On Thursday, leading Colombian daily El Tiempo ran a massive
multimedia
special on the scourge of illegal mining in Colombia, accompanied by several
detailed
articles
and interviews.
El Tiempo called illegal gold mining “a cancer that,
literally, is eating the earth and rivers of at least nine departments in
Colombia.” According to the feature, within the last five years, this cancer
has metastasized, leaving behind mercury-polluted deserts in its wake. The
feature details the destructive mechanics, the process of illegal mining, and
how it quickly can destroy an entire landscape, leaving behind polluted and
toxic pools.
One article took pains to contrast the problem of illegal
mining with licit mining by large mining companies, interviewing Carlos Mario
Castaño, the corporate environmental director for Mineros S.A. He detailed the
steps that Mineros S.A. takes to engage in responsible mining and the money
that it invests in environmental protection and remediation, and in community
development.
In other mining-related news, business journal Portafolio
published a roundup on the mining industry in 2015, highlighting that the
industry’s great failure in 2015 was the National Mining Agency’s inability to
clear out the backlog of 10,000 unanswered applications for mining titles.
Lastly, in oil news, Canadian oil company Pacific was suspended
on both the Canadian and Colombian exchanges for unspecified reasons after its
share price had climbed 65% in one day.
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