Bolivia willing to compensate for silver mine but positions are distant

Saturday, July 14th 2012 - 07:01 UTC

Full article 4 comments

Bolivian government is willing to compensate South American Silver Corp for revoking its concession on the Malku Khota project, but it will be far less than the 16 million dollars the company says it has invested, the country's vice president said on Thursday. Read full article

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British_Kirchnerist
The company should be reasonable and accept Bolivia's generous offer of compensation. Or they could look to international capitalist solidarity, but that was a bit of a flop for Repsol wasn't it?!
Jul 14th, 2012 - 08:32 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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The Chilean perspective
Those stupid Canucks should have known better, you can't trust a cocalero. Morales is a crook and foreign investors deserve what they get for choosing to invest in that cesspit that is Bolivia. Look and learn gringos.
Jul 14th, 2012 - 10:43 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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JohnN
Canadian Radio Broadcasting story on SASC, 12 July, begins 2 minutes into the audio clip: http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/popupaudio.html?clipIds=2255563707

SASC: http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/popupaudio.html?clipIds=2255563707

Could be that getting something like $3M for $16 invested may in fact turn out to be reasonable and acceptable to SASC, but see how it plays out in and if goes to court.

Miners work with clean, low-corruption countries (Chile) and not-clean high corruption (Bolivia) and frequently the not-clean regimes hide their intentions to fleece companies behind high-minded motives such as the indigenous communities. No doubt that profits can be made in Chile, but since Chile seen as clean and stable, the competition is higher and resource rent to be paid higher. As SASC's Bolivian problems work their way through politics and courts, if it is seen to be unreasonable compensation, will just have a chilling effect on further investments in Bolivia - and there will be more capital flight from Bolivian investors themselves.
Jul 14th, 2012 - 02:10 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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rnbgr
These are not big numbers (16 million claimed invested since 2007) they should be able to work out a settlement. The statements by the company and the government look like bargaining tactics. South American silver was awarded the concession during Evo morales first term so it will be interesting to see if the government will live up to that agreement or try to change it to reduce the payout.
Jul 14th, 2012 - 10:30 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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