July 8, 2023, 10:57 PM
July 8, 2023, 10:57 PM
He Regulation of the Law for the Purchase of Gold Destined to Strengthen International Reserves provides that the Central Bank of Bolivia (BCB) may purchase gold for this purpose only from companies or cooperatives that have an environmental license.
For each sales operation, the public or private legal person must state as an affidavit that the gold has a legal origin”, for which purpose the requested documentation will be attached, citing article 8 of that standard.
Among this documentation is the mining identification number (NIM), issued by the National Service for Registration and Control of the Commercialization of Minerals and Metals (Senarecom); the environmental license, granted by the Ministry of Environment and Water; and the mining right or mining administrative contract, issued by the Mining Administrative Jurisdictional Authority (AJAM).
“That gold has to be from good delivery”, with “characteristics that are friendly to the environment, so that we can then take it to refine it” to the international market, anticipated on May 7, the Minister of Economy and Public Finance, Marcelo Montenegro.
The requirement of the environmental license, which helps curb environmental contamination with mercuryrepresents a challenge for the gold cooperative sector and for state purchases of this mineral, since approximately only 14% of these cooperatives have this documentaccording to Héctor Córdova, former president of the Bolivian Mining Corporation (Comibol) and former Vice Minister of Metallurgical Mining Development.
Other novelties of the regulation for the acquisition of gold, by the BCB, are that the purchases will be made from 1 kilo, that the purity of this mineral must be above 65%, that the payment will be made in national currency and that the issuing entity will apply a discount or incentive depending on the amount of gold they want to sell you.
“Let’s go buy the gold at a competitive price (international listed) plus a plus, plus an additional that will encourage exporters to sell gold to the Central Bank”, explained on Bolivia TV the deputy manager of the Monetary and Fiscal sector of the issuing entity, Pablo Cachaga.
According to the regulation, discounts will be applied from -1.84% to -0.46% for quantities of between 1 and 5 kilos, and prizes of between 0.05% and 0.35% for volumes of more than 6 kilos.
The issuing entity highlighted that the regulation for the purchase of gold “institutes agile procedures for the commercialization of the precious metal with the BCB, promotes international responsible gold practices, promotes financial inclusion, establishes that the issuing entity is one more participant in the gold marketing chain and establishes competitive conditions in order to strengthen the Net International Reserves (NIR)“.
The last detailed weekly report of the Central Bank on the NIR, published on February 17 of this year, indicates that on the 8th of that month the reserves were at $3,538 million, of which $us 2,592 million are in gold (73.2%), $us 538 million (15.2%) in special drawing rights (SDRs), $us 372 million in foreign currency (10.5%) and 35 million (0.98%) in positions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Last Thursday, the issuing entity limited itself to informing that the RINs are in $us 3,158 million in foreign currency and gold.
