A technical colloquium about the mining potential of the Department of Santa Cruz de la Sierra was held on April 29th 2010 and after a year-long hiatus, to which the technical adviser of Empresa Minera (Bergbau) AG was invited by the sponsor Energy Press in order to lead the working group about  “Local Mining projects of Eastern Bolivia”.

Members of the National Department of Mineral Resources, the Bolivian Geological Survey, representatives of the Departmental Government of Santa Cruz, local mining companies and experts of various disciplines participated in the event. Several official speakers addressed first the mining perspectives in general of Bolivia and the legal certainty of the mining sector. The participants were then organized into working groups which dealt with several topics such as “Mining Potential of eastern Bolivia”, “”Local Mining Prospects”, “Legal Certainty of the Bolivian Mining Sector”, “Further Processing and Refining of raw materials inside Bolivia”, “Environmental Impact of Mining Activities” and “Taxation of Mining Operations”. The results of each group were summarized in writing, and then communicated to all participants for discussion.





The Bolivian journal “Energy Press” sponsored the event and released the results in the website www.energypress.com.bo. The recommendations made by the working group “Local Mining Projects” were took completely and literally indicating that „in order to convert the mining potential of the Precambrian shield of eastern Bolivia into mineral resources or productive mining operations, the department needs investment into high-risk exploration work and the development of advanced projects into mining operations”. To convince the foreign investor to follow that the country must guarantee legal certainty and a stable mining taxation system.

Only in this case foreign investment funds would be spent in an industry that is worldwide known of having high financial and technical risks. Dr. Biste emphasized during the discussion that according to his year-long experience in Bolivia mining projects in the eastern lowlands are more expensive than those in the Andean zone due to higher spending in infrastructure, access to energy sources and use of modern, and therefore expensive exploration methods. These factors should be taken into account in designing the new mining code and taxation system giving investment incentives.

The Director of the National Department of Mineral Resources and Metalurgy emphasized particularly in his closing speech that according to the new constitution of September 2009 a new mining code should be presented and passed by the parliament within this year.

The past and actual regulation would be reconfirmed that beside the state owned mining entities private companies, coorperatives and mixed companies with participation of the private sector, national and departamental entities for large projects, could participate in the future development of the raw material potential of the country.

Already existing mining operations and concessions would be respected but the proprietors would have to adapt to the new formalities such as the transformation of concessions into “Mining Contratcs” and the strict obeying of investment and management plans.