PUEMBO, Ecuador, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Ecuador plans to impose 
new mining royalties on private companies working in the 
country on a "case by case" basis, Oil and Mining Minister Galo Chiriboga said on Wednesday.  Today he clarified that position indicating that he meant he was referring to industry by industry not company by company. 
    Ecuador previously had said it wanted to begin charging 
royalties in the mining sector, details of the government's 
proposal will be laid out in a draft proposal in December.  He did indicate however, that it will be in line with Chile and Peru (which is in the 3%-5% range).
    President Raffael Correa was out of the country at the time and unable to confirm or deny the minister's comments.    
    Chiriboga said the government was working on a proposal to 
set mining regulations in the new constitution, which will be 
debated by a popular assembly this year. He said officials also planned to reform the current mining law. 
    Companies currently pay an annual ownership fee to the 
government. 
    Ecuador still has no major mining output for precious 
metals, but Canadian companies such as Corriente Resources 
<CTQ.TO><ETQ.A>, Iamgold Corp <IMG.T0> and Aurelian Resources 
<ARU.TO> are exploring for gold and copper. 
 (Reporting by Alonso Soto in Quito, writing by Patrick Markey 
in Bogota; editing by Walter Bagley)