RE:Panama...some more DDhttps://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/country/1999/9517099.pdf
It was only in 1997, after many years of relatively low output,
Nicaragua’s gold production seemed ready to accelerate toward
higher levels; Nicaragua had been the world’s 14th or 15th
largest gold producer in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Even so, mineral
production in 1999 accounted for only a fraction of 1% of the
country’s GDP.
Corporacion Nicaraguense de Minas (INMINE) was
established in 1979 to nationalize, administer, direct, and
promote the country’s mining industry and to control permits
and licenses for mining concessions. Since 1990, the
Government of Nicaragua has devoted increasing attention to
modernizing its legal framework. All metallic and nonmetallic
resources are the property of the State. The mining law of 1996
was to bring the awarding of concessions and the tax structure
into closer accord with practice in much of the rest of the
western world. Changes were made to this law in 1997 that
would lift the ban on all new natural resource concessions,
except for those in forestry, which were to be dealt with later.
Besides encouraging the formation and investment of private
capital, the 1996 law was simplified in the context of current
mining technology. Environmental remediation is a growing
priority, given that past mining operations had a poor history of
responsibility in Nicaragua. Concession holders are required to
maintain environmental standards and to restore any
environmental damage. In rural areas, the social and economic
value of small-scale miners, or guiriseros, was recognized, and
they were given legal access to resources, mainly gold (Mining
Journal, 1996, p. 4).
INMINE operated several small gold and silver mines mostly
in sparsely populated areas in the northwest and primarily for
export, which was controlled by the Central Bank of Nicaragua.
Most output of bentonite, gypsum, and lime was also exported.
Other industrial minerals, such as cement, salt, and sand and
gravel, were consumed domestically (table 1).
Mining in Nicaragua has great potential for expansion. The
Government planned to revive the industry with financial and
technical aid from abroad, but recovery from the effect of
Hurricane Mitch would probably be a higher priority in terms of
remediation and reconstruction.