Coeur to start building Bolivia silver project http://today.reuters.com/stocks/QuoteCompanyNewsArticle.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2006-07-13T224651Z_01_N13226521_RTRIDST_0_MINERALS-BOLIVIA.XML&rpc=66
Thu Jul 13, 2006
LA PAZ, Bolivia, July 13 (Reuters) - U.S.-based Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. (CDE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) will start building its $135 million San Bartolome silver project in Bolivia in late July, the government said on Thursday.
The company will start construction on a silver processing plant in the southwestern city of Potosi, which the mines ministry touted as the "start of the reactivation of the mining sector."
The project was planned before leftist President Evo Morales took office in January and well before he nationalized the energy sector in early May, sending Coeur d'Alene's shares plunging on fears the mining sector would be next.
But officials since then have assured miners that although the government plans to hike taxes, it will not appropriate resources.
The company says San Bartolome mine is on track to begin producing an expected 8 million ounces of silver per year by the end of 2007.
The company's plant will also process the metals reaped by seven mining cooperatives in Potosi, a historically silver-rich city, which the government said would expand the project's benefits to a quarter of the city's 120,000 inhabitants.
In a statement, Mines Minister Walter Villarroel said the government had also guaranteed stable rules for the San Cristobal silver and zinc mine being developed by U.S.-based Apex Silver Mines (SIL.A: Quote, Profile, Research), at a cost of some $500 million.
Bolivia's mining industry pays taxes worth less than 5 percent of production value, and its exports totaled about $500 million last year.
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