Minem rules out new reinforce expansion: “I don’t see the need to do that”

In December of last year, the Executive Power officialized the law that extends the deadline for the formalization of the activity in small artisanal mining and mining for an additional six months, that is, until June 30, 2025. However, the regulation of this rule that has been submitted to a consultation process that ends this March 4 is still pending.

On this subject, the Minister of Energy and Mines Jorge Montero ruled out a new extension of the reinfill and reinforced the idea of ​​promoting a legal device that replaces the current 2002. In that line, he said that this mechanism has to become something different that incorporates financial, commercial and technical incentives in favor of its beneficiaries.

“I do not see the need to do that (expand reinfined). Because we have the mandate to improve, boost and strengthen mining formalization. Parliament itself has the task of promoting a new law that replaces the current one of 2002,” News explained to RPP.

Similarly, he recalled that Law 32213 approved on December 27, 2024 by Congress orders to transfer competences from the Minem regions, boost the interoperable system and expand the mining formalization process in six months and six additional six, if the Executive Power considers it pertinent.

However, for the National Confederation of Small Mining and Artisanal Mining (Confemin)the Minem Regulation Project regulates scope that are not considered in the original standard as the functions regarding the formalization process, the Single Window system, the purification of the reinforce, the registration transfer with a concession title, among others.

Another questioning of the Minem legal device is that the reinfill can be transferred by succession, which reveals its hereditary character. However, José de Echave, copeting researcher, points out that this already existed 8 years ago and what is now intended, is that the eventual heirs form a unique legal entity together.

“Faced with that, the question should be raised regarding this fate of the hereditary character of the reinfill, which had to be an integral process and that has not been achieved. What we see are weaknesses in the policies that have tried to face this situation. It is an additional issue, but we are very far from achieving a true public policy to combat informal mining,” he told this medium.

MAPE Law on the Congress court

As this newspaper reported, one of the issues that Parliament must resolve at the beginning of the second legislature is the course of a law proposal for the formalization of artisanal mining and small mining, known as MAPE Law. For the head of the MINEM, the Energy and Mines Commission must accumulate the various bills of the Executive Power and the other banks to arrive a consensus formula.

However, this scenario seems distant. On the one hand, the agenda of the parliamentary working group chaired by Paul Gutiérrez fails to gather all the actors involved in the problem of informal mining and is managed with discretion, while the portfolio led by Jorge Montero yields to the pressures of the confminin by leaving without effect the suspension of more than 2,500 registrations in the reinforcement.

“This is a weak government, with little legitimacy and that seeks to survive the transfer in 2026, in front of a social actor such as confession with greater influence, political power and social mobilization capacity. Then, they negotiate with the Ministry of Energy and Mines, they achieve some things and know that with Congress, they can achieve others. They are not surprising that there are concessions,” said De Echave.

For the former Minister of Environmental Management, the lack of consensus in the elaboration of the new MAPE Law and the interests that exist ongoing on the mining formalization process will cause a new extension of the reinforce that would occur until the end of the year.

“At least this 2025, the Reinfo It will be expanded. I don’t see where there can be a different and alternative output. I think there is a lot of inability of the Congress and the Executive, which with a 3% support, it is very difficult for them to try to do something seriously. In addition, this is a scenario that allows informal miners to continue winning and accumulating power, which often do not differ from the illegal. In this disorder, those who are controlling the gold mining business and others win, “he said.