The Province of Catamarca Created its State-Owned Mining Company

On January 12, 2012, the Legislative Body of the Province of Catamarca passed Law 5354 creating Catamarca Minera y Energética Sociedad del Estado (a state-owned mining company —CAMYEN SE), with the object of promoting the development of Catamarca’s mining activity.

According to its by-laws, CAMYEN may hold mining rights, performing on its own or associated with others the following activities, among others:

1. Mining investigation, prospection and exploration;
2. Exploitation of minerals from deposits it may discover, or from those that it may own or that it is hired to exploit;
3. Technological investigation related to smelting and industrialization of minerals of any kind, mineral and thermal waters;
4. Installation and exploitation of smelting and industrialization facilities for mineral substances of any kind, including the processes of crushing, grinding, smelting, pelletizing, sintering, briquetting, roasting, refining, sawing, polishing, and others that may derive from new technologies, and the disposal of any kind of waste;
5. Trading of mineral substances, whether in its natural state or after smelting or industrialization;
6. Exploration, prospection, exploitation, transport, industrialization and trading of solid, liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons.

Regarding association agreements, the law provides that if CAMYEN hires third parties to perform exploration works within its deposits, it may agree to give as payment mineral exploitation rights for a limited time, which under no circumstances may be lower than 6% of the mineral extracted at pit-hole value.

CAMYEN’s by-laws also contain the following restriction: it may not give exploitation rights on mining surfaces larger than the surface needed for rational exploitation, considering the investments made, to third parties hired by CAMYEN.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that the provincial Executive Branch will designate the three members of CAMYEN’s Board of Directors, who will be in charge of directing and managing the company.