ECIJA

Partner

Alvaro Ordóñez graduated as a lawyer from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Quito (Ecuador) and holds a master’s degree in Environmental and Natural Resource Law & Policy (LL.M.) from the University of Denver (USA), with a specialization in energy, mining law and sustainable development.

He acted as National Undersecretary of Mining Contracts and, as such, was part of the team that negotiated Ecuador’s first large-scale mining exploitation agreement. He co-authored of complementary regulations and the reform of Ecuador’s Mining Law, which provides incentives for the mining industry, and has advised different countries on mining policy. He has supported the Ecuador Chamber of Mining and has acted as its Director from 2016 to 2018.

Currently, Alvaro is dedicated to providing legal advice to companies and institutions, particularly in energy and the extractive industries on financial and environmental issues, as well as on real state, public procurement, constitutional matters, compliance, legal disputes and arbitration. He has participated in the strategy to defend the rights of mining companies before the Constitutional Court and has experience in obtaining environmental permits and water use rights.

Some of the most notable matters he has been involved in includes the successful support for the restart of operations of a mining company, which included negotiations with indigenous communities in ancestral territories, the favorable judgment for the recovery of an important mining concession before the declaration of expiration of the license by the Government of Ecuador, the negotiation of a cross-border agreement for the transportation of crude oil, among others. During the pandemic, he participated and locally led the financing of one of the largest mining project in the world, with mining royalties, an unprecedented work in Ecuador, which involved negotiations with several jurisdictions.