Bolivia targets idle mining concessions

La Paz (Bolivia), Sep 20 (IANS/EFE) In a measure aimed at recovering control of idle, privately held land, Bolivia has enacted a law which allows the state to revoke mining concessions without paying compensation, President Evo Morales has said.

The new law is aimed at recovering those concessions in which no investments were ever made, according to Morales, who said some of the properties were "idle or unproductive".

The government is obligated, however, to "respect" those concession holders who have made investments, he added.

The "fatherland was being given away" under the previous legislation, since mining concessions functioned like real estate and were heritable and mortgageable.

The Bolivian government said with the latest measure, enacted Wednesday, it expected to recover more than one million hectares (3,860 sq. miles) of land and 70 percent of the country's 2,454 private mining concessions.

--IANS/EFE

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