Mining 2025

BOLIVIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Ramiro Guevara, Jorge Inchauste and Rosario Echeverría, Dentons Guevara & Gutiérrez S.C.

licence and the fulfilment of the other require - ments established by law for the execution of an administrative contract. If there are indigenous communities in the mining area, the AJAM must carry out a prior and informed consultation. Subsequently, the AJAM authorises the signing of the administrative contract and submits the contract to the legislative entity for approval and registration in the Mining Registry. Maintenance Requirements According to Article 144 of the Mining and Met - allurgy Law, the titleholder must comply with two requirements in order to hold the rights granted by mining administrative contract: • payment of the annual mining tax ( Patente Minera ), according to the scale detailed in Article 230 of the Mining and Metallurgy Law; and • exploration and/or exploitation of the area granted as per the plan presented to the AJAM (activity in mining areas granted by the Bolivian State cannot be paused for more than six months). Revocation Pursuant to the Bolivian Mining Law, mining rights (current ATEs or future administrative contracts) may be revoked by the AJAM to the extent one of the following is evidenced: • failure to pay the yearly mining tax right; • suspension of mining activities (or failure to initiate mining activities) for one year; • failure to deliver the activity reports on two consecutive occasions; or • developing exploitation activities on explora - tion licences. A resolution from the AJAM in relation to the revocation of the mining rights may be subject

to administrative recourse and appeal before the Ministry of Mining, and may be subject to review by the Bolivian Supreme Court. Operating Control, Marketing and Transferability Under the Mining and Metallurgy Law, holders of mining rights must control and manage these rights themselves. Pursuant to Article 136 of the Mining and Metallurgy Law, the mining operators may not transfer or assign their rights and obli - gations arising from administrative contracts or prospecting and exploration licences. However, the Mining and Metallurgy Law does not prohibit the transfer of shares of mining com - panies operating in Bolivia. In this case, there would be an indirect transfer of the administra - tive contract, obligations and liability of the entire mining project.

2. Impact of Environmental Protection and Community Relations on Mining Projects 2.1 Environmental Protection and Licensing of Mining Projects

Mining activities are regulated by the Environ - mental Law (Law No 1333 of 1992), the Mining Code (Law No 535 of 2014) and more specifical - ly by the Environmental Regulations for Mining Activities (Supreme Decree No 24782 of 1997). The Environmental Law requires mining compa - nies to have an environmental licence in order to perform their operations. At the same time, this environmental licence relates to several environmental studies that must be followed. The requirements differ depending on the kind of mining activity.

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