Since the governors of the nine Bolivian Departments were elected by popular vote in April 2010 the country’s political forces are now being distributed for the coming five years. The central and six departmental governments are hold by the ruling MAS party.

Three of the departments of eastern Bolivia, including the largest one of Santa Cruz, are ruled by the opposition. The citizens voted also for the first time for representatives of the departmental assemblies, which according to the new constitution of 2009, possess limited legislative authority.

The fact that the central government is willing to work close together with the elected representatives of the departments is considered by the public opinion as very positive. Bolivia’s president Evo Morales and the governor of Santa Cruz Ruben Costas made the first attempts by meeting in La Paz and subsequently in Santa Cruz in order to discuss and advance with the integration of the country and the development of eastern Bolivia. The years of political confrontation seems to have been come to an end.





Empresa Minera (Bergbau) A.G. has put the base for the investments of the next twelve months by updating the project planning. The main goal is the installation of a pilot washing plant in the project area Johannes-Colonia starting the operation by June 2011. The operation shall produce initially 0.6 tonnes of tantalite concentrate per month.

This capacity shall be then increased until the beginning of 2012 to at least 2.0 tonnes. For that purpose, an investment of approximate US$ 300,000 is required until the end of December 2010. This amount includes also limited exploration of the concessions Hamburgo, Berlin and Bremen. Additional US$ 355,000 shall be then invested in the half of 2011 for setting up the pilot plant, and US$ 410,000.-- until the years end to increase the capacity. You will find copies of the project plan as a Gantt chart and a monthly budget as attachment.

Empresa Minera (Bergbau) A.G. is currently carrying out metallurgical test work on a tantalite bearing bulk sample at the University of Potosi. The results will be available in four weeks and be useful for the design of the pilot processing plant.

The rigorous control of the payment of claim fees by the Mining Bureau has caused the annulment of numerous mining properties which were kept in the past mostly for speculative reasons. The technical consultant of the company Dr. Biste was engaged to check if areas for tantalite mineralization are available. The Empresa Minera (Bergbau) A.G. has duly paid the claim fees through to the financial year 2010.