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Mineral Rights?

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Vortice
  7/19/2016 20:06 EST

When one buys a property in Uy, are the mineral rights included, or are they owned by the government?

focus
  7/20/2016 10:15 EST

They are owned by the government. You can get prospecting permits from DINAMIGE, La Dirección Nacional de Minería y Geología. They do an english version of their site: http://www.dinamige.gub.uy/tramites-y-servicios/mineria

Cheers

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EdNewYorkCity
  7/20/2016 11:01 EST

According to the Code of Uruguayan Mining, the subsoil belongs to the State and if there is a claim of mineral exploration, the owner is obliged to allow exploration and eventual mining, leaving a royalty of 2% for the state and 3% for the owner.

Vortice
  7/20/2016 19:33 EST

Thank you for the responses, It is interesting that this law is available in English as well, though not necessary as I have been reading through various esoteric Uy laws in Spanish for our new business venture.
This is NOT what I wanted to hear. We would have liked to purchase/own the mineral rights, specifically to prevent some company like Aritiri from decimating our chacra. This will likely be the last land we develop and I hate to think it could be relegated to an industrial zone, percentage paid or not.

crazyfarmer
  8/9/2016 23:49 EST

A couple years ago, we were told by a local in Lavalleja that a scary scenario could happen. Someone could come onto your land (trespassing), take a soil sample, and get it tested. Then if there's a potential to exploit the property, they can petition the appropriate government office to exploit the property for mining, even though they don't own it.

To avoid this, you have to do this yourself. When the government grants you the rights, you have 10 years to exploit the property for mining. At the end of 10 years, you have to assign the rights to someone else, like your wife or kids or something.

This is apparently the only way to protect yourself. This is here-say. So take it with a grain of salt. And this may be just a loophole in the law rather than something that's actually happened to someone.

In Canelones, this might not be an issue. Whereas in Lavalleja, you might want to look into it since that's where a lot of the mining operations are.

Vortice
  8/10/2016 00:08 EST

Thank you for the info. One concern I have is the potential exploitation of poor grade iron ore. My understanding is that the iron ore in the east part of the country is only half the concentration that is normally considered economically viable, but some concerns are still considering its exploitation. This would entail twice the mining for the same yield, a really huge devastation. Hopefully the economics will prevent this. This is an interesting strategy to protect ones land, if it is true, but the surrounding area might still be laid waste. I hope the government does not succumb to such environmental destruction as low coneat grazing land is at least sustainable long term. Once strip mined, the land is toast.

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crazyfarmer
  8/10/2016 00:42 EST

I wouldn't trust the coneat score either. Mine is 196. I have what looks like nice black soil. In reality, it's depleted, alkaline clay that can't grow anything but low quantities of grass. To give you an idea, an entire acre of my land couldn't support a single dairy cow in the winter when we had one.

The way things are going, i would expect Uruguay to sell out to whatever large corporation or get rich quick venture gets the government money, environment be-damned.

I heard that they were fraking here now. Has anyone else heard anything about that?

EdNewYorkCity
  8/10/2016 06:02 EST

Vortice
Fortunately there are a lot of people in Uruguay who think like you and would oppose the destructive nature of open pit mining.
I would venture to say that open pit mining is never going to happen in Uruguay due to the strong opposition.
Aratiri is now in the past and I hope stays there.

EdNewYorkCity
  8/11/2016 02:10 EST

Crazyfarmer
"I heard that they were fraking here now. Has anyone else heard anything about that? "

Don't worry, according to President Vazquez there won't be any fracking in Uruguay.

http://www.carasycaretas.com.uy/vazquez-aseguro-que-no-habra-fracking-en-uruguay/

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