Mining Monitor, activated in Antioquia

In the department of Antioquia, a mining company can take a minimum of one year and three months in any process that is initiated before the mining authorities of that department. This was established by the Mining Monitor chapter Antioquia, the first independent study on the performance of mining authorities in Colombia, an initiative of the PORTEX company, Action for reputation.

 

"We have built the Mining Monitor with a methodology that seeks to provide a starting point for the objective analysis and improvement of the national mining sector" commented Rafael Mateus, PORTEX director. “The delay in the procedures, in the inspection stage, is about 4 years late. For this reason the call is to create an urgent evacuation plan that solves with responsibility. If permits must be denied, it must be done to clarify the applicants and allow new entrants to initiate procedures, even for mining formalization, doing it in the appropriate way. ”

 

Claudia Herrera, lawyer and principal associate researcher of the Mining Monitor, highlighted the importance of carrying out a document evaluation process, as well as a field process, to know what is happening in the territory, how projects are actually carried out and thus be able to manage them in the best way.

 

Monitor Minero revealed that at least 1.2 trillion pesos have ceased to be invested in the region, due to 1942 requests for mining projects repressed in proceedings that are not resolved promptly by the mining authorities of this department. At the same time, Jorge Alberto Jaramillo, Mining Secretary of Antioquia, commented during the Mining Monitor presentation event: “Of the 6 exporting companies in Antioquia, 5 are mining companies. In addition, of the 480 million dollars exported by the department, 120 million come from the mining sector. " In this way, Jaramillo made a commitment to streamline processes with the aim of increasing the department's economic opportunities from the mining sector within the framework of economic revival in times of post-COVID.

 

"Clarity in the mining industry must be an articulated job between companies and mining authorities who must provide clear, timely and efficient information," concluded Juan Camilo Nariño, president of the Colombian Mining Association, panelist in the formal presentation of the Monitor Minero 2020, Antioquia chapter, to which he added   “generating confidence in all Colombians, in relation to an entire industry, also implies the necessary and urgent delay in public institutions in relation to mining procedures”.