ECUADOR Law and Practice Contributed by: Roque Bernardo Bustamante and Claudia Bustamante, Flor Bustamante Pizarro & Hurtado
Flor Bustamante Pizarro & Hurtado Office 803 Torre 6 Building Av. 6 de Diciembre y Juan Boussingault Quito Ecuador Tel: +59 399 946 3866 Email: roque.bustamante@fbphlaw.com Web: www.fbphlaw.com
1. Mining Law: General Framework 1.1 Main Features of the Mining Industry Ecuador’s main export for several decades has been oil. Minerals have not constituted a major export of Ecuador and the first large-scale mines only started production in November 2019, when the Fruta del Norte mine, operated by Lun - din Gold through its local subsidiary Aurelian, started producing gold, and the Mirador mine, operated by Chinese Tongling and China Rail - way through its local subsidiary Ecuacorriente, started producing copper. Both projects are located in the south-east of Ecuador, in Zamora Chinchipe province. It is expected that together the projects will have combined sales of more than USD1 billion per year, an amount which will make mining one of Ecuador’s biggest exports. On 10 December 2019, the Fruta del Norte mine produced its first export: 177 tons of gold con - centrate. A total investment of USD2.7 billion has been made in the project and it is expected to produce 310,000 ounces of gold per year and 400,000 of silver. In 2020, the Mirador project, owned by Ecuacorriente, also started produc - tion in the first large-scale copper mine in Ecua -
dor. In June 2024, an exploitation contract was signed for the Cascabel project, making it the third large-scale mining project in Ecuador to transition into the exploitation phase. The con - struction of the mine is anticipated to commence in the near future. Ecuador has not yet been fully explored for minerals and its potential has, in recent years, attracted major multinational companies such as Newcrest, Anglo American, BHP and Codelco. However, even though mining activities are fully regulated and legally possible, political oppo - sition from different groups makes investment move slowly, with the need to overcome the legal and constitutional objections that are regu - larly brought against mining projects. 1.2 Legal System and Sources of Mining Law Ecuador’s legal system is a civil one; the main sources of legislation are the Ecuadorian Consti - tution, the Mining Law, the Environmental Law, plus the regulation applicable to all commercial activity, including the Civil Code, the Labour Code and various tax laws.
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