Dan Carriere, Senior Vice-President, Corriente Resources says “recent comments on the Web attributed to former Ecuador Mines and Energy Minister Alberto Acosta (who is now a private citizen) have been recently and widely circulated in the mining investing community. I feel that the excerpts below from an Ecuadorian media interview which took place last week in Quito with the current Minister of Mining and Petroleum, Gallo Chiriboga, more accurately reflect the tone and content of the Ecuador Mining Ministry’s communications and discussions that we have had over the last two months.”

Question – Is the purpose of mining reforms the nationalization of the mining sector? “The mining sector, the mines, the gas, all the resources that are under the land belong to the Ecuadorian state so there is no need to nationalize anything.  The Constitution states that the resources already belong to the nation, what we have to do is to regulate the exploitation of the resources that are there.”

Question – If the Ecuadorian mining potential is proved, would you lead the country into a mining exploitation phase? “I believe so. As long as this mining era is responsible, socially and environmentally, of course I would.”

The Minister’s final comments at the end of the interview: “When I was the president for Petro Ecuador I demonstrated that one is able to manage a company of the dimensions of Petroecuador with good sense and I believe that I showed very good management.  The country has recognized it and I think that with the theme of mining we are also following the same path and I say: Mining is possible to do, believe me we are going to do it and we are going to do it well.”