Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador in South America (for example Plan Colombia). In 2013 CONAIE became more involved in discussions with other indigenous organizations involving land rights and environmental sustainability due to deals made by the government with large multinational oil companies. These deals primarily concern the Amazon basin, and would take over much of the indigenous land that is currently inhabited. There has been much debate for many years between the governments, the indigenous peoples, and the oil companies. Chevron (formerly Texaco) is a major oil company which has had a presence in Ecuador; recently Chevron has come into many Ecuadorian headlines regarding drilling
Mining in Ecuador Barron and his company Aurelian discovered a large deposit at Fruta del Norte, estimated to be 10 million ounces of gold and 14 million ounces of silver. Following changes to Ecuadorian mining laws that limited foreign ownership of mining projects, the Canadian company Kinross Gold acquired Aurelian Resources in 2009 and took on the Fruta del Norte project, which is set in the Amazon province of Zamora Chinchipe in southern Ecuador. Described by some as "one of the most exciting gold discoveries of the past 15 years," it has an estimated reserve of 6.8 million ounces of gold and 9.1