Proyecto Ley Minera

TITLE I
GENERAL DISPOSITIONS

CHAPTER I
OBJECT, SCOPE AND LEGAL EXCLUSIONS

Article 1 (OBJECT)
The object of the present Law is to establish a regime for the sustainable exploitation of mineral resources in the framework of the mining policy oriented to the “vivir bien” of the men and women of Bolivia, the institutional structure, the roles and attributions of the State and of autarquicentities of the mining sector; and the structure, attributions and procedures of the mining jurisdiction.

Article 2 (SCOPE)
The current law encompasses all mining activities on mineral resources located underground or on the surface of the national territory, whatever its origin.

Article 3 (EXCLUSIONS)

I. The aggregates or granulated stony materials destined to construction, whicheverits origin, unless contemplated in Article 37 of this normative body, are outside the scope of the present Law; its administration, regulation and exploitation are under the respective Municipal Government.

II. Also excluded from the provisions of the present Law are medicinal mining waters, regulated by their own norms.

CHAPTER II
PRINCIPLES OF THE MINING LAW

Article 4 (PRINCIPLES)Principles of the Mining Law are:

a) Juridical Security: The objective application of the Political Constitution of the State and of the Law, in a way that the persons, knowing their rights, guarantees and obligations, have certainty and foreknowledge of the nets of the mining administration.

b) Guarantee of the right to exploit: The State acknowledges, respects and grants miningrights for the exploitation of mineral resources.

c) Guarantee of rights to invest and work: The mining rights comprised in the investments and the development work of prospection, exploration, exploitation, concentration, industrialization and commercialization of minerals and metals are the domain of its titleholders.

d) Equal opportunities and guarantees: The plural economyof the mining –metallurgical sector is expressed in equal opportunities and guarantees for all productive stakeholders, taking their peculiarities into account.

e) Labor and Social Rights: All mining activities carried out in our territory must guarantee the labor and social rights of mining workers: which prohibit the servile regime, child labor and gender-based labor discrimination.f) Industrial Security: All mining activities shall be subject to industrial security norms in force.

g) Protection of the Environment The mining activities of the entire productive chain shall be regulated by environmental protection norms.

h) Distribution of Economic Resources: The economic surpluses generated in the mining activity shall benefit the Bolivian people,giving priority to the places where these are to be found.

i) Prospection and Exploration Priority: The mining policy of the Plurinational State benefits all prospection and mining exploration activities, whether State or private, as an indispensable means to expand the mining frontier of our territory.

j) Strategic nature of the industrialization. The industrialization of mineralresources is of strategic nature for the country and thus will receive the greatest impulse for its development.

k) Priority of Technological Development: Technological development and that of information are high for the qualitative and quantitative change in the mining and metallurgy of the country.

l) Optimization of social capital: The social capital, understood as the set of capacitiesof the Bolivian people to generate joint work, collective action and social networks for collaboration, will be empowered for its utilization in the development of mining activities.

CHAPTER III
FUNDAMENTAL DISPOSITIONS

Article 5 (DOMINION AND PROPRIETARY RIGHTS)
The mineral resources existing underground or on the surface of the territory of the Plurinational State are the direct...