are independent of uranium, titanium, niobium and rare earths,” he said.

Referring to the department of Santa Cruz, he described that in Manomó, Rincón del Tigre and Mutún there is tantalum, uranium, nickel, cobalt, chromium and manganese.

All these technological minerals – as Villavicencio pointed out – are in high demand on the international market.

He reiterated that for this reason, the Vice Ministry of Technological Minerals and Comibol will inaugurate a Technological Minerals Management in the Santa Cruz area to address the prospecting, exploration, exploitation, research and extraction of technological minerals and rare earths for their industrialization.

He reported that the goal is to achieve sustainable and sustainable mining by 2050 by having a long chain of technological minerals and rare earths whose main application is aimed at renewable energy, other applications and electric mobility.

The aim, according to the portfolio head, is to move from the exploitation of silver, tin, lead, zinc and gold to the new horizons of technology minerals and rare earths, whose international demand is growing due to the transformation of the world energy matrix.

He reminded that since the establishment of the Deputy Ministry of Technological Minerals and Productive Development of Metallurgical Mining in 2022, projects on prospecting and exploitation of deposits in the country have been adopted.

As a result, Bolivia currently has a map of areas with high potential for technological minerals and rare earths, Villavicencio concluded.

ode/jpm