An Indian investor, Jindal Steel and Power, announced on 21 April that it was interested in taking part in the development of the Mutún iron-ore deposit in southern Bolivia. The deposit is one of the richest iron-ore deposits in the world. The area virtually rusts when it rains.

Successive governments in Bolivia have tried to drum up interest in developing Mutún, which lies in a remote area of the department of Santa Cruz. The current government is planning to invite bids for the concession to develop Mutún in June.

Mutún is in the Provincia Germán Busch. The deposit covers approximately 60 square kilometres and holds and estimated 40bn tonnes of iron ore. The deposit holds three kinds of ore: primary, alluvial, and colluvial. The cost of just building the mine is likely to be between US$400m and US$600m. The plan is then to build a conveyor belt, or a road, to transport the enhanced ore to Puerto Busch on the River Paraguay. The enhanced ore would then be shipped downstream. The one geographical advantage Mutún now has is that the Bolivia-Brazil natural-gas pipeline is only 12km away. 

Building a mine and its associated infrastructure in Mutún will be expensive. The government reckons that it will take US$2.5bn to get the project off the ground. Whether there will be any progress must be doubtful given the Bolivian congress's hostility to the most recent wave of foreign investment that developed the gas industry. 

Congress, under pressure from populists both inside and outside, has voted to jack up the royalty rate for the 76 gas projects authorised since 1986 from 16% to, effectively, 50%. The international energy companies argue that under international agreements the government cannot change the royalty rate. Congress has responded by saying that the 76 agreements were unconstitutional, since the supreme court has ruled that they should have been approved by congress. 

The economic development minister, Walter Kreidler, claims that 15 foreign companies are interested in Mutún. The list is headed by Rio Tinto, the world's biggest base-metals producers, and Companhia Vale do Rio Doce from Brazil.

• Panama: Row over port payments
  
  On 21 April the government broke off negotiations with the Panama Ports Company (PPC), a subsidiary of Hutchinson Whampoa, a Hong Kong Chinese port company, after PPC accused the government of offering credits to two of its rivals. The government has been negotiating with PPC over how PPC should make the payments for the concession it has enjoyed since 1997: the payments were waived by the previous government of President Mireya Moscoso in 2002.
  
  PPC operates the Balboa and Cristóbal ports at either end of the Panama Canal. Originally PPC had agreed to pay US$22m a year plus 10% of the gross income from the ports over the 25-year life of the contract. The companies which, allegedly, were offered loans were Manzanillo International Terminal from the US and Colón Container Terminal from Taiwan. Both companies operate ports on the Caribbean side of the country. 
  
  The government said that the offer of credits was the result of an error by the legal department of the Autoridad Marí­tima de Panamá. The PPC accuses the government of concealing information and of favouritism. The government denies this.