QUITO (Reuters) – The government of a key mining province in southern Ecuador has proposed a popular referendum on the development of new mines in the region, the latest obstacle to market-friendly President Lenin Moreno’s efforts to attract foreign mining investment.
Azuay province is home to several potentially lucrative gold, silver and copper projects, including the Loma Larga project operated by Canada’s INV Metals (INV.TO) and the Rio Blanco mine, owned by a Chinese consortium consisting of Junefield Mineral Resources Limited and Hunan Gold Group.
But provincial prefect Yaku Perez on Tuesday requested the South American country’s Constitutional Court make mining development subject to a popular referendum, expressing concerns about mining’s environmental impacts.
“We will be the first province in the country to decide between gold and water,” Perez, also an indigenous community leader, told reporters. “We will make it so that very soon Azuay and Ecuador are free of metallic mining.”
Last month, the Constitutional Court ruled against a request to require community consultations over the Cascabel mine in northern Ecuador, allowing Australia’s SolGold (SOLG.L) to continue developing what is seen as one of the most promising copper projects in the world.
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