Composition of the organization

Type of mine: Hard rock, underground mine
Production: approx. 432 metric tons processed monthly
2.5 Kg of gold, with a purity of 92.91 %

Cotapata Mine

Background
The cooperative was founded on June 15th, 1991. Before its foundation the cooperative was already working but not in an organized manner.

Umbrella organization, association or trade union the organization is affiliated to.
The Cooperative is affiliated to the Federation of Mining Cooperatives of La Paz FEDECOMIN La Paz and to the entity that joins all Bolivian federations, FENCOMIN.

Member and volunteers (workers) rights
All are entitled to receive a salary every fortnight and they are ensured for a value of USD 5.000 in case of accident or death. Both men and women have the same rights and obligations in following strictly the cooperative principles.

Payment to the workers
The payment to the workers is related to the production of the mine. For the workers there is a fixed salary every fortnight. The worker monthly earns Bs. 1.500 (USD 200 approx.).  The legal minimum wage in Bolivia is Bs. 577.50 (about USD 80).

Families depending directly or inderectly from the organization’s activities
There are 88 families of miners and workers of which many are living in La Paz. There is no use of child labour.

Benefits the organization brings to the mining communities
Cotapata is a permanently occupied mining camp. There are shifts of workers every fortnight, but several cooperative members permanently stay to coordinate, oversee and manage the operation. They use the waste of the milling and processing (lama) for promoting sports (soccer). They maintain a relation of respect and interchange with the Chairo community, which is located downstream on the river. They have made donations for the school and other things. When problems occur, they enter into dialogue with Chairo for positive coordination.

Mineral rights
The cooperative has the property rights as well as an operational licence and an environmental licence or working inside the park. The property is owned by the cooperative, which is paying the mineral rights for the concession.

Taxation
The cooperative pays for the annual mineral rights to the Bolivian State. Since they sell through intermediaries, these discount from the payment to the cooperative the tax and other deductions, according to the purity of the gold and calculated on the gross (raw) value.

Main needs

1. To improve the mineral output, since the use of mercury does not give a 100% output of the mineral.  Part of the fine gold is lost. 
2. To improve the housing conditions of the camp and the state of the access road.
3. To build a deposit for tailings. 

Commercialisation:
The sales are done by the cooperative directly to a buyer in La Paz, who refines and exports. This buyer deducts the refining costs from the price to the cooperative. The mineral is sold to a trading house.

Transport
The members of the cooperative, after the “rise” (the day the cooperative members weigh all produced material), transport the gold to the intermediary and get paid according to the quantity delivered.

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

Environmental
The mineral produced by the cooperatives in the area is fine gold. For a high yield it is necessary to use mercury and until now there is no alternative technology that is more effective and less contaminating. Cotapata only applies mercury to concentrated mineral, and with a retort in a closed circuit. The main challenge is to stop the tailings to flow into the river by building a small deposit for the tailings.  The removed layer of soil is rich in pyrites for which reason it is sold to a Peruvian who exports it.  There is no acid drainage in the rock of the removed layer.

Retort for mercury recuperation

Social
Better payment to our workers;
Improve housing conditions of the mining camp,
Improve access road to the mine.
It would be important to have a small health centre in the camp.

Economic
The cooperative does not have a proper bookkeeping system in place. The cooperative does not have investment possibilities; there is no incentive for making technology investments.

Labour issues
To improve the security and pension for the workers;
To improve mechanisation to make the work physically less demanding.

Commercialisation
They would like to receive a better price for the gold they produce

Formal matters
They do not issue invoices. There is no mining cooperative in Bolivia that does. The government is promoting to formalise the commercialisation.

Differentiation
The cooperative is working inside a national park that is an ecological reserve with a high biodiversity.  The cooperative is considered to work responsibly towards the environment since it is granted the environmental license by the State.  The cooperative Cotapata was and is a model cooperative because of the level of organization. It is one of the few gold producing cooperatives that work with labour security and a closed mercury circuit.