The Colombian Mining Company would have legal status, administrative and financial autonomy and independent capital.
On Wednesday, the First Commission of the House of Representatives approved in its first debate the Government's project to create the Colombian Mining Company (Ecominerales).
The initiative was presented to Congress in December of last year by the Ministry of Mines and Energy, with the objective of organizing and planning mining. The new company would have legal status, administrative and financial autonomy and independent capital.
What does the bill seek?
The objective of the project is to create Ecominerales, which will be an industrial and commercial company of the State, basically, the Ecopetrol of the mining sector.
Ecominerales would develop mining extraction activities that serve as input for “local industry, energy transition, agricultural development, public infrastructure and productive diversification,” according to Minminas.
The new company will be able to carry out industrial and commercial activities, but also research and work on innovation throughout the production chain, either directly or through contracts.
In essence, Ecominerales is a key piece to meet the objectives of Gustavo Petro's Government of promoting the transformation of mining to go from a fundamentally extractive one to a productive one.
What will be the functions of Ecominerals?
According to the Ministry of Mines and Energy, the company will have the following functions:
First, manage the assets that mining companies revert to the State. 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.
Second, promote the formalization of small and medium mining.
Third, develop mining chain activities: exploration, exploitation, construction and assembly, and closure in Colombia and abroad.
Fourth, develop activities for the purchase, benefit and transformation of minerals.
And fifth, market strategic minerals to supply the local market, support clean jewelry chains and generate employment.
The Government hopes that the new company will allow extraction to be developed based on environmental sustainability and avoid control of production by illegal actors. The portfolio maintains that there is potential, taking into account that Colombia occupies first place in Latin America in coal and emerald production, fourth in ferronickel, fifth in gold and sixth in copper.
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 in Colombia, more than US$2,100 correspond to this sector.
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 country. Currently, the country has more than 7,000 mining titles.
