Following an occupation by miners belonging to independent cooperatives who want to be granted new areas to mine, production at the Colquiri tin-zinc mine in Bolivia has been halted since 30 May. The mine is operated by Glencore subsidiary Sinchi Wayra under a leasing agreement with the state mining authority Comibol. It produced 2,200 tonnes of tin-in-concentrate in 2011 and has expanded production sharply since the second half of last year. However the Bolivian government is now threatening to nationalize the operation. The move is opposed by leaders of the Bolivian cooperative movement. Albino Garcia, head of the powerful Federation of Mining Cooperatives, threatened to “occupy every private mine in the country if the government nationalizes Colquiri.”
Bolivia’s presidential cabinet is expected to approve on Wednesday (June 13) a supreme decree to nationalize the mining complex in La Paz department, a source at Comibol told BNamericas on Monday. Once the decree is promulgated, officials will set the conditions for the property transfer, such as whether Glencore would receive compensation for the expropriation, the source said. “This wouldn’t be a nationalization in the classic sense of the term because the site already belongs to Comibol. It’s being exploited under contract,” head of state mining firm Hector Cordova told Reuters.”It would simply be a matter of annulling this contract and Comibol would resume operations it carried out until 2000,” he said.
Official mine production figures for the first quarter of 2012 show that the operation was entirely responsible for the small 1.6% year-on-year growth in the country’s mine production to 4,879 tonnes, as output from the Comibol-operated Huanuni mine fell by 5.4% while production from co-operatives and small mines declined by 2.1%. In mid-May Cordova said that Comibol and Sinchi Wayra were close to completing negotiations to make Colquiri a joint venture, in an agreement which would include a $100 million five year investment by Glencore in the Colquiri, Bolívar and Porco mines.
