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\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \n \t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" * Colombia plans to sell property rights next year * Mining sector only 2 percent of Colombia’s GDP * Codelco is interested in exploring in the country By Josephine Mason SANTIAGO, April 16 (Reuters) – Colombia expects to sell exploration rights to its large untapped mineral resources next year as part of its effort to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-9979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9979\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}* Colombia plans to sell property rights next year\n * Mining sector only 2 percent of Colombia's GDP\n * Codelco is interested in exploring in the country\n\n By Josephine Mason\t\n SANTIAGO, April 16 (Reuters) - Colombia expects to sell\nexploration rights to its large untapped mineral resources next\nyear as part of its effort to attract foreign investment to\ndevelop its gold, coal and silver mining sector.\t\n The government's new national mining agency will coordinate\nthe sale of rights to develop the country's unexplored mineral\nwealth as it aims to boost its income from mining, which only\naccounts for around 2 percent of the country's economy. \t\n Some of the biggest names in commodities, including Chilean\nstate-owned copper producer Codelco, have already\nexpressed an interest in taking part in what the government\nhopes will turn into an exploration boom, Deputy Mining Minister\nHenry Medina Gonzalez told Reuters on Monday on the sidelines of\nthe 5th International Exploration Forum held by Cesco in\nSantiago.\t\n Speaking at the conference on Monday, Gonzalez said his\nministry aims to lure foreign investment by clamping down on\nillegal mining, tightening up regulations and establishing a\nformal mining code.\t\n \t\n The new mining agency, which starts work on May 3, will\nestablish which properties will be sold as part of an auction\nnext year, Gonzalez told Reuters on the sidelines of the\nconference. \t\n The government estimates some 3 million hectares of\n\"strategic zones\" will be up for grabs, he told delegates at the\nconference. \t\n The government will not participate directly in any of the\nprojects, he told Reuters, keen to stress the government's\nhands-off role. \t\n \"We don't want to scare off investors. We want to be as\npredictable as possible,\" Gonzalez told Reuters when asked if he\nwould consider overhauling the royalty payment system.\t\n This is particularly important given the turmoil seen in\nother Latin American countries in recent years: from Peru, where\nthe government last year made dramatic changes to mining taxes,\nto Argentina, where the government on Monday unveiled plans to\nseize control of leading energy company YPF. \t\n The aim is to increase total mining investment to above the\n$2.6 billion invested last year, Gonzalez told Reuters, but he \ndeclined to give a target figure.\t\n Goldman Sachs, Votorantim, BHP Billiton\n, AngloGold Ashanti, Anglo American and Glencore\n are already investors in the country. The U.S.\ninvestment bank is said to be bidding for a Vale SA \ncoal project in the country, although Gonzalez said he did not\nknow how far along that sales process was.\t\n Codelco is also interested in setting up exploration in the\ncountry as the Chilean state-owned copper producer looks abroad\nfor new resources in a bid to offset falling ore grades and\noutput at its domestic operations.\t\n More copper producers need to explore in riskier locations\nto stave off a massive shortage of ore output and keep up with\ndemand, Michael Chender, chief executive of Metal Economics\nCorp, told delegates on Monday.\t\n \t\n ROYALTIES MAY BE REVISED LATER\t\n While the development of its mining sector is in its\ninfancy, the government wants to keep royalties stable, but may\nconsider revising the system at a later date, Gonzalez said.\t\n The current royalty system is based on a percentage of the\nprice of the commodity which is then calculated according to\nproduction volume, according to Claudia Jimenez, who is head of\nthe government association created a year ago to promote private\ninvestment in large-scale mining projects.\t\n Some politicians have called for a switch to a system more\nin line with Chile, which bases its royalties on a company's\nincome, rather than production, Gonzalez said. There is no\nimminent change planned yet.\t\n \"It's not a country with a mining boom, (but) it has the\npotential. We need to understand the potential\" before making\nchanges to the royalty system, he told Reuters.\t\n \t\n INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT\t\n With development of its natural resources, the government\nalso plans to overhaul its infrastructure, including its ports,\nwaterways, and 2,000 km (1,242 miles) of railroad tracks. A\nmajor new highway through the center of the country is also\nplanned, Gonzalez said. \t\n The government led by President Juan Manuel Santos has made\na two-year push to create investor-friendly conditions to try to\nwoo foreign investment.\t\n Mining only accounts for 2-3 percent of the South American\ncountry's gross domestic product; oil makes up 83 percent of\ntotal royalties, according to Jimenez.\t\n \"Colombia is not yet a mining country,\" she said.\t\n But that will change if investment takes off. The country\naims to increase coal output by 35 percent to 115,000 tonnes per\nyear by 2014 from last year's level of 85,000 tonnes and gold\noutput by 30 percent to 73 tonnes from 56 tonnes last year, she\nsaid.\t\n Strategic minerals, including silver, have been identified\nand exploration is greatly needed: less than 50 percent of the\ncountry has been explored, Gonzalez said.\t\n \t\n RISKIER LOCALES LURE COPPER PRODUCERS \t\n The move to countries seen as higher risk is needed as\ndeposits in mature copper producing countries are depleted,\nanalysts say. There is evidence that foreign companies are\nspending more in Colombia in recent years.\t\n Colombia only accounted for 2 percent of total global\nnonferrous exploration spending in 2011, but its proportion of\nLatin American spending has grown to 10 percent from less than 3\npercent in the last four years, Chender said in his\npresentation.\t\n Companies are becoming more open to risk after a dramatic\nretrenchment during the global economic crisis in 2008 and 2009,\nbut tolerance for risk has not returned to 2007 levels.\t\n The rate of converting a copper discovery to development\nwill fall because of challenges from rising costs and difficult\noperating conditions, but demand is rising.\t\n \"There's our problem,\" said Chender, noting Colombia is \"an\noutstanding example\" of how a country can transform itself to\nbecome more investor friendly.<\/pre>\n