Featured image: gold bars and coins. Photo: Jingming Pan / Unsplash (Unsplash License). Illustrative; not Ecuadorian production.
Ecuador’s mining exports reached about $3.59 billion between January and August 2026, up 42% from the same months of 2025, according to Central Bank of Ecuador (BCE) data reported by Primicias and El Comercio. The industry’s chamber expects a record of around $5 billion for the full year, even as investment slips and several large projects remain stuck.
Prices, not volume
The BCE says most of the growth comes from higher metal prices rather than larger shipments. Gold has traded mostly above $4,000 an ounce for much of the year, with the sharpest gains between July and October as the Middle East war pushed investors toward safe-haven assets, Primicias reported. Copper and silver have also stayed in demand. China is the main destination for Ecuador’s mining exports, El Comercio said.
Mining was the fastest-growing of Ecuador’s main non-oil exports in the period. Shrimp still earned more — $6.56 billion — but grew 18%, while bananas and plantains grew 9%. Total exports reached $26.8 billion, up 10%. “It will be a historic year for the sector,” said María Eulalia Silva, executive president of the Chamber of Mining of Ecuador.
Investment and projects
Industrial mining investment fell to $80 million in the first quarter of 2026, from $98 million a year earlier, according to the BCE. Lundin Gold’s Fruta del Norte mine in Zamora Chinchipe, operating since 2019, accounted for $32 million of that, and ODIN Mining, a subsidiary of China’s CMOC, invested $14.2 million in the Cangrejos gold project in El Oro, where construction is expected to start in late 2027.
Other projects are moving ahead: Silvercorp’s El Domo copper-gold project in Bolívar is 34% complete and expected to start operating in 2027, and Atico Mining secured $111.4 million in financing for La Plata in Cotopaxi, with construction planned from March 2027.
Stuck on electricity
The biggest delays are linked to power supply. Mirador Norte (Mirador II), run by Chinese-owned Ecuacorriente, was expected to begin test production by late 2025, but the government has not approved the next phase after more than two years of talks over how the project will generate its electricity. President Daniel Noboa said on October 26 that talks could advance if the company invests in the Cardenillo hydroelectric plant. SolGold’s Cascabel copper project in Imbabura, signed in 2024, is being renegotiated, Energy Minister Juan Carlos Blum said in May.
The mining cadastre, which allows new concessions to be granted, has been suspended since 2018 after pressure from the Indigenous movement. The government promised a phased reopening in June 2025 but has not delivered, and the industry now expects it in 2027.
Confirmed: the January–August export figures and first-quarter investment data from the BCE. Pending: whether full-year exports reach the $5 billion projection, and decisions on Mirador Norte and the cadastre.
Sources
- Primicias — Mining: record exports and delayed projects, Oct 30, 2026 (in Spanish)
- El Comercio — Mining exports jump 42%, outpacing shrimp and bananas, Oct 2026 (in Spanish)
Acsana Bander · Economy · Virtual editorial byline
English adaptation: Lin Wei · Editorial direction: Leonidas Ferraz · October 31, 2026 · AI-assisted writing
