“Bella Rica Mining Group”


Grupo Minero Bella Rica (Machala)
Bella Rica Cooperative

Located in the Sub Andean foothills the Western mountain range at Km.  48 of the pan-American highway from Machala to Guayaquil, jurisdiction of the Azuay Province toward the east of the Ponce Enríquez Canton, Ecuador.

Composition of the organization: The cooperative “Bella Rica Mining Group” consists of 141 associates, of which 118 are men and 33 are women, organized in 56 mining groups

The mining company “Bella Rica Mining Group” has 15 workers, 14 men and one woman. It has a mine and a processing plant that carries out services for third parties

Type of mine: poly-metallic streak, generally in tunnels. Streak reaches up to 10 cm.

Production: Mining group Bella Rica processes approximately 450 metric tons monthly and produces approximately 5.5 Kg. of gold annually, with a 75 legal purity.

 Background
The cooperative gold mine Bella Rica starts in 1983 with 140 associates because of the need to organize for informal miners.  The main objective for organizing in the Cooperative was to obtain the mineral rights and the legalize the work in front of the State, which was achieved on May 2nd, 1992, with an extension of approximately  1433 hectares, corresponding to the mining areas Bella Rica y Guanache - Tres de mayo together. 

The mining company “Bella Rica Mining Group” was created in 1998, with 8 associates. Actually it consists of 3 associates.

To what umbrella organization, association or trade union, the organization is affiliated?
The Cooperative Bella Rica is affiliated to the Dirección Nacional de Cooperativas del Ecuador.

Associates’ rights
The main right of the associates is to obtain a permit to engage in exploration and exploitation, activities and mineral processing within the two mining concessions of the cooperative (Tres de Mayo of 50 Hectares and Bella Rica of 1,350 Hectares).

Payment to workers
The main part of the workers has temporary contracts of one to three months with exception of the personnel in administration. Moreover, there is no social security system due to the fact that the work is temporary.

Families depending directly or indirectly from the organization
15 families depend directly or indirectly from the artisanal mining (jancheras) and the persons that supply inputs and food. Approximately 300 families of small miners in the mining region of Bella Rica, Ponce Enríquez, live from the activity of the organization
 
Benefits the organization brings to the mining communities
The company “Bella Rica Miner Group” directly support the school Teniente Ledesma in the village of Bellavista. The support consists of a donation of computers and school  equipment  

Mineral rights
The Mining Cooperative Bella Rica owns the mineral rights.

Processing technology
For extracting the gold contents from the rock, the material is crushed in a jaw crusher and afterwards a transport band brings it to the Chilean mill that grinds it into the useful mineral, with a size of approximately 20 micros, from where the raw gold is extracted using a process of gravitational acceleration with gutters and for the extraction of fine gold the process of batch leaching by agitation is used.

This method consists in mixing the sand coming from the mill with a solution of sodium cyanide, in mechanic agitators (batch) with a capacity of 6 to 14 metric tons. Once the time has passed that is needed to dissolve the mineral gold, one proceeds to the adsorption of the mineral for which the method of carbon in pulp is used, which consist in adding the mentioned carbon to the tanks where the pulp is, thus achieving the gold mineral to be adsorbed in the carbon micro pores. Afterwards the activated carbon has to be removed from the pulp, for which a rotating sieve is used.

Foto Edison, Elizabeth y Alicia: Pilot Project Coordinators

Contract with the owner
Mining group BELLA RICA, like other companies, contributes to the Cooperative the value of USD 6,000 annually, which the Cooperative uses for administration costs, patents, environmental recovery activities, education, health.

Tributary Issue
The Bella Rica Cooperative pays income tax, payment of patents. And every company makes their own corresponding tax payments.

Main needs in technology and productivity
There is need to adopt less polluting technologies of exploitation, processing, melting and refining of gold, that at the same time are compatible with the social, cultural and economic conditions:

  1. Control of waste water
  2. Accumulation of tailings

Commercialization
Every associate is free to sell the gold individually and there are two ways depending the size of production:

-The metal is sold in form of doré or in fine gold to local buyers. The buyers pay the value per gram according to the ounce price in the international market, discounting 1 to 5% for impurities and commercialization costs.

The positive thing about local buyers is that they give credit to be able to realize the mining work or they give guarantees or act as reference when machinery has to be bought. The downside is the slow rise of prices of gold in relation with the international prices, due to the fact that the buyers build in a safety margin in value and time. 

Refining the metal
The doré is not refined and the fine gold either. Consequently, there is no transport to the refinery nor any cost for that activity.

Main challenges faced in order to comply with the minimum requirements for the Standard Zero.

Environmental

  1. To diminish gradually the flow into the rivers of waste water with higher cyanide concentrations than the permitted. 
  2. To implement processing systems for effluents of the reservoirs of tailings to diminish the concentration of solids in the discharged effluents. 
  3. To train the users of the plant in controlling the process of cyanidation.
  4. To train the personnel in management and use of reagents.  

Labour issues

  1. Labour regulation for the foreigners that work in the sector.  There is a significant number of foreign temporary workers. 
  2. To increase the proportion of national workers as well as to increase the duration of labor periods for the foreign workers, once labor is regulated

Administration

  1. To determine completely the commercial chain of gold of the zone. 
  2. To define a mechanism allowing the refining of the gold in the zone with the aim to export directly. 
  3. To define the main requirements to be able market the gold without intermediaries

Differentiation
Mining group “Bella Rica” characterises itself by managing each of the impacts it generates in the mining activity, introducing the concept of social responsibility as a policy of quality in the organization.

The aim is to integrate each and every: workers, associates, clients, suppliers, environment and community , in order to offer them always the best service and treatment.

For this reason, the slogan of the Mining Group  “Bella Rica” is:
“GRUPO MINERO BELLA RICA, TOWARDS A SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE MINING”

Tailings reservoir