Ecuador's Oil Minister Galo Chiriboga on Monday denied reports of any government plans to nationalize the country's mines.
Ecuador's Congress passed a decree last Friday announcing the revoking of 80 percent of unexploited mining franchises. As the decree did not mention any compensation, it aroused suspicions that Ecuador was going to implement nationalization of mines.
However, Chiriboga asserted that the Ecuadorian government has no plans of nationalizing its mining assets. Mining companies whose licenses are revoked will still have some assets left, but Ecuador is ready to deal with any ensuing legal disputes, he added.
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa recently criticized some foreign mining groups for not making investments despite having received franchises a long time ago, but rather selling the franchises for profit and hurting Ecuador's national interests.
The Ecuadorian government has granted about 4000 mining licenses, most of them to large Canadian and American private mining groups.
Ecuador has great mining potential, with large reserves of gold, silver and copper.
Source: Xinhua
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