In the first quarter of the year the country received $378 million in foreign direct investment, up 7.2% compared to the same period last year.
Of the total foreign investment in the country in the first quarter, 45% came from companies in the extractive industry and the electronics sector.
Elperiodico.com.gt reports that "... in the case of natural resources, the mining industry in mines and quarries brought in $122.8 million, with investments mainly from Canada and Russia, according to a report by the Banguat. In the same period of 2013 FDI in this sector brought in $172.4 million. "
The increase in sales of lead abroad has been attributed to the shipments that have begun from the Escobal mine, belonging to Canada's Tahoe Resources.
Lead exports increased by $141 million between January and May this year compared to the same period last year, according to the Central Bank of Guatemala.
Fernando Castellanos, Head of the Mining Department of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, told Prensalibre.com that "...
After a 30-year ban and with a $551 million investment, the Fenix project has resumed operations for the production of up to 25,000 tonnes of ferro nickel a year.
An operating license for the Niquelgua Montufar II mine was awarded in April 2013 to a subsidiary of Solway Group, Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel, in which the Guatemalan state has a 1.8% stake.
In the first quarter sales abroad of lead totaled $83 million, due to the operation of the San Rafael mine, which extracts silver, lead, zinc and gold.
In eighth place out of the top 25 export products of the country, foreign sales of lead in the first three months of 2014 were equivalent to $83 million, while in the same period in 2013 the figure was just $1.5 million , according to the Bank of Guatemala.
The Guild of Extractive Industries would accept the increased royalties as agreed at the start of the Pérez Molina administration.
An article in Prensalibre.com reports that Mario Orellana, president of the Union of Extractive Industries, said "... The initiative proposed by the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) is embodied in the agreement that we voluntarily accepted at the start of this government.
Authorities suggest the Guatemalan State should invest in these types of projects to bring in additional revenue.
This was the suggestion made by the finance chief, Pavel Centeno to the Guatemalan Congress during his explanation of the draft budget for 2014. "We have to look at investment in mining and hydropower in order to reduce the oil bill we pay for energy.
From these revenues the mine gave the State of Guatemala 4.25% in royalties.
The Marlin mine in San Marcos generated these revenues during the first half of 2013. "The cost of gold mining in San Marcos is $182 on average and is still the lowest of the 11 companies of which Goldcorp owns or has interests in in the continent," noted an article in Prensalibre.com .
The San Rafael mining company will contribute 5% royalties to the departments of Santa Rosa and Japala, amounting to more than $80 million annually in taxes and profits for the country.
After several months of conflicts the mining company San Rafael, which is expected to start exploiting minerals later this year, and these two departments have reached an agreement.
It has been estimated that between southern Petén and northern Izabal there is one of the largest nickel reserves in the world.
"The Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) estimates that although at the moment the area of Izabal has only small projects, in the next few years there will be a mining complex because of the large mineral reserves, which would place Guatemala among the top five producers the world,"noted an article in Elperiodico.com.gt.
Royalties on mineral holdings in Guatemala will be imposed on three levels related to the base value of the extracted material.
According to Mario Marroquin, president of the Union of Mining and CEO of the company Montana Exploradora (main extractor of gold and silver in Guatemala), precious metals are those with the highest and there are other lower rates for base metals and non-metallic minerals.
Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel, S.A. and Minera San Rafael S.A have been granted permission to undertake controlled mining activities in two sectors of the country.
From a press release issued by the Ministry of Energy and Mines of Guatemala (MEM):
This morning (yesterday) authorities at the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) reported the granting of two mining licenses, identified as SEXT-015-11 "ESCOBAL" to company "MINERA SAN RAFAEL, SA" and SEXT-019-11 "Proyecto de Explotación Minero Niquegua MONTÚFAR II" for company "Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel, S.A.".
The Constitutional Court of Guatemala has received allegations from indigenous groups regarding the constitutionality of the Mining Act which has been in force for 15 years.
Concerns about a possible court ruling in favor of the constitutional motion filed by the indigenous people was demonstrated by the presence of entrepreneurs in the courtroom.
According to an article in Siglo21.com "the first to make their arguments were the proponents of the constitutional motion, via their lawyer Lucia Xiloj, who explained that the mining law, as determined by the CPO, is unconstitutional because it was approved 6 days after the ILO Convention 169 took effect, which stipulates in Article 6 the right to prior and informed consultation. These arguments were refuted by Mario Fuentes Destarac, representing the Chamber of Industry. "
Despite the enormous potential in gold, nickel, tin and other light metals, the mining sector is not consolidated due to lack of strategic planning and public policies.
A study by the Fraser Institute puts Guatemala in position 74 out of 79 countries evaluated according to the favorability, or not, of the environment for mining. It is a very low position which suggests that it has unattractive conditions for investment.
Following the lifting of a moratorium on exploration and mining licenses, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources has announced a review of all environmental impact studies.
The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN) analyzed 354 environmental impact studies, whose licenses were suspended after finding that there were shortcomings.
At the start of every new government there is an attempt made to attract investors for new drilling and explorations, without results to date.
Despite the efforts of recent governments, in the last decade, domestic production of crude oil has fallen by 55%, going from 24, 671 barrels in the first two months of 2002 to 10,899 barrels in the same period this year.