Page 97 - pd256-Dec17-Jan18-web

LATIN AMERICA

Ecuador doubles down on
foreign investment

Industry enthusiasm for re- standards,” he said. “We
cently released concessions
is leading the Ecuador Gov- will continue to come to
ernment to reassess its ambi-
tions for the resources sector. Australia to attract, not only

Ecuador flung open its investment, but good invest-
doors to foreign investors
last year, releasing hundreds ment with good practice and
of thousands of square kilo-
metres to exploration, allo- technological and human
cated through a competitive
bidding process. capability transfer to grow

The move was so popular this important sector for our
with investors that Ecuado-
rian Minister of Mines Javier country.”
Cordova Unda has admitted
his Government’s expec- Australian companies will
tations may have to be re-
drawn. be responsible for 90% of

“We said at Latin America the $US1 billion committed to
Down Under in 2015 that we
wanted to attract $US8 bil- exploration and development
lion of foreign investment by
2024. We are right on track for the next four years.
with the new concessions
granted and the develop- Cordova acknowledged
ments at the existing pro-
jects to achieve $US5 billion Ecuador’s regulatory regime
by 2021 and may eventu-
ally achieve even more than would have to be beefed up
$US8 billion,” Cordova told
Paydirt. to handle the increased lev-

Ecuador’s resources sec- els of interest.
tor had been largely closed
to foreign investors for more “We need to improve, not
than a decade until former president
Rafael Correa abandoned its restrictive only as a mining depart-
investment policy in favour of a more wel-
coming tax regime. ment but also at the minis-

Miners both large and small have since try of environment,” he said.
flooded to the South American country in
an effort to find projects comparable to “The important challenge is
the massive Fruta del Norte in the coun-
try’s south. to process the applications;

In May 2016, the Government opened we need to keep up the pace
a bidding process for new concessions
with more than 900 applications lodged. and be efficient. Planning is

Cordova was instrumental in designing in place to grow both depart-
Ecuador’s new mining policy but even he
has been taken by the response from in- ments.”
dustry.
Cordova also plans to tink-
“We have been very surprised by the
level of interest,” he said. “We knew there er with the mining investment
would be interest because we under-
stood that less than 10% of the country policy. Correa’s successor,
had been explored and the mining ca-
dastre had been closed for seven years.” Lenin Moreno, has empow-

Javier Cordova Unda ered the young mining min-

ister to formulate further im-

Cordova said the bids were transpar- provements.

ent, including submissions of detailed “I have already presented the Presi-

technical and investment programmes. dent with ideas,” he said. “Even though

The result is more than $US1 billion com- we have made major advances and

mitted to exploration and development in are competitive there are still areas we

Ecuador over the next four years. can improve on. The President’s first

Australian companies are at the van- response was very positive and we will

guard of Ecuador’s mining boom. Fortes- announce some things in the next few

cue Metals Group Ltd has acquired more months.”

than 14,000sq km of ground while BHP One of Cordova’s targets is the wind-

Ltd and Newcrest Mining Ltd have also fall tax currently imposed on mining

shown interest. At the junior end, Sun- companies. He has already managed to

stone Metals Ltd is hoping to emulate restructure it to ensure miners can re-

AIM-listed, Brisbane-based SolGold plc cover their investment and benefit from a

and its Cascabel discovery further four-year holiday but Cordova has

Cordova visited Australia in October to the entire tax in his sights.

speak with investors and reiterate Ecua- “It’s a smart idea to get rid of the tax

dor’s desire to forge ties to the country’s and the President is open to improve-

mining sector. ments,” he said.

“It is important to have commitment – Dominic Piper
from Australia because of its capabili-

ties in mining, environmental and social

AUSTRALIA’S PAYDIRT DECEMBER 2017 - JANUARY 2018 PAGE 97