The Bolivian government has responded to the recent slump in metals prices by making more funds available to small-scale producers, while the county’s largest tin mine is to boost ore throughput to try to maintain cash flow, according to local press reports monitored by Business News Americas. Zinc and tin are the two largest export earners of Bolivia’s mining sector. Last Friday Bolivian President Evo Morales declared a state of emergency in the Andean country’s zinc-mining industry after prices fell by more than half this year.
Bolivia’s mining investment fund Fomin will set aside US$13million to support cooperative and small-scale miners faced with falling international prices for zinc and tin, the country’s mining director Freddy Beltrán told local press. The proposal calls for Fomin to issue loans that will help producers.
Meanwhile Empresa Minera Huanuni ‘s CEO Roberto Montaño told the El Diario newspaper that daily output would be boosted from a current level of 1,200 tpd of ore to 1,400-1,500 tpd, within two months. The company had been averaging a monthly cash flow of US$17-18 million but dropped to US$11million when tin prices fell off, he said. The executive added that all scheduled projects for expanding ore production will be financed with a portion of the US$33mn profit that EMH has registered so far this year.
