Ecuador Reopens Mining Concession Registry After Seven-Year Freeze, Targets $4B in Annual Mining Exports

Ecuador Reopens Mining Concession Registry After Seven-Year Freeze

Ecuador's mining regulator ARCOM confirmed the reopening of the national mining concession registry, which had been frozen since January 2018 under former President Lenin Moreno's administration. The suspension, originally enacted as a temporary moratorium pending regulatory reform, persisted through the Lasso government and was only lifted under President Daniel Noboa's Executive Decree 273, which reformed key provisions of the Mining Code.

The reopening follows a phased rollout schedule designed to prioritise established operators and prevent a speculative rush:

Phased timeline

Phase	Date	Scope	Requirements
Phase 1	Q3 2025	Small-scale non-metallic concessions	Basic environmental plan, local permits
Phase 2	September 2025	Metallic concessions (small/medium)	2+ years mining experience, financial guarantees
Phase 3	January 2026	Full registry opening (all scales)	Complete technical/financial qualification

Applicants for metallic concessions must demonstrate a minimum of two years of mining industry experience -- a requirement ARCOM says is intended to filter out speculative applicants and shell companies that proliferated during the pre-2018 concession boom.

Major projects in the pipeline

The registry reopening coincides with the advancement of six large and medium-scale mining projects expected to break ground over the next four years:

Project	Company	Mineral	Province	Estimated Investment	Status
Cangrejos	CMOC (China)	Gold/Copper	El Oro	$2.5B	Feasibility complete
Cascabel (Phase 1)	SolGold (UK/Australia)	Copper/Gold	Imbabura	$3.2B	Pre-feasibility
Warintza	Solaris Resources (Canada)	Copper	Morona Santiago	$1.4B	PEA complete
Curipamba	Adventus Mining	Gold/Copper	Bolivar	$248M	Construction permit
Loma Larga	Dundee Precious Metals	Gold/Silver	Azuay	$312M	Environmental review
La Plata	Lumina Gold	Gold	Zamora-Chinchipe	$450M	Pre-feasibility

Collectively, these projects represent more than $8 billion in potential investment and could transform Ecuador into one of Latin America's top five mining jurisdictions by output.

Production and export trajectory

Ecuador's mining exports have grown rapidly, even without new concession issuance:

• 2022: $1.8 billion
• 2023: $2.5 billion
• 2024: $3.0+ billion (estimated)
• 2025-2026 target: $4.0 billion

Gold accounts for approximately 72% of mining export value, followed by copper concentrate at 18% and silver at 6%. The advancement of the copper-dominant Cascabel and Warintza projects is expected to shift this mix significantly by 2030.

Illegal mining challenge

The registry reopening comes amid an unprecedented expansion of illegal mining, which has now spread to 19 of Ecuador's 24 provinces, according to ARCOM enforcement data. The government estimates that illegal operations extract approximately $800 million annually in unreported mineral production, with the heaviest concentrations in:

• Esmeraldas: Alluvial gold (linked to Colombian armed groups)
• Napo: River dredging operations
• Zamora-Chinchipe: Hard-rock tunnelling near formal concessions
• El Oro: Artisanal mercury-based gold processing

Executive Decree 273 includes provisions for accelerated criminal prosecution of illegal mining operators and mandates that formal concession holders implement perimeter security plans. The decree also updated the royalty methodology, establishing a sliding scale of 3-8% based on commodity prices and project scale.

What to watch

The Phase 2 metallic concession window opening in September 2025 will be the first meaningful test of investor appetite. Monitor the number of qualified applications received, the pace of environmental impact assessments for the six major pipeline projects, and whether the illegal mining enforcement provisions of Decree 273 produce measurable results. SolGold's Cascabel financing decision, expected in H1 2026, will serve as a bellwether for international mining capital's confidence in Ecuador's reformed regulatory framework.

Sources: MINING.COM, Mining-Technology, ARCOM