Mining in Colombia

Foreigners and citizens often think of Colombia as a land of paradoxes. Though the country is filled with natural resources and biodiversity, it was recently ranked third most unequal in the region South America.

Colombians in the streets commonly wonder: “why are we so poor if our land is so rich?”

During the past four Colombian administrations, mining gold, coal and other minerals in high-demand seems to have been the solution to this paradox. In fact, these governments have decided to go deep into the land to extract that richness and turn it into wealth so as to compensate for what is missing on the surface.

By the end of 2012, mineral extraction took over 1,8% of the Colombian national territory, while 35% of the total landmass was promised as a potential mining site. That is, over a third of the country could host what governmental reports call “strategic investment areas.”

However, the magnitude of the policy is scarily large for an industry that has yet to demonstrate its environmental impacts will not irremediably harm the land in the long term.