Cecilia Siac

Cecilia Siac is an international mining law lawyer with more than 25 years of professional experience, in particular in the field of mining laws and regulations, mining contracts, mining cadastres and due diligence in Africa, Europe and Latin America. She provides advice to mining companies, governments, financial institutions, foundations, the World Bank, the International Council on Mining and Metals, the International Development Law Organization, the United Nations and other international organizations in connection with foreign investment matters, legislation, regulations and policies on natural resources, public tenders, licensing, staking and permitting and drafting and negotiation of mineral agreements; she carries out due diligence review processes and provides advice on international mining transactions in connection with mineral title matters, legal opinions, judicial and arbitral proceedings, M&A, IPOs, and so on.

Ms. Siac has been involved for over fifteen years in several World Bank projects as Legal Advisor to the Ministers of Mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Madagascar and the government of Kenya (UK Development Agency Project) in connection with mining agreements between state-owned mining entities and foreign mining companies, drafting of new Mining Code/Laws, legal audits and privatization of state-owned mining companies, review and legal reform of the mining sector, legal audits of mineral titles granted by the State and their validation under new legal frameworks, restructuring of mining cadastres, among other assignments.

Since 1991 she has been advising numerous international exploration and mining companies in connection with mineral title issues, licences/permits, mining contracts, sustainability matters and legal disputes in the DRC, Zambia, Namibia, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, the Central African Republic, Niger, Morocco, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Madagascar and Angola, as well as in Latin America (Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Uruguay, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Haiti, Brazil, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Cuba) and Europe (Spain, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Portugal, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia).

During the past several years, she has been lecturing on mining law, mining contracts and legal due diligence for international mining transactions at the Canadian Bar Association, the International Development Law Organisation, the Organization of American States, the Lawyers’ Forum of the World Bank, the University of Toronto, and at the University of Dundee, Scotland where she is an Honorary Associate since 1997.  She is the author of two publications on mining laws and mining cadastres in developing countries and due diligence for international mining transactions.

Cecilia is fluent in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Romanian and Portuguese.