Uyuni commission readies concessions probe

The Bolivian government's Uyuni salt flat commission known as Ciresu says results of investigations to define steps to be taken to sell off mining rights to the deposits will be handed in within three weeks, a mining department official told BNamericas. "There are many aspects to be investigated, such as the process of returning the concessions to state control," said the official, Juan Garcia, director of mining and the department's representative on the Ciresu commission. Ciresu currently has two committees analyzing legal and technical aspects that could lead to the revoking of concession rights in the Salar de Uyuni, in southern Bolivia. Garcia said that preliminary information implying that the government would cancel some of the concessions awarded "arose from the interest of certain institutions, in the issue, but it is Ciresu that will have to carry out the official review." The committees are evaluating the situation and "it is very premature to start making official comments on it. We will have to wait for the judicial and technical report," he said. Once these reports have been handed in, the Ciresu board will review them and issue its official findings. Uyuni has a surface area of 10,000 sq. km, making it the world's largest evaporated salt lake and is considered one of the world's richest deposits of certain industrial minerals such as lithium, borates and sulfur.