HONDURAS - The Honduran government has submitted its mining reform bill to the National Congress. The lower house will discuss the bill next week.
Before introducing the bill to congress, the government reached an agreement on the reform with the general mining law reform civil association and ANMH, Honduras' national mining association. "I believe the debate will last one day because there is consensus already and further discussions are unlikely," said ANMH president Gabino Carvajal.
The general mining law reform civil association was created in September 2004 to prepare the reform bills. The group has submitted a series of proposals on the legislation. Other entities that took part in the mining law reform bill were the Catholic Church and additional sector associations.
Carvajal said participants agreed to include in the bill stricter environmental control and language making resident participation compulsory before starting a mining project.
The national government has reported the reform law would clear the way for production of mining resources like silver, lead and zinc plus gold and, to a lesser extent, antimony, iron, copper, tin and coal.
"This sector [mining] has the potential to account for US$200 million in the national economy in a relatively short time and could become the third largest foreign exchange generation sector after manufacturing and the shrimp industry," the government said.
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