This Monday the National Mining Agency (ANM), the Special Assets Company (SAE) and the Ministry of Mines and Energy signed an inter-administrative memorandum of understanding to form a mining company with companies that are currently managed by the SAE.
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“The objective of this society will be to “democratize the mining sector and guarantee the first steps for mining from the popular economy”, according to the Minister of Mines and Energy, Irene Vélez.
To create this new company, the National Development Plan (PND) that is currently being prepared by the National Development Plan (PND) must first be completed. National Planning Department. This will create the legislative framework in which it will be sheltered.
“We continue to comply with the popular mandate and the president’s instruction to put the assets that once belonged to the illegal economies at the service of a new productive model,” affirmed Daniel Rojas, president of the SAE.
He added that there will be 11 companies that are managed by the Company that will make up this new public asset. His patrimony, as a whole, amounts to about $47,000 million, according to the president of the SAE.
The role of the ANM will be, among others, to appoint in the boards of directors “suitable people” of those existing companies to “That we can deliver a robust company to the country”, Rojas pointed out.
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As within the 11 companies that are part of this memorandum there are two international marketerswith this gold would be purchased directly from the producers, as explained by Álvaro Pardo, president of the Agency. “The idea is to take advantage of the structure and logistics that they already have for this new national mining company,” assured.
For this, the marketers They will buy the gold in the areas where it is produced, if mercury and cyanide are not used in the process. Likewise, miners must demonstrate the origin of their product in order to formalize the sector.
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Three different opportunities for action emerge from this process. The first option is for it to be sold in international markets as green gold, which, according to Pardo, would allow it to be traded up to 35% above its market price.
The other option is to be the Bank of the Republic who buys the gold, offering prices between 5% and 10% below the international value, which would be very competitive for small producers, in which artisan producers are emphasized. On the one hand, this would take away financing from illegal economies that buy gold from communities and, additionally, would increase the reserves of the central bank, according to the ANM leader.
Finally, he asserted that a national jewelry industry could be created, which will use this gold “cleansed”.
“In this way we want to generate a new form of mining management. On the one hand, based on demand, we generate incentives for products whose origin is clear and clean; This guarantees an incentive for small-scale artisanal miners who produce gold with cyanide and mercury to transition to this clean mining. On the other hand, from the offer, they allow us to add value to mining, to move from an extractivist model to a productive one”, the minister stressed.
(See: Two articles of the Tax Reform put the mining sector in check).
In addition to this, he stressed that the great commercialization of gold will not be state-owned, but private; although they do seek to increase the size of the State in this matter.
Although they assured that it is possible that it will not be in operation next year, given that the National Development Plan It will enter into force until next year, if this process will begin.
In addition to gold, there are also companies dedicated to the exploration, exploitation, refining and benefit of minerals such as stone, clay and limestone.
To set up this company, the entities have already started the process with the establishment of a series of technical committees, which will allow them to have a consolidated base when testing the National Development Plan that generates the regulatory framework that will cover the company.
Additionally, Rojas clarified that companies have existing cash flow which will allow this process to be carried out with its own resources and does not require an additional injection by the State.
“We do not start from scratch, we start from the experience that the ANM has, as well as the path that these companies already have”, concluded the leader of the Special Assets Society.
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