The race has officially begun! The campaign to support the proposed new Constitution drafted by the Government was kicked off last Saturday. The Government enlisted the support of about 100K Ecuadorians to launch its campaign for the YES. Rumor has it that some of the folks in attendance were promised not only a good time, but also some cash incentive to participate. On the other hand, the NO supporters have also launched their efforts through media campaign designed to highlight the risks of a YES and pinpoint why they feel that their country will be better off with the NO.
Some say that the YES is losing ground, but the road is still ahead and anything can happen between now and September 28th. This brings about questions about what will be the future of mining if the referendum gets a green light vs if it gets banned? The Government has announced that the new mining law will be approved shortly after the September 28th election. No matter what, this is a frenzied time for investors in Ecuador and I’m sure time cannot fly fast enough for them to find out what’s really going to happen. How will their investments fair to this crisis and what will happen to the thousands of workers they laid-off last May when the Mining Mandate took effect.
Tags: government, Mining Business, mining law
