El Mutún

El Mutún is about a 75 km2 region in the east of Bolivia; it lies in the lowlands in the Department of Santa Cruz near the town of Puerto Suarez and the Paraguay River ( on the border with Brazil).

In El Mutún store the world's largest iron ore deposits near the surface. They are estimated at about 40 billion tonnes, with the appropriate investment Bolivia could by its own account there produce about 10 million tons of pig iron per year. The iron ore is characterized by a high content of more than 50 % iron content and a low phosphorus and sulfur content. In addition, manganese deposits of about 10 billion will be t in the region suspected. On the Brazilian side are those deposits that belong to the same geological unit, already dismantled, not least because Brazil is one of the largest manganese supporters around the world.

The occurrences are known since 1848, since the 50s is a commercial exploitation of deposits attempts. This created due to the lack of accessibility of the region to be extremely difficult. By 1993, the annual production increased to 350,000 tonnes which have been sold as raw ore to Argentina and Paraguay.

In 2005, the Brazilian company EBX Brazilan received the license to reduce iron ore in the area and to smelt there to iron. Criticized the decision because the company wants to operate the blast furnace with charcoal. Every year as the equivalent of 165,000 acres burned would rainforest. The mining license has been revoked by the new government under Evo Morales. This sparked violent protests in the eastern part of the country.

After the government invited tenders for the project to use with the provision for heating the ovens natural gas, the Indian company Jindal Steel and Power was awarded the contract. The natural gas pipeline to Brazil passes just 20 km to El Mutún, Bolivia has the second largest natural gas reserves in South America.

• Geography (Bolivia )
• Natural resources
• Landscape in the department of Santa Cruz