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Resumen de The end is nigh: : A bleak future for Bolivian antimony

Myles McCormick

  • Producers foresee little prospect for continued antimony operations in a country that once was a major player in the industry, as regulations strangle business, writes Myles McCormick, IM Correspondent, from La Paz.

    "I want to say one word to you, just one word," a neighbour, eager to advise, tells the protagonist in the opening scenes of the 1967 classic, The Graduate. "Are you listening? Plastics. There's a great future in plastics." The now-famous line proved prescient. The market for plastics boomed in the latter part of the twentieth century, and with it, demand for antimony trioxide, used to fireproof it.

    Producing countries reaped the rewards. Among them was Bolivia, one of the world's main sources of the compound. In the late 1980s the country mined one fifth of the world's antimony and was the leading producer among market economies.

    But today, producers in the landlocked South American state say laws and regulations are driving the industry into the ground. Current producers struggle to keep their heads above water as state requirements become ever more exacting. And would-be investors are looking elsewhere, rendering exploration non-existent.

    "In the 1980s things were good," says one major producer, preferring to remain anonymous*. But today the picture is very different. "There are a whole bunch of regulations that are killing the industry."


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