Andean region ratcheting up efforts to end informal mining

The Andean region is stepping up a drive to formalize its sprawling informal mining sector.

In Bolivia, police officers arrested eight mineral thieves in state miner Comibol's Huanuni underground tin mine in Oruro department. The thieves were carrying stolen ore in backpacks when they were detained 200m underground, the head of a special anti-crime unit, Fernando Pérez, told state news agency ABI.

The government has launched a crackdown on mineral theft, known as jukeo, after an explosion caused by thieves in the Huanuni mine killed 10 mineworkers in April.

At the same time mining cooperative workers attacked government officials during an operation in La Paz department, underscoring the country's difficulties in its attempts to crack down on illegal mining.

The cooperative members enabled 18 illegal gold miners to escape arrest, the mining administration agency Ajam said in a statement, adding it will file charges against three cooperatives in the area.

PERU, COLOMBIA, VENEZUELA

Peru's government, meanwhile, aims to formalize another 10,000 small-scale miners next year, energy and mines minister Francisco Ismodes said.

The government will press ahead with a plan to establish a single administrative instance for mining permitting in addition to creating mining and energy information committees around the country, Ismodes told a congressional budget committee.

The ministry will also invest 270mn soles (US$81mn) next year in the clean-up of environmental liabilities caused by the mining and oil industries, the minister said in a statement.

The government estimates there are as many as 400,000 informal miners, who generate an estimated US$3bn in annual revenue and produced about 20% of Peru's 153t of gold output in 2016.

And in Colombia, progress is being made on a new national mining concession registry, part of a bid to formalize its small-scale mining sector, including emerald miners, according to national mining agency ANM.

There are at least 332 small-scale concessions in Colombia for emerald mining, ANM vice-president Javier García said in a statement.

Small-scale mining accounts for 70% of the operations in the country, where about 133,000 informal miners are believed to operate.

Finally, in Venezuela clashes between informal gold miners and Colombian guerrillas in a border region reportedly left 16 miners dead and another six injured. Insurgent group ELN and miners are battling for control of the Los Candados mine in Bolívar state, Caracas newspaper El Nacional reported.