A history of Bolivian mining with a list of its most important mineral resources
From 1557 to 1985, mining dominated the Bolivian economy. By 1987 mining accounted for only 4 percent of GDP, 36 percent of exports, and 2.5 percent of government revenues. Spurred by a massive increase in gold production, the mining sector rebounded in 1988, returning to the top of the nation's list of foreign exchange earners. Tin and silver had been the major products in this sector, making fortunes for a few select families who saw fit to take their wealth out of the country, or for foreign companies with little regard for the native workers. This was much a factor in Bolivia's struggle for independence from Spain. It was not until 1952 that an agency that answered to the governemnt, at least partly, was established; Comibol, which was decentralised into five semiautonomous mining enterprises in 1986. This was a huge multimineral corporation controlled by unions and was the second largest tin enterprise in the world. It operated 21 mining companies, spare-parts factories, electricity plants, farms, a railroad, and other agencies. The decentralisation of Comibol under the Rehabilitation Plan reduced the company's payroll from 27,000 employees to under 7,000 in less than a year. All of Comibol's mines were shut down from September 1986 to May 1987 to examine the economic feasibility of each mine; some never reopened. Comibol's mining and service companies were restructured into five autonomous mining subsidiaries (in Oruro, La Paz, Quechusa, Potosí, and Oriente) and two autonomous smelting companies (the Vinto Smelting Company and the still unopened Karachipampa smelter in Potosí), or they were transferred to ministries. Medium miners, small miners, cooperatives, and other producers, which made up the rest of the mining sector, produced more minerals in 1987 than Comibol. The medium miners consisted of Bolivian and foreign mining companies in the private sector that were involved in the production of virtually every mineral, especially silver, zinc, antimony, lead, cadmium, tungsten, gold, and tin.
Gold Gold prospecting in the country's rivers and mines was brisk in the late 1980s. Because of Bolivia's vast territory and the high value of gold, contraband gold accounted for approximately 80 percent of exports. Official gold exports were approximately five tons in 1988, up sharply from less than one ton in 1985. In order to capture gold as a reserve for the Central Bank, in 1988 the government offered a 5 percent bonus over the international price of gold on local sales to the Central Bank. Gold was mined almost exclusively by over 300 cooperatives throughout the country, along with about 10,000 prospectors. A large percentage of the cooperatives worked in Tipuani, Guanay, Mapiri, Huayti, and Teoponte in a 21,000-hectare region set aside for gold digging and located 120 kilometers north of La Paz. Mining cooperatives in the late 1980s had requested an additional 53,000 hectares from the government for gold prospecting. Others panned for their fortunes in remote villages like Araras along the Brazilian border in Beni. Small-scale operations were very traditional and wasteful. Analysts predicted that more commercial production, such as the dredging of alluvial deposits, would maximize gold output. A few medium-sized mining operations, as well as the Armed Forces National Development Corporation (Corporación de las Fuerzas Armadas para el Desarrollo Nacional--Cofadena) became involved in the gold rush in the 1980s. Government policy favored augmenting gold reserves as a means of leveraging more external finance for development projects. Bolivia's gold production has been steadily rising since 1998. Gold production in the first 6 months of 2003 was estimated at 4 600 t a 18.6% increase from 2002. Production is still dominated by the Into Raymi gold mine that is responsible for over 75% of Bolivia’s production. The mine is situated at Kori Kollo on the Altiplano north of Oruro with Newmont Mining owning 88% and Zeland Mines SA (12%) of the project. The mine began production in 1993 and produced 306 000 oz gold in 2001. However, reserves at the mine are rapidly being exhausted and are currently estimated at 700 000 oz.
Through a local subsidiary, Empresa Minera Paititi, Orvana Minerals has purchased a gold mining concession and related equipment from Comsur. The Don Mario gold deposit is located in eastern Bolivia and has mineable reserves estimated at containing 1.17 Mt grading 10.24 g/t gold for 386,000 oz gold.
Bolivia has several smaller scale gold projects currently undergoing feasibility studies by several foreign companies. Apart from hard rock gold finds, Bolivia has several high grade alluvial gold fields. The largest and highest grade fields are located on the Challana, the Kaka, the Mapirí, and the Tipuani river valleys in northern part of La Paz. Golden Eagle Bolivia are currently evaluating the Tipuani region where the company has secured mining rights over 74 000 acres. The Araras area near the border with Brazil has also been identified as prospective for alluvial gold, in particular the Madera and the Madre de Dios Rivers. More gold as also been discovered this year, along with much silver (see below) at Malku Khota.
Silver Three centuries after being the world's largest producer of silver, Bolivia still produced 225 tons of silver in 1988, as compared with about 140 tons in 1987. Recent finds, such as the one in 2010 by the South American Silver Company at Malku Khota, which is known to be one of the world's largest undeveloped silver resources, will increase mining activity.
Potassium Bolivia also has approximately 110 million tons of potassium, much of which is mixed in with the lithium (see below).
Lithium The lithium and potassium deposits located in the brines of the southern Altiplano's Uyuni saltpan are estimated to be the largest of their kind in the world. The United States Geological Survey, the Bolivian Geological Survey (Servicio Geológico de Bolivia), and others discovered large reserves of lithium in 1976. By 1985 Bolivia's National Congress had made lithium extraction a national priority and created the Industrial Complex of the of Uyuni Saltpan (Complejo Industrial de los Recursos Evaporíticos del Salar de Uyuni) to explore and market lithium. Because the extraction of lithium is an expensive, technically complex process, the government sought bids for some foreign investment in lithium in the late 1980s.
Presently, Bolivia is believed to have over 50% of the world’s supply, and bids are being accepted for mining, with the proviso that lithium batteries be developed in Bolivia.
Manganese The Mutun reserves are located in Bolivia's German Busch province in Santa Cruz, and extend into Brazil. They contain an estimated 10bn tons of manganese. Bolivia's government may seek an agreement with Brazil, similar to the recent gas pipeline contract between the countries, to develop the reserves.
Lead The lead and silver Karachipampa facility in Potosí was the nation's largest smelter. Although the authorities considered lead a minor metal, production increased from 9,000 tons in 1987 to 11,000 tons in 1988.
Tin Bolivia's mines had produced cassiterite, the chief source of tin, since 1861. By the mid-twentieth century, four famlies controlled all or most of the tin, the most prominent being the Patino clan. Between 1978 and 1985, Bolivia fell from the second to the fifth position among tin producers. In the late 1980s, however, tin still accounted for a third of all Bolivian mineral exports because of the strong performance by the medium and small mining sectors. The largest tin-mining company in the private sector was Estalsa Boliviana, which dredged alluvial tin deposits in the Antequera River in northeastern Potosí Department. The Mining Company of Oruro operated the country's richest tin mine at Huanuni. The country's tin reserves in 1988 were estimated at 453,700 tons, of which 250,000 tons were found in medium-sized mines, 143,700 tons in Comibol mines, and 60,000 tons in small mines. In the late 1980s, tin was exported mainly in concentrates for refining abroad. Eighty percent of all exports went to the European Economic Community and the United States, with the balance going to various Latin American countries and Czechoslovakia.
Bolivia was a founding member of the International Tin Council (ITC), a body of twenty-two consumer and producer countries that since 1930 had attempted to regulate tin markets through buffer stocks. Bolivia, however, did not sign the ITC's International Tin Agreements in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1983 Bolivia joined the newly formed Association of Tin Producing Countries, which attempted--unsuccessfully--to control tin prices through a cartel approach to commodity regulation. After a period of decline, tin prices rebounded in the late 1980s.
Government policies since the early 1970s had sought to expand the percentage of metallic or refined tin exports that offered greater returns. As a result, smelting increased during the 1970s, but in the 1980s the excessive costs of the nation's highly underutilized smelting operations contributed to the decision to restructure Comibol.
Bismuth Reserves were estimated at 4,100 tons, and production in 1987 reached two-thirds of a ton entirely by small miners. Bolivia, the site of the International Bismuth Institute, was once the sole producer of bismuth in the world. One of the applications of bismuth is in the making of high grade, long lasting paints, such as bismuth yellow.
Uranium The last mine closed in 1974. The government has set aside $500,000 for research into continuing mining in the future, but there is no date set as yet.
Tungsten Bolivia was also the leading producer of tungsten among market economies. But the dramatic decline in tungsten prices in the 1980s severely hurt production, despite the fact that reserves stood at 60,000 tons. Medium and small producers accounted for over 80 percent of the country's tungsten production in the late 1980s. The International Mining Company's Chojilla mine was the source of most tungsten output. Tungsten production sank from 2,300 tons in 1984 to barely more than 800 tons in 1987 because of falling international prices. Tungsten was sold to West European, East European, and Latin American countries, as well as to the United States.
Zinc This is Bolivia's leading export from the mines. Zinc output also rose in the late 1980s from roughly 39,000 tons in 1987 to over 53,000 tons in 1988, compared with 47,000 tons in 1975. Nearly all zinc was exported. In 1987 the government declared the construction of a new zinc refinery in Potosí a national priority.
Present plans for zinc mining include a $500 million investment in two new plants, to be located in Potosi and Oruro, with production expected to be 200 tons per year. Exports stand at 429 tons (2009), up from 385 the previous year. The 2009 production netted a profit of $685 million.
Magnesium Unknown amounts of magnesium are found in association with lithium. Boron 3.2 tons of boron are known to exist.
Antimony Bolivia mined about a fifth of the world's antimony in the late 1980s and was the leading producer among market economies. Private companies were responsible for all antimony production. The largest output came from the United Mining Company (Empresa Minera Unificada), which controlled the two largest antimony mines, located at Chilcobija and Caracota, both in Potosí Department. Medium and small miners generated an average of 9,500 tons of antimony a year in the mid-to late-1980s, all of which was exported. Antimony, a strategic mineral used in flame-proofing compounds and semiconductors, was exported in concentrates, trioxides, and alloys to all regions of the world, with most sales going to Britain and Brazil. Antimony reserves in 1988 stood at 350,000 tons.
Deposits also exist in Oruro, in western Bolivia, where Glencore, a Swiss firm, had contracts to mine. However, after it failed to invest, and was found to be dismantling the smelter, Mining Minister Jose Pimentel traveled to Oruro to carry out the legal steps necessary for state-owned Empresa Metalurgica Vinto to take control of the smelter.
Iron After years of planning, the Mutún iron mine was scheduled to open its first of two plants in 1989. The Mutún mine, the sole responsibility of the Mining Company of the Oriente, was expected to yield 592,000 tons of iron in its first five years of operation, with an estimated total of 40 billion tons of ore. The prospects for the steel industry, which was controlled by Bolivian Iron and Steel (Unidad Promotora de La Siderurgia Boliviana, formerly known as Siderúrgica Boliviana), however, were bleak. After more than a decade of planning a national steel plant, Bolivia was still unable to obtain financing for such a project, especially given international overcapacity in steel. The possibility of a national steel plant appeared unlikely at the end of the 1980s.
Recent contracts with Jindhal Steel of India came to a halt after Jindhal failed to comply with dealines in the contract. Bolivia has the largest supply of iron in the world, albeit of a medium grade, some mixed with sulfur compounds.
Cadmium Reserves exist in western Bolivia, often mixed with sulfur compounds.
Chromium Like cadmium, it is mined in the west, where it is mixed with sulfur compounds. Neither is mined presently in any great quantities if at all; oxides of both are used in quality artists' paints.
Ramphastos Toucans are the largest of the toucan family, related to the Asian/African hornbills, along with woodpeckers, barbets, jacamars and kingfishers.
