April 8th 2015
Yesterday, representatives from major mining cooperatives and the public sector in Bolivia met in the city of La Paz on the premises of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), to address main issues in the small-scale gold mining sector. Under the framework of Bolivia’s new mining law, the main topics examined included: funding for investment in technologies, miner-State interactions, and occupational health and safety in the sector.
The meeting was characterized by a mutual willingness to engage in open dialogue in order to come up with joint recommendations. Participants stressed the importance of strengthening the sector through adequate assistance and capacity-building processes regarding technical and administrative aspects for cooperatives. Miners emphasized the need to promote the development of funding mechanisms as well as the need of making these mechanisms more flexible. The necessity to implement programs that help improve health and safety in the sector was also highlighted.
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