Artisanal miners who engage in this activity legally and without mercury will be able to receive loans of 5,000 to 500,000 dollars from BanEcuador, for a period of ten years. As part of the process, the bank held a socialization day for access to credit.

“For the first time, mining has become visible as a lending subject,” said miner Mario Freire, who described the measure as “very timely.”

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Miner Maryuri Wampash, who is a member of an association of 25 Shuar miners, had similar criteria. “It gives us an alternative to move forward,” he said.

Freire and Wampash were part of more than 40 miners who attended talks to learn about the benefits of this financing in their projects, according to the state entity, indicating it was the result of an agreement with the Central Bank of Ecuador and the Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition and Energy and mining, signed in October 2022. The initiative is also supported by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), through the National Chemicals Management Program (PNGQ).

According to BanEcuador, there are two lines of credit that miners will be able to access. One for small and medium-sized enterprises, for individuals or companies whose sales exceed USD 100,000 per fiscal year, while the other is a business loan intended for individuals and legal entities whose annual sales exceed USD 1 million and less than 5.0 million USD.

Forms of payment can be monthly, quarterly, etc. until the loan expires.

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Milton Cevallos, head of research, development and social management of BanEcuador, pointed out that with this they want to strengthen support for the productive mining sector.

Cevallos commented that during the government of Ecuador, the state entity approved loans amounting to 957 million dollars, especially to microenterprises, which benefited more than 240,000 families.

For his part, the UNDP representative, Bruno Bellettini, emphasized the importance of supporting legal mercury-free mining, which respects international agreements such as those from Minamata or Stockholm.