The Nicaraguan government has granted Chinese mining company Xinjiang Xinxin Mining Industry Company Limited a new 25-year mineral exploitation concession in the north of the country, according to a resolution published Monday in the official newspaper La Gaceta.
The mining giant will work through its subsidiary Nicaragua Xinxin Linze Minería, whose representative is the Chinese executive Edward Xiang Liu.
“Grant the company Nicaragua Xinxin Linze Mining Group a mining concession for the exploitation of metallic and non-metallic minerals in the lot called Río Dorado Sur,” says the resolution of the Ministry of Energy and Mines.
The land consists of 483 hectares in the municipality of San Juan del Limay, in the department of Estelí, approximately 180 km north of Managua.
This concession is the fourth that the Chinese mining company has received in Nicaragua, where it already has more than 42,000 hectares of land for mining exploitation. In mid-August, Managua gave it more than 3,000 hectares in another concession close to the one auctioned on Monday.
Related news: Ortega grants the Chinese company Nicaragua Xinxin Minera Group another 483 hectares for mining exploitation
The Chinese company will pay 3% in royalties on the minerals extracted, which are not specified in the resolution, and must begin operations within the next four years.
In addition to this company, two other Chinese mining companies have received concessions in Nicaragua: Zhong Fu Development and Thomas Metal.
Nicaragua and China launched a Free Trade Agreement in January.
In 2021, President Daniel Ortega established relations with China after breaking with Taiwan, considered by Beijing to be its own territory whose control it seeks to regain, even by force if necessary.
