Latin America

Judi Lynn

(160,545 posts) Sat Sep 5, 2015, 03:05 PM Sep 2015

Colombia suspends gold mining in protected natural reserve

Colombia suspends gold mining in protected natural reserve
Posted by Grace Brown on Sep 4, 2015

Colombia’s Constitutional Court has suspended gold mining activity across more than 247 million acres of protected land in the south of the country.

Following the Court’s decision, The Ministry of Mines and Energy will suspend all gold mining operations in the Yaigoje Apaporis National Park, that spans between the southeastern states of Amazonas and Vaupes.

According to reports, the Court took action after a Canadian company, Cosigo Frontier Mining, allegedly tried to convince local indigenous communities to lift mining restrictions that had been implemented when the land was designated as a National Park in 2009.

The Court has concluded that the 2009 declaration is in fact legitimate, thus the protected area will remain protected and any activity that involves the extraction of natural resources by a private company will not be permitted.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-suspends-gold-mining-in-protected-natural-reserve/

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Yaigoje Apaporis National Park

More wonderful images of this area:

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1231&bih=643&q=Yaigoje+Apaporis+National+Park&oq=Yaigoje+Apaporis+National+Park&gs_l=img.12...800.800.0.2276.1.1.0.0.0.0.76.76.1.1.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..1.0.0.8p29Ra9eJPA#imgrc=_ [/center]

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Colombia suspends gold mining in protected natural reserve (Original Post) Judi Lynn Sep 2015 OP

Progress?From 2013: Colombia grants ‘national interest’ status to mining projects, overruling envir Judi Lynn Sep 2015 #1

Judi Lynn

(160,545 posts)

1. Progress?From 2013: Colombia grants ‘national interest’ status to mining projects, overruling envir

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Sat Sep 5, 2015, 03:12 PM

Sep 2015

Colombia grants ‘national interest’ status to mining projects, overruling environmental laws
Posted by Steven Cohen on Aug 1, 2013

Colombia has granted “national interest” status to 40 large-scale mining contracts owned by multinational corporations, effectively bypassing environmental regulations.

Cerrejon, Drummond, Cerro Matoso, Eco Oro, Cosigo Frontier Mining Corp and Anglo Gold Ashhanti were among the corporations that benefited from National Mining Agency (ANM) Resolution 000592, which gave the foreign entities special permission to circumvent environmental protection laws.

The Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development is the government organization charged with designating lands for protection and enforcing environmental regulations. And on June 29, it passed — in conjunction with the Ministry of Mining and Energy, Decree 1374, designed to safeguard parks and other protected lands from mining intrusions.

But Resolution 341, passed earlier in 2013, gives the ANM the authority to declare certain projects of “national interest”, thereby superseding any restrictions on mining operations, and one week before the Ministry of the Environment released its updated map demarcating areas in which mining activity is prohibited, the government mining agency — created in November 2011 to “administer in an effective and efficient fashion the State’s mineral resources” — passed its resolution, which allows various mining projects that would have otherwise fallen within the exclusionary zone to continue moving forward.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/special-interest-mining-projects-avoid-environmental-protections/

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