Only 5% of Colombian territory titled for mining

Today, Colombian business journal La República discussed the most recent report issued by the National Mining Agency (ANM) of Colombia regarding the extent of mining activities in the country. According to the ANM report, “of the 114 million hectares in the national territory, just 5% are titled for mining activity, of which 2.3% is in exploration, 1.6% in construction and building, and 1.1% in exploitation.” This data was obtained after the ANM spent four years exhaustively reviewing 85% of the applications for a mining concession.

Somewhat surprisingly, mines for construction materials make up 57% of the titles, followed by coal mining at 17%, and precious minerals at 11%. The goal of this study was to be able to segment the mining sector in terms of taxes and preferential treatment. This way different mining operations can be charged different fees in accordance with their size and revenues.

In oil-related news, Portafolio reported on oil companies’ problems in Colombia, unrelated to the collapse in global oil prices: the first oil development project in Colombia’s Chocó department, of the CHO1 block, has been halted by the inability of Cleanenergy Resources to negotiate a contract with the National Hydrocarbons Agency of Colombia.

Portafolio theorized that this might be because Cleanenergy was asked about its investment plan for the local communities around the CHO1 block, in addition to its oil development plan, which made the company realize that this project would be much more complicated than it had originally anticipated. Nonetheless, a preliminary study done by the National University in Colombia indicated that the Chocó department could contain as much as 76 billion barrels of oil. This recent news shows that developing that oil potential will not be easy or straightforward.