And later a single gold company will be created; this is important for the economic development of the State.

At this moment we do not have any state company engaged in gold, he affirmed in a press conference. Quispe assured that the objective is to strengthen the country’s Net International Reserves (NIR) and generate foreign currency.

He informed that the Mining Corporation of Bolivia (Comibol), the Geological Mining Service (Sergeomin) and his portfolio are promoting the policy of processing and purchasing this mineral.

He recalled that in 2009 Comibol started buying gold from an agency in the municipality of El Alto and there were also others in San Ramón (Santa Cruz) and Riberalta (Beni).

However, he stressed that once there were government changes in 2019-2020, these branches were paralyzed, and again they are being promoted now.

He indicated that, a few days ago, the San Ramón agency was reopened and, according to the information available, in nine days, until last Saturday, they had already purchased 2.3 kilograms of gold.

He said that this is a long-term project that foresees the location of the state-owned companies on the Madre de Dios and Beni rivers.

He added that a project to be developed in the Beni river is in its final phase and is in charge of Sergeomin.

According to the Minister, it is necessary to carry out technical exploration work in order to subsequently achieve a better exploitation.

In relation to the sale, he confessed that at present the cooperatives commercialize 80 percent of the gold that the BCB buys, the one supplied by private companies is equivalent to nine percent and the State produces only two percentage points.

A BCB report published this December 6 confirmed that NIR decreased at the end of August to US$2.147 billion, considered the lowest level in the last 17 years.

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