Mining News

This Law approves the "Maipú Treaty" for the Integration and Cooperation between Argentina and Chile. The "Maipú Treaty" establishes the basis for cooperation between Argentina and Chile in, for example, the development of natural resources. 

The Decree establishes that individual and legal persons, public or private, developing mining or oil (natural gas or oil) exploration or exploitation activities, must provide all the information regarding oil wells and superficial water wells, injection wells, including the geo-referenced locations of the installations, geological, information, flow exploitation and water injection, water quality, loggings, relations between the main pipeline of the extraction installations and/or oil and water injection related to the water formations passing through, among others. Likewise, during the building process of mining and oil, exploration and/or exploitation wells, they must generate geological registries of water formations passing through, including the logs of said water formations. Furthermore, the persons affected by the Decree must: (i) file a water vulnerability study using a standard and internationally recognized method; (ii) build systems for the monitoring of surface water which may receive an impact, as a consequence of the activities being developed; (iii) provide the Water Authority with all the information regarding water mills and surface usage , located within the concession and/or permit areas that may potentially be used to monitor the resource, including the coordinates and the physical chemical characteristics of the waters; (iv) develop an environmental evaluation and diagnosis of secondary recovery projects and their associate facilities, with the purpose of identifying possible pollution risks of the relevant water levels, including detailed hydro-geological studies; and (v) respect and fulfill the technical conditions (of general or particular scope) established by the Ministry of Environment and Control of the Sustainable Development, destined to the preservation of the water resource. 

 

This resolution establishes that the days between 12/31/2009 and 02/01/2010 are not business days, and therefore the Court will remain closed. 

 

This Law creates the "Program for the Promotion and Development of the Regularized Employment" by which mining companies (developing exploration, beneficiation and exploitation of minerals) shall hire a minimum 80% of their personnel from people residing in the Province of La Rioja for at least 5 years. 

 

This resolution establishes that all field inspections under the command of the Mining Police Department, related to the location and determination of the exploitation conditions of quarries shall be limited to the coordinates of the area in question indicated in the request or "manifestación" of quarry filed by the interested party. 

See "The Governor of the Province of Santa Cruz enacted the Mining Zoning Law".