Ecuador Country Commercial Guide
Learn about the market conditions, opportunities, regulations, and business conditions in ecuador, prepared by at U.S. Embassies worldwide by Commerce Department, State Department and other U.S. agencies’ professionals
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Mining
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Overview

Ecuador enjoys excellent mineral resources on par with its neighbors Peru, Colombia, and Chile. Its most valuable mineral exports are gold, copper, and silver. Ecuador’s mining sector generated annual exports of $3.3 million in 2023, and $3 million in 2024 (8.9 percent of the country’s total exports). The country’s electricity crisis negatively impacted mining exports in 2024.  Prospective mining industry investors await a plan from the Ecuadorian government to resolve the many socio-political and investment climate challenges creating uncertainty in the industry. The Noboa administration announced plans to develop a new strategic mining plan by the end of 2025. 

The mining sector created 55,000 direct jobs in 2023 and contributed $1 billion in taxes and royalties to the Ecuadorian government in 2024 (the fifth-largest sector in terms of tax revenues, representing five percent of total tax collections in the country). Ecuador’s Mining Chamber expects mining exports will reach $4 billion in 2025. Ecuador has two operating large-scale mines – a gold mine operated by a Canadian company with a U.S. minority investment, and a copper mine operated by a Chinese company. Major mining projects currently in various stages of development (Cascabel, Warintza, San Carlos, Cangrejos, Mirador II, Loma Larga, Curipamba, and La Plata) could provide more than $14 billion in capital investments in the coming years. In the medium term, the Noboa administration plans to promote local gold refining.

The Ecuadorian mining sector is hampered by ongoing social tensions, security challenges, illegal mining operations, and judicial and regulatory obstacles to legal mining. In 2024, the government did not issue any new mining concessions.  Ecuador closed its mining cadastre (official register) in 2018, and previous administrations made unsuccessful efforts to reopen the cadastre. In July 2023, Ecuador’s state-owned mining company, ENAMI EP, leveraged a loophole to get a concession and enter into a commercial agreement with private companies despite the closed cadastre, setting a precedent for ENAMI EP to continue requesting mining concessions. Moreover, ENAMI EP’s potential business partners may develop mining projects with the subsequent assignment and transfer of rights over mining concessions. 

The Noboa administration announced plans to reopen the cadastre in 2025, with a complete re-opening scheduled by December 2025. As a first step, Ecuador reopened the cadastre for small, non-metallic mining operations in June 2025. The next phase in the plan will reopen the cadastre by September 2025 for small, metallic mining operations.

Nationwide Indigenous-led protests in 2022 targeted mining in addition to other key sectors and policies. Protesters shut down several mining operations demanding the government conduct constitutionally mandated community consultations prior to granting new concessions. Bills governing environmental consultation and prior consultation remain under debate in the National Assembly. While these bills remain under legislative considerations, companies must perform environmental consultations and prior consultations through Presidential executive orders and manuals drafted by the Energy Ministry.  Ecuador’s Constitutional Court affirmed communities have the right to vote on whether to allow large-scale mining projects near their water sources in a 2020 ruling on a plebiscite proposed by the Cuenca municipality. This is also under debate in the National Assembly.

Illegal mining continues to be a principal threat to expanding legal mining operations and investment. Illegal miners constantly undertake violent attacks on legal mining concessions throughout Ecuador, and the Ecuadorian government lacks sufficient security resources and funding to protect legal mining concessions and effectively pursue consequences for illegal mining.  Illegal mining hotspots are concentrated in six Ecuadorian provinces – Azuay, Morona Santiago, El Oro (Zaruma-Portovelo), Zamora Chinchipe, Imbabura, and Esmeraldas. The Noboa administration has made combating illegal mining a priority.  It has proposed a new tax on the mining sector aimed at financing government initiatives to combat illegal mining (e.g., monitoring compliance with the mining sector’s obligations). The tax would be a variable fee, with different rates applicable to small-, medium-, and large-scale mining operations. The government expects to collect $229 million to support this effort.  Nevertheless, companies should consider investing in private security resources. 

Leading Sub-sectors  

  • Mineral exploration, including related equipment (e.g., geophysics, mapping, and tunneling equipment)

  • Production equipment for drilling, extraction, loading, hauling, and crushing

  • Mining software for resource estimation, modeling, mine design, and optimization

  • Mine safety equipment

  • Professional, consulting, and technical services (e.g., surveying, mapping, design, testing, engineering, and processing)

Opportunities

Mining continues to be one of Ecuador’s largest and fastest growing sectors.  Six new mining projects could start construction in the next four years. Higher gold and copper prices, combined with increased year-on-year production, have boosted the mining sector’s recent growth. 

Resources