RE: What about this?Good counterargument to the hysteria we saw today. Apex also released comments to the same effect from Villaroel (I believe) in their NR today.
This has been my understanding for awhile, that Bolivia is interested in nationalizing the oil & gas assets but not the metals. Why this might be the case I don't know, why the distinction? Anybody's guess.
The Bolivian government seems to be 'expecting/recommending?' that mining companies employ locals, they've also been asking APE (as an example) 'how can we make things easier for you in Bolivia.' Thus far they have not gone much further.
I'm cautiously optimistic that this is an overreaction to a leader using nationalist rhetoric on a national labour holiday to rally his countrymen and give the 'West' (read: capitalists) a slap on the wrist.
Can he really drive away all foreign resource investment? Bolivia is not a rich country, a very large portion of their GDP comes from foreign driven resource production. If he kicked them all out then all those people he made so happy today will be pretty unhappy in a few months.
Also, I have faith in management that they carefully weighed the risks before deciding on Bolivia and they came out feeling good. Granted, an extreme leftist government can throw you a curveball every now and again.
I feel calm will return and we'll be moving up again when the dust settles. I can't get past the potential of these properties, it'll take alot to move me out.
Opa.