Communities: Miners must leave country by September 10 - Ecuador

Monday, September 1, 2008

Ecuadorian NGO CNDVS, a coalition of organizations and communities from different provinces in the country, has set a September 10 deadline for mining companies operating in the country to leave their lands.

"If our request is not met we will proceed with the pertinent measures using force," a spokesperson for the entity, whose acronym stands for the national coordinating committee for the defense of life and sovereignty, told BNamericas.

The communities that comprise the CNDVS have agreed to take the necessary steps to halt all mining activity "as established in the mining mandate," the spokesperson said.

In early June, the ministry of mines and oil reverted 1,138 mining concessions in compliance with the constituent assembly's mining mandate that was issued on April 18 this year.

The mandate ordered the closure of all mining areas that as of December 2007 had not paid their conservation licenses and all concessions that as of April 18, 2008 were still in the paperwork stage.

CNDVS has set the September 10 deadline for miners based on the argument that mining projects work against community life, sovereignty, and collective and individual rights.

Following the ministry's reversion measure, the Ecuadorian mining sector was left totally paralyzed. "There are no new projects and some companies have left the country," the president of the country's mining chamber, César Espinosa, said at the time.

"This is a result of the uncertainty and a mandate about which we were not once consulted that has jeopardized several thousand mining concessions," he added.

Companies working in Ecuador include Aurelian Resources (TSX: ARU), IAMGOLD (TSX: IMG, NYSE: IAG), International Minerals (TSX: IMZ) and Ecuacorriente, the local subsidiary of Canada's Corriente Resources (TSX: CTQ).

Harvey Beltrán
Business News Americas