1 May decreelast week was great for APE;
* new CEO with clear focus on mine construction,
* Zinc prices up to year highs
* positive signals from the Bolivian Government. Nationalization is no longer an issue;
* new mining tax will be next according to a newspaper article
https://www.ccnmatthews.com/news/releases/show.jsp?action=showRelease&searchText=false&showText=all&actionFor=649691
MAY 3, 2007 - 15:58 ET
Eaglecrest's San Simon Project Unaffected by Bolivian Mining Law Decree
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(CCNMatthews - May 3, 2007) - Eaglecrest Explorations Ltd. ("Eaglecrest"; the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:EEL)(FRANKFURT:EAT) has received confirmation from its Bolivian legal counsel that the Mining Law decree announced May 1, 2007 by the Bolivian President Evo Morales will have no impact on its San Simon project. Eaglecrest's rights in respect of the mineral concessions making up the San Simon property will remain unaffected and legal under the new decree.
Dr. Jorge Forgues Valverde, the Company's Bolivian legal counsel and President of its subsidiary, Eaglecrest Explorations Bolivia, S.A. ("EEBOL"), has advised Eaglecrest that the new Decree 29117 has four articles:
Article 1: Declares a National Mining Reserve for all national territory, granting to the Corporacion Minera de Bolivia (COMIBOL) all power for its exploitation and management. It expressly declares that all mining concessions granted in the past, prior to this legal disposition, are going to be honored and respected.
Article 2: Prohibits the granting of any other new mining concessions whatsoever and establishes that any request for concessions, even those that have started their filings shall not be granted.
Article 3: Establishes that the Servicio Geologico Tecnico Minero ("Sergeotecmin"), which is a technical mining organization of the government, will not be able to enter any new mining agreements without prior authorization from the government. Following the completion of studies and approval by Sergeotecmin, prospective areas can be explored by third parties through signed agreements with COMIBOL.
Article 4: Establishes that areas of the National Mining Reserve might be partial or totally removed from that Reserve after Sergeotecmin has finished studies to be carried out on behalf of the Bolivian government.
Dr. Forgues says it is clear that mining concessions and joint venture agreements making up Eaglecrest's 300 km2 San Simon project in northeast Bolivia will not be affected by the Decree, as all rights previously granted by the government to local property owners who have signed joint venture agreements with EEBOL are protected under Article 1 of the Decree.
"We are pleased that our interests in Bolivia have been recognized and will be protected under the new Decree," commented Eaglecrest President Hans Rasmussen. "Although we had been told that such a Decree was in the works, we did not know what form it would ultimately take. The clarity and certainty this Decree has brought to the Mining Laws of Bolivia will allow us to proceed with confidence. Exploration of the San Simon project continues as planned, with infill diamond drilling and underground bulk sampling of the higher gold grade L463 and L484 shoots, and exploration of additional targets elsewhere on the 300 km2 property."
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[Passages talen from the following article]
The Comibol includes much, tightens little or nothing
Gabriel Tabera Soliz
Real benefit
With it, although theThe Comibol includes much, tightens little or nothing
Gabriel Tabera Soliz
....The decree, emitted this first of May, that declares the national territory like fiscal reserve, gives new administrative faculties him to the state miner, but it does not give to money nor sources him of financing so that it can operate new mines, so that it can return with force to the productive activity, to the exploration and operation of minerals.
On the contrary, the decree guarantees the concessions that were granted until now to the deprived sector, reason why the Bolivian mining will follow into the hands of a handful of great and medium companies, that very little operate the wealth of the subsoil with millionaire utilities for himself and leaving, almost nothing, for the State.
.....
Not more concessions
The second article of the decree “prohibits in all the national territory the issue of new concessions and those that were in proceeding they are left without effect, having the General Supervision and the regional supervisions of Mines and the National Service of Geology and Technician of Mines (Sergeotecmin) to fulfill this disposition”.
This prohibition is not, nevertheless, retroactive, reason why it will not be affected the concessions in present use.
“All the mining industrialists who now have adjudged concessions and that are working, maintain all their rights”, explained Mariobo vice-minister, who said that the decree gives legal security to the companies that have right preconstituted in the mining operation in the country.
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Tax subject
In average, the Bolivian State catches between the 2 to 3 percents of the mining rent, situation that will stay unalterable until the tributary regime in present use is modified.
In the next weeks the cabinet of ministers will analyze a law project that elaborates the Ministry of Mining to elevate the tributary participation of the State, that later will be sent to consideration of the Congress.
....
Until now, the people or companies interested in the mining activity made a request to Sergeotecmin, and if the asked for area were not occupied, was given it in exchange for the payment of a patent. Now a contract with the Comibol will be necessary, once the fiscal reserve by means of express supreme decree rises.
The minister informed that this legal disposition will be complemented with a law project that modifies articulated of the Code of Mining (Law 1777) so that the holders of the concession maintain this right not only with the payment of the patent, but that also will have to credit that there is works of exploration and/or operation.
In the Ministry of Mining esteem that the 70 percent of the mining concessions is in quality of idle, reason why would be reverted to the dominion of Comibol. State is the formal proprietor of the mining wealth of the country, the millionaire gains will continue going to stop to the pocket of a handful of transnational companies and a ten of great local industralists, who work with the same yield and force that the old mining spiral.
.......