The authorities and the Australian mining company Solgold have agreed to move the Cascabel project into the development phase. This is the seventh largest copper and gold project under development in the world.

The mining company will invest 5 billion dollars, 35 billion dollars will be exported from 2030. The state will have an income of 8 billion dollars during the lifetime of the mine.

Cascabel discovered that Ecuador has the same geology as Chile and Peru, the two largest copper exporters on the planet. The Andes are to copper what the northeastern coast of South America, Venezuela and Guyana are to oil: the world’s largest deposits. Chile has the largest Escondida copper mine, and the group that manages it is BHP, which is also Solgold’s largest shareholder.

Ecuador did not produce copper like Chile for two reasons:

1) Our Andes are not as dry as a good part of the southern Andes, so it was more difficult to discover the mineral. Ecuador has not been explored as intensively as Chile and Peru, so the search for copper has greater prospects in Ecuador. In Imbabura south of Cascabel is Llurimagua, in which Codelco is investing: the first operation of a Chilean state company outside of Chile.

Ecuador is the future of Andean mining, unless we Ecuadorians stop it. The Fraser Institute, which researches mining companies, ranks Ecuador as the country with the best mining prospects in the world except for a few areas in Canada and Australia, the home countries of the largest mining companies.

2) Our mining regulations are not competitive, which is another factor behind our backwardness. We are suspicious of foreign investment, pass laws that set unrealistic conditions and are kings of paperwork. That changed with Gustavo Noboa’s mining law, but the National Assembly blocked it again in 2008. Rafael Correa reopened mining in 2015. 7 years were lost, so Cascabel will be in production in 2030 instead of today, when we so badly need that tax revenue.

There’s no need to grieve over spilled milk, but avoid making the same mistake again. The Constitutional Court blocks investments in mining. Lenín Moreno closed the mining cadastre in 2018, and Guillermo Lasso did not reopen it. This cuts off the inflow of capital, and last year there was foreign disinvestment in mining: what two mining companies send abroad in production is more than new investments, while dozens of companies are waiting to be allowed to invest.

There are other projects ready for development: Loma Larga, Curipamba and La Plata. More are coming from behind, including Crabs (El Oro) and Warintza. It is necessary to facilitate exploration investments in many other projects and to open the mining cadastre for the entry of new companies into exploration. You must have activities at all stages.

Norway has just announced that a phosphate, vanadium and titanium deposit discovered in 2018 is commercially viable; The government supports the project and its development will continue. In Ecuador, prior to the implementation of environmental consultations, consultations would have to be carried out, followed by the presentation of an environmental study that would take several years for the Ministry of the Environment to evaluate. (OR)