Bogotá/Mocoa. The government of Gustavo Petro has issued a decree establishing temporary nature reserves to restrict mining activities. The controversial mining project in Putumayo could be overturned as a result.
In 2006, the Colombian mining authority granted a total of four mining concessions for an area of 1,912 hectares, 10 kilometers from Mocoa. Mocoa is the capital of the Putumayo Department in southwest Colombia.
Initially owned by Anglo American, the concessions were sold on to the South African company Anglogold Ashanti and to B2Gold. Since 2018, the titles have been in the hands of the mining company Libero Cobre, a subsidiary of the Canadian group Libero Copper and Gold. Copper and molybdenum, among other things, can be mined until 2037. However, some of the concession areas are located in protected areas (resguardos) of the Inga and Kamëntsá, as well as in a forest reserve. There is the upper basin of the Mocoa River and it intersects with the Putumayo, San José, Blanco, Pepino, Mulato and Guineo rivers. The mining company’s copper exploration began in 2020 without prior consultation with the Inga and Kamëntsá indigenous peoples, who have sovereignty over the area. Also prohibits the municipal agreement 020 of 2018 covers small-scale and large-scale mining in the municipality of Mocoa.
In August 2021, the concessions were suspended, meaning that Libero Cobre was officially not allowed to carry out any further exploration work until June 2022. Since then, there has been a political tug-of-war between the mining company and state authorities. The mining titles still exist, despite the lack of an environmental license and despite the fact that, in addition to protected areas and indigenous territories, they include areas that have been shown to pose an increased risk of landslides.
The existence of molybdenum and copper deposits in the Amazon river basin, around Mocoa, has been known since the 1970s. Today, these raw materials are essential for the energy transition, which Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro also wants to promote. However, the Mocoa mining project illustrates how energy transition measures can contradict environmental protection measures.
The resistance from the civilian population and environmental organizations in Mocoa and surrounding areas is unrelenting, as there is great concern about river pollution and an increase in deforestation. “In the future, this will be a desert, our water sources will dry up. We are already observing the expulsion of animals from their natural habitat,” reported the Welcome Activist of Inga Soraida Chindoy.
Now, with Decree 044 of January 30, 2024, the Government of the Historic Pact has created a further legal framework to also suspend mining projects already underway for a renewable period of up to 10 years restrict and thus sends a clear signal for nature conservation.
Last year, the then Mining Minister Irene Vélez, together with the President of the Colombian Mining Authority and the Director of the Geological Survey, accepted the invitation to a dialogue with community representatives and environmental activists on the Libero Cobre case. A politically symbolic visit by a minister to one of the most historically marginalized areas in the country. Vélez promised at the meeting that the government did not want to trigger a serious copper fever, as the region had experienced in the past with its use of natural resources. The protection of life would come first.