05/22/2008
LA favorite for investment in mineral exploration


Lima .- Latin America remains favourite for investment in mineral exploration worldwide gold and a resource attractive with a large number of ongoing projects, said on Friday, executives and experts.

The region received last year by 24 percent from a record 10,000 billion dollars of worldwide investment in mineral exploration. It was followed by Canada with 19 percent, Africa with 16 percent, Australia with 12 percent and the United States with 8 percent, according to the consultant Metals Economic Group.

"It is very likely to maintain these levels of investment in the world and in the regions for this year and next," he told journalists the director general of the Mining Chamber of Mexico, Sergio Almazan, an international symposium to be gold performed in Lima.

In global investment in exploration, 42 percent were searching for gold, which, according to analysts and executives more conservative in the event, its price will rise above the 1,200 dollars an ounce this year, after recording its highest ever level the 17 March 1030 U.S. dollars an ounce.

The gold goes up by a combination of factors including the weak dollar, record oil prices, inflation uphill and supply of precious metal close.

"Americas America has been growing over the past 10 years and is leading in terms of interest to attract mining investment because of its geology very interesting to find large deposits of minerals," said Almazan.

The attraction is because only a small area in the region has been the target of exploration, which has encouraged companies from China, the largest applicant minerals in the world, to reach Latin America in search of raw materials.

Only in South America, where there is a geological cord on the Pacific coast and other banks in Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela, there were 266 reservoirs with a total of 545 million ounces of reserves as estimated, according to Metals Economic Group. Of that number, Peru leads with 79 gold deposits, followed by Brazil with 46, with 29 Chile, Venezuela and Ecuador with 25 each and Argentina with 23, according to the consultant.

"The geological potential is not a say, is a reality. In all cases, the three major countries that have mentioned (Peru, Mexico and Chile), discoveries that today are under way, dealing not beyond 1 percent its territory, "said the president of the Peruvian National Society of Mining, Petroleum and Energy, Ysaac Cruz.

The largest gold reserves in the region belong to the signing Yanacocha in Peru with 46 million ounces, followed by Las Cristinas in Venezuela with 44 million ounces and Pascua-Lama in Argentina with 22 million ounces. The vice president of the Chilean National Society of Mining, Alberto Salas, said that legal certainty is vital to attract investment. Chile, with a long strip in southern Pacific coast, is the world's largest producer of copper.

"The key to mining investment in Chile is the great potential of the country and the second is legal certainty for mining activity. Investments in mining are at risk and long-term stability is needed," said Chambers.