Bolivia revokes another mining concession and returns it to a state-owned firm

The Bolivian government issued a decree Thursday formally revoking a mining concession granted to private miner Compañia Minera Malku Khota, a subsidiary of Canadian junior developer South American Silver Corp. (SAS), saying no contract was signed with the Vancouver-based company. In June, a group of indigenous kidnapped seven people, including five employees of the Malku Khota silver-iridium-gallium project, amid a conflict that resulted in the death of one Indian. Back then, SAS said a majority of the ayllus Indians in the area supported the firm's project, but that one faction of the indigenous people saw the operations as an obstacle to their own efforts to mine gold.

Now the permits will be given to Bolivia’s state-owned mining firm Comibol, after years of studies conduced by SAS that concluded the silver and iridium reserves at Malku Khota are estimated to be worth US$ 2 billion. Sounds like another Bolivarian decision, eh?