The illegitimate president, Daniel Ortega, sent to the National Assembly an initiative of amendment to the Mining Law to replace the participation of the Nicaraguan Mining Company (Enimines) in the activities of the mining sector, after being sanctioned by the United States in June; and control mineral exports from pawnbrokers.
Ortega will give great power to the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), replacing Eniminas, including control over the operations of precious metals dealers and pawnbrokers and/or loans; for which he asks his deputies to grant urgent processing to the proposal.
“At this time, it is necessary to assign functions to the governing body of the country’s mineral resources, the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), in relation to its functions and responsibilities related to the organization of the mining sector and, in particular, of artisanal and small-scale mining (MAPE),” Ortega told Sandinista deputy Gustavo Porras, president of the National Assembly.
The initiative of amendment to the Special Law on Exploration and Exploitation of Mines orders to modify articles 2 and 76 bis, and makes additions to article 39, article 77 and article 84 bis of Law 387.
The article 77 grants the MEM the power to “authorize the origin and monitoring of mineral exports from pawnbrokers and/or loans and dealers in precious metals and/or precious stones; of the latter, it will authorize the agreements that they sign with mining concessionaires, processing plants, artisanal miners or small miners. In case of non-compliance, the MEM is empowered to close or intervene of the obligated subject”. The right to appoint auditors is also granted.
Ortega’s urgency arises shortly after the Police seized the 38 branches of the Casa de Empeños Prisa, and its officials accused the president of the company’s board of directors, Mario Hurtado Jiménez, of money laundering and other crimes. It is a “political show,” the businessman told Article 66ensuring that, in the attack, the police institution seized around 3 million dollars in gold and silver.
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In the reform to article 2the regime establishes that “the State, through alliances and associations with private, public or mixed companies that the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) proposes and authorizes, may participate in the activities established in this law.”
In this article, the regime adds a paragraph that grants the MEM “to carry out a follow-up and review of the mining concessions granted as of the date of publication of this Law, to determine compliance with the obligations of the mining titleholders; empowering the Ministry to cancel said concessions in case of non-compliance or to establish compliance agreements in the cases that it merits with the offending mining concessionaires”.
In the article 76 bisOrtega passes into the hands of the MEM the administration and regulation of the Mining Development and Promotion Fund, “including the movable and immovable property that has been acquired with it.”
The section reads that the Development Fund, in addition to having been created to finance and carry out mining development activities such as mineral resource research, will also finance and carry out the “regulation of artisanal and small-scale mining (MAPE), the eradication of mercury in artisanal processing and promote the use of good environmental practices, including the installation of benefit plants for the processing of mineral substances in mining reserve areas and others.
The regime adds, in the article 39, that the MEM “will coordinate and supervise, prior agreement between concessionaires or duly registered benefit facilities, the delivery of mining resources from small-scale mining and artisanal mining (…). In the cases that are required, the MEM will grant guarantees of said mineral resources to be delivered in favor of artisanal miners and small miners.
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The Ortega administration also makes clear the cancellation of two mining concessions granted under ministerial agreements: the one that ceded to Eniminas the polygon corresponding to the State reserve area called The Saint IIthe one that has an extension of 2,088.80 hectares, located in Chontales, and the one that gave Eniminas the polygon Villanuevaof 1,641.22 hectares, located in the department of Chinandega.
«The movable and immovable property, studies and rights over these mining concessions will pass to the administration of the MEM, who will establish the conditions for granting them in concession, as well as the types of alliances, associations, companies or any form of participation that may arise from the concessions. same».
