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BOLIVIA was developed with local cooperatives and COMIBOL; it employs more than 300 people, according to a company statement, while contributing $22 million to the local economy. Most significantly, in 2011, the Idahobased company received public assurances, widely reported in the media, that Bolivia���s second-largest silver producer would not be nationalized, so long as Morales was president. Under a 1990s deal with COMIBOL, Canada���s Pan American Silver likewise runs the San Vicente project with less controversy, producing more than 3 million oz of silver in 2012. The same has been true of Canadian miner Apogee Silver Ltd. with its Pulacayo-Paca project and The China National Gold Group. Vancouver���s New World Resources Corp. similarly enjoys a ���positive��� relationship with COMIBOL, in a 60:40 joint venture with its Lipe��a-Bonete coppergold concession in southwest Bolivia while successfully navigating a ���difficult political environment,��� said CEO John Lando. But the Vancouver-based company���s Bolivia presence, he added in a statement, differs from other foreign companies, hav- www.e-mj.com ing partnered with a ���successful��� private Bolivian mining company, Empresa Minera Marte S.R.L. And while New World Resources ���looks forward to the future development work by our partner at the Lipe��a copper-gold project, the company is currently focused on acquiring new projects in jurisdictions with clear mining codes, and long standing track records of respecting investment,��� Lando said. Although Bolivian resource nationalization is a highly erratic enterprise, note analysts, the outcomes are usually the same. ���Jindal was not actually nationalized like Sinchi Wayra and Malku Khota (which were) struggling with outbursts of violence from indigenous groups that wanted the state to take part,��� Bernardo Prado, a La Paz mining consultant told The Financial Times. ���But in the three cases the government���s hardline position did not help and now they are all in the hands of COMIBOL.��� None of this seems to have deterred South Korea���s state-owned Kores, which discovered some $8 billion in silver, copper and indium reserves, COMIBOL officials have reported. Future, Past and Present Kores officials announced that COMIBOL will have 50% ownership in a joint venture, followed by construction of the country���s first lithium plant. Bolivia is estimated to have more lithium than any other country on earth. But the Fraser Institute, a Canadian think tank, still ranks Morales��� Bolivia third from the bottom in a survey of 65 countries in foreign mining industry appeal and 57th for security investment; only Venezuela and Zimbabwe were lower. Frustrated foreign mining companies are now learning the hard way how poor Bolivia���s past���despite being one of the planet���s most mineral-wealthy countries��� keeps colliding recklessly with attitudes about its future. Bolivia, for one thing, wasn���t always a landlocked nation: Through the departure of Spain���s conquistadores and 1809 independence, the country lost significant chunks of land through wars with neighboring Chile, Paraguay and Brazil. In the end, a local saying may sum it up best. ���Good comes from far away,��� according to a historic Bolivian proverb, ���evil is close at hand.��� APRIL 2013 ��� E&MJ; 103