Mining has been a common denominator of the economic, social and institutional development of Colombia since the beginning of the Republic. One of the first comprehensive decrees for a productive sector, Simn Bolvar issued it on October 24, 1829 to regulate mining activity, becoming the basis of current mining law. In departments such as Antioquia and Caldas, to cite just two examples, mining has occupied a central place in their industrial, business and social development , as Nicanor Restrepo Santamara narrates in the book 'Empresariado Antioqueo y Sociedad, 1940-2004'.
In the case of Antioquia, it was precisely the mining activity that facilitated the association of capitals to finance commercial and industrial ventures, initially to provide goods and services to the miners and later to diversify the economy towards other productive activities . This can attest to industrious families such as the lvarez, Echeverri, Echavarra, Jaramillo, Ospina, Restrepo, Santa Mara, Sierra and Uribe, who, thanks to the experiences and capital they accumulated in mining activities, were able to found the first industries of Antioquia at the end 19th century.
The momentum that mining gave to regional and national economic development is today reflected in several of the largest business groups in the country, such as Drummond, Cerromatoso, Conconcreto, Gran Colombia Gold, Construcciones El Condor, Mineros SA and Grupo Argos. The latter, including Cementos Argos, which is today the largest mining company in the country by profits, is the second largest business group in Colombia with revenues that exceeded 27 billion pesos in 2019, only surpassed by Ecopetrol. In macroeconomic matters, mining is key for departments such as La Guajira and Cesar where it contributes between 30% and 40% of GDP, while at the national level it is responsible for 25% of total exports, more than 350 thousand jobs direct,All of this occurs in a sector that, despite misinformation and the false myth of mining or water, consumes less than 2% of the 37 billion cubic meters of water that the country demands annually.
In other areas, mining has also made great contributions to the country, such as the creation in 1864 of the School of Arts and Crafts to train technicians for the Antioquia mining industry, which later gave way to the National Learning Service (SENA) in 1957. Similarly, in almost all the country's departments, Mining Secretariats were created with a technical and professional nature, and at the national level there are scientifically and technically respected entities such as the Colombian Geological Service, an international reference, the Mining-Energy Planning Unit and National Mining Agency.
This count is important because today it is common to hear voices that oppose mining, ignoring the historical relevance of this activity, but even more serious, ignoring the growing demand for minerals in the world for reasons as laudable and necessary as the transition energy and the fight against climate change. And it is that minerals are increasingly present in our lives, especially in actions aimed at reducing our carbon footprint on the planet. From the homes we inhabit, built with construction materials, iron and aluminum, through unconventional renewable energies that use copper, zinc, nickel or cobalt, to electric vehicles, smartphones and tablets that we use to connect physically or virtually and that are only possible thanks to lithium, gold, silver, manganese or tin, among many other minerals.
These voices are also unaware, some out of ignorance and others out of whim, the country's enormous mining potential, which represents a great opportunity for economic reactivation in the post-pandemic era. Today we have 8 large projects for the next 3 years, including the first large-scale underground gold mine in the country that President Duque will inaugurate in Buritic this week, which have the potential to generate investments of more than 17 billion pesos and create 12 thousand direct jobs. Additionally, Colombia, despite its mining tradition and its great potential in metallic minerals, essential for the energy transition, is a practically unexplored territory. Of the 104 million hectares that the country has, only 3% have a mining title and only 0.2% are in the exploitation stage.This potential also represents a great opportunity to diversify our mining basket, which today is highly dependent on a mineral that is going through a complex international situation and that deserves a separate column: thermal coal.
That is why the opposition to this important activity is disconcerting, which when carried out under legal conditions has to comply with the highest and rigorous environmental and technical standards, and in the social part is subject to mechanisms of coordination and concurrence with the territory , guaranteeing spaces for participation and socialization as recognized in rulings by the Constitutional Court. This opposition is also incomprehensible, when, at times, it comes from organizations that represent various economic sectors, including the mining sector itself, and that have historically recognized and contributed to the robust institutional framework that today characterizes the Colombian mining sector in the international arena.
DIEGO MESA PUYO
* MINISTER OF MINES AND ENERGY