Bolivia’s mining law overhaul raises environmental and community concerns

Bolivia's mining ministry is overhauling the country's 2014 mining code, with a technical committee now drafting a preliminary bill after weeks of stakeholder meetings. Minister Marco Antonio Calderón de la Barca Quintanilla says the goal is legal certainty and investment, alongside what the ministry calls ‘consolidating responsible environmental management.’

Reported proposals include removing the current 30-year cap on mining contracts to make them indefinite, new tax and royalty structures, and stripping prior consultation of Indigenous communities as a requirement for mining contracts. The technical committee includes government, mining cooperatives, and private companies, plus one peasant workers' confederation.

Civil society and Indigenous groups say they have been shut out of the drafting process. Ruth Alipaz of the National Coordinator for the Defense of Indigenous and Peasant Territories said the environmental framing is ‘just talk’ since only mining actors are being consulted on a law meant to govern mining's environmental impact.

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