Daule submits the exploitation of aggregates and explosives for municipal authorization

The Illustrious Municipal Council of the Decentralized Autonomous Government of the Illustrious Municipality of the Daule Canton issued the Special Ordinance to Regulate, Authorize, and Control the Exploitation and Transport of Arid and Stony Materials, and the Environmental Monitoring and Control of Mining Concessions located within its jurisdiction. The regulation was published in the Official Registry, Special Edition No. 1690, on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, and entered into force upon its approval. The text subjects the exploitation, transport, and storage of aggregates, explosives, and blasting in the Guayas canton to municipal authorization.

The ordinance was discussed and approved in an extraordinary session on September 25, 2026, and in an ordinary session on September 29, 2026, in first and second debates. It was sanctioned on September 29 by the acting mayor Alexandra Celestina Torres Mosquera, with certification from the municipal general secretary Martha Tania Salazar Martínez. The regulation expressly repeals the ordinance on the same subject published in Official Gazette No. 34 on May 27, 2015.

The new regulatory body is based on the exclusive municipal competence of numeral 12 of article 264 of the Constitution and article 142 of the Mining Law. Its background includes Resolution No. 409 of June 3, 2015, which accredited the municipality for environmental competencies, and Ministerial Agreement MAE-MAE-2026-0047-AM, published in Official Registry No. 288 on May 20, 2026, which ordered the gradual opening of the National Mining Cadastre with a pilot plan in the Guayaquil-Daule-Samborondón corridor.

Authorizations, terms, and royalties

The municipal authorization to exploit arid and stony materials is an administrative act that grants its holder a personal, exclusive, and temporary right to extract, transport, load, classify, crush, and commercialize the material. Its main conditions are:

• Maximum area: two hundred (200) contiguous mining hectares per authorization.
• Validity: up to five (5) years from registration in the Mining Registry of the Mining Regulation and Control Agency, renewable for equal periods.
• Processing fees: ten (10) unified basic remunerations of the private worker per application, non-refundable.
• Royalty: three percent (3%) of production costs, in accordance with article 93 of the Mining Law.
• Audited reports: annual for small-scale mining, before March 31; semi-annual for medium-scale mining, before January 15 and July 15.

The regulation recognizes three regimes: small-scale mining, with production of up to 800 m³/day in alluvial terraces and 500 t/day in hard rock quarries; medium-scale mining, from 801 to 2,000 m³/day and from 501 to 1,000 t/day; and large-scale, above those volumes. The General Directorate of Environmental Management determines the regime through inspection and a technical report.

Blasting, explosives, and transport

For quarry blasting, notification to the Municipality is required at least 48 hours in advance, and they may only be executed from Monday to Friday with an approved schedule plan. Noise must not exceed 125 dB(L) at 300 meters, and vibrations are governed by Ministerial Agreement 097-A, Annex 5, published in Official Registry No. 387 on November 4, 2015.

Regarding transport, holders may not allow vehicles to leave without thick tarpaulins, previously moistened material, washed tires, and the respective mobilization guide. Responsibility is joint and several between the transporter and the authorization holder, and control is exercised by the Municipality in coordination with the competent Transit Authority.

Explosives in Los Lojas and special urban regime

The ordinance recognizes a special urban regime for the permanent storage complex for industrial explosives, blasting accessories, and related materials established in the Los Lojas sector since 2011. The delimitation is fixed by UTM coordinates (WGS 84 Datum) and covers the properties with cadastral codes 7-29-2 and 7-29-3, within District 27, PIT D27-014, with High Impact / High Risk Industrial use, code IAR-RU.

Powder magazines must have BASC and ISO 9001-2015 certification, and their location and design require approval from the Joint Command of the Armed Forces. Quantities exceeding seven days of consumption may not be stored within the concessions.

Sanctions and regularization deadlines

The sanctioning regime sets fines of 1 unified basic salary (SBU) for minor infractions, 3 SBU for serious ones, and from 4 to 10 SBU plus temporary suspension for very serious ones, applied by the Municipal Commissariat. Environmental infractions are graded by the economic capacity of the offender, with base fines of up to 200 SBU in the highest capacity group.

The transitional deadlines are:

• 180 days for holders with concessions on third-party land to reduce their area or present sworn statements from the owners.
• 120 days to regularize crushing, sorting, asphalt, or concrete plants without municipal authorization.
• 90 days for the first audited production report and for the publication of forms and processing guides.
• 2 years to enable the electronic application platform.

The ordinance directly impacts miners, transporters, plant operators, and communities within the canton, by concentrating the control of an expanding extractive activity in the municipality and by establishing, for the first time, a specific territorial regime for explosives facilities. It also mandates the harmonization of the Development and Territorial Planning Plan and the Land Use and Management Plan with pre-existing urban planning rights, and conditions the validity of authorizations upon technical, economic, and environmental compliance.

Source: Official Registry, Special Edition No. 1690, Tuesday, October 13, 2026, Section I (official reference: ecuador-2026-10-13-esp-1690-90422601).