Catamarca: Officials Involved In a Case of Profit Sharing in the Alumbrera Minery
<p>A member of the Provincial Court of Auditors was asked to investigate the directors of the public body Yacimientos Agua de Dionisio, associated with the company, and local mining areas. The company omitted to declare the exploitation of 17 minerals, which would mean an amount "many millions more”, in dollars," in relation to the profits declared.</p>
The Prosecutor of the Court of Auditors of Catamarca requested a summary inquiry into the alleged irregularities in the distribution of millions in profits for the mining company La Alumbrera to its partner, the Province, which involves Officials from the Government of Catamarca that are responsible for administering and controlling those resources.
The research would fall, on one hand, over the Public Company directors Yacimientos Minerales Agua de Dionisio (Y.M.A.D), an organization made up of Alumbrera, and on the other hand, with the Province’s Secretariat and Mine Bureau.
According to the Prosecutor of the Court of Auditors, the State could be suffering a "loss because of the exploitation carried out by the company." It is suspected that they failed to declare the exports of chrome titan, cerium, cobalt, cesium, hafnium, lanthanum, lutetium, columbium, nickel, scandium, tantalum, terbium, thorium, uranium, and tungsten. This omission would achieve "a millionaire increase in dollars" in relation to the profits declared upon the Government of Catamarca, about the exploitation of gold, copper, and melodeon.
Meanwhile, "the Alumbrera mine - YMAD has an ongoing judicial investigation for alleged tax evasion, which would be processed in the Federal Court of Tucumán, under record number 400124/2010." However, the watchdog said that "the only existing news of the case and its advances come from media reports.”
Finally, the Prosecutor of the Court of Auditors, which in February 2011 asked the other members of the body to initiate this research, said that he requested information on the subject to the General Auditor’s Office and the General Office of the Comptroller, and those organisms were the ones who provided the background described.