The initiative known as Ecominerales seeks to emulate the Ecopetrol model and has already received approval in the First Commission of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia and, for the next legislature, it will go to the plenary session of that corporation.
This Wednesday, the First Commission of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia gave its approval to the Government's bill through which it seeks to create the Colombian Mining Company (Ecominerales), a kind of Ecopetrol, but in the mining sector. mining, if you will.
The project had been presented in December of last year by the Ministry of Mines and Energy of the coffee-growing country, in order to promote the transformation of current mining, which is fundamentally extractive, towards a productive mining model.
The idea behind the initiative is, according to Minminas, to link “mining to a circuit that produces goods and services essential for the country's energy and industrial transition. With new mining, national sovereignty and the development of knowledge are guaranteed, and the management of climate change and environmental sustainability is favored.”
At the time, Álvaro Pardo, president of the ANM, assured that Ecominerales would seek to solve three problems in the mining sector: the first is the lack of formalization of small and medium-sized miners in the country; the second is to engage in the exploitation and marketing of key minerals, such as gold, to avoid control of production by illegal actors; and, finally, guarantee the availability of minerals for the national market, since it ensures that the majority of production in Colombia goes to other countries.
The project also seeks to protect the State at times when reversals of mining titles occur, such as what happened with Prodeco in 2021. At that time, the reversal of 147,000 assets of this company, which operated in the department of Cesar, was recorded.
The move has in its sights the reversions to the State that large-scale coal contracts will have in a few years: Cerrejón (2034) and Drummond, with the El Descanso (2029) and La Loma (2039) mines. Also on this list are the La Francia and El Hatillo mining operations, which will revert in 2035 and 2036, operated by Colombian Natural Resources (CNR), also a shareholder and operator of the Fenoco railway concession.
It must be remembered that, at the time, part of the reason that led to the creation of Ecopetrol was, precisely, the reversal of the Mares concession.
Despite its environmental liabilities, and in the midst of a world immersed in the climate crisis, mining continues to play an important role in the national economy, continuing to be part of the sector that most drives exports (fuels and extractive industries).
For April of this year, of the more than US$4,000 in international sales from Colombia, more than US$2,100 came from this sector.
In Latin America, Colombia is the number one producer of coal and emeralds; fourth in ferronickel, fifth in gold and sixth in copper. Likewise, it is the third world exporter of coke as an energy derived from metallurgical coal.
According to the Ministry of Mines, mining exploitation occupies about 3% of the titled area of the national territory, which is equivalent to more than 3 million hectares of the coffee-growing country. Currently, Colombia has more than 7,000 mining titles.
