QUITO, (IPS) - A solution to the ongoing confrontations between mining companies and rural communities in Ecuador is likely to be left up to the constituent assembly that will begin to rewrite the country’s constitution in October.

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa told IPS that he is afraid that violent incidents could break out if the country’s mining laws are not modified.
There have already been problems in the past. In December 2006, violent clashes broke out between residents of the village of Intag, 200 km from Quito, and security guards hired by the Ascendant Copper Corporation, when the locals were protesting the company’s activities.
The government of Alfredo Palacio (2005 - January 2007) ordered the Canadian company to suspend its mining exploration activities, and the order has been upheld by the Correa administration, which took office Jan. 15.
Correa said the concessions for large-scale mining operations in the country have had extremely negative effects on local communities, which were not previously consulted as established by the constitution, and on the state, which receives no royalties in most cases.
Ecuador’s mining industry produces copper, gold, lead, silver, zinc, common clay, kaolin, feldspar, crude gypsum and silica.
Although mining activities have been, or are about to be, brought to a halt in the most conflict-ridden areas, most of the concessions have not yet been reviewed by the government due to legal obstacles.
The National Coordinator for the Defense of Life and Sovereignty, which groups social organizations formed by local residents in communities affected by mining, is calling for all foreign mining corporations to pull out of the country.