Colombia court blocks mining in fragile eco-systems

Colombia's highest court has banned mining operations in fragile, high attitude eco-systems, creating a major obstacle to the country's ongoing drive to drum up investment in gold and copper projects.

The constitutional court's nine justices, who also halted production at oil wells in Putumayo department last week, ruled mines could cause an irreversible impact on the eco-systems between 3,000m and 5,000m known as páramos.

The ruling, which overturned a previous decision to allow miners with prior permits to operate, will annul about 350 mining licenses, according to environmental agency ANLA. The decision has established protected areas in about 100,000ha to date, with 20 other zones totaling 2.9Mha pending demarcation.

The government will respect the ruling, environment minister Gabriel Vallejo said on Tuesday. While environmentalists hailed the ruling, business groups and mining companies criticized the ban, calling it unconstitutional.

"The signal they're sending is that they're changing the rules for investors along the way," Jaime Concha, representative of Colombia's national business association, told Bogotá newspaper Portafolio.

Toronto-based Continental Gold, whose Buriticá gold-silver-zinc deposit in Antioquia department is one of the country's most advanced projects, said the ruling is unlikely to affect its deposit, which is considered of national strategic importance. Continental is working on a feasibility study for the project, which has inferred resources of 15.6Mt containing 4.5Moz gold, 14.7Moz silver and 91Mlb zinc.

"Certain aspects of the national development plan are considered unconstitutional and they intend to issue definitive rulings in this regard in due time," Continental said in a statement. "The company remains fully confident in its ability to permit the Buriticá project successfully in a timely manner."

Vancouver's Eco Oro Minerals, which is developing the Angostura gold-silver project in Santander department, said it is working with legal advisors to gauge the impact of the ruling and that the final decision may take up to three months.

"To the extent that there is any prejudice to Eco Oro or its assets, the company will take all steps necessary to protect its legal rights," it said in a statement.

PROJECTS

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who was elected to a second four-year term in 2014, has launched a drive to attract investment in mining and oil as commodities prices slumped and capital inflows dwindled.

Other mining projects include Red Eagle Mining's US$55mn San Ramón gold project, AngloGold Ashanti's Gramalote and La Colosa deposits, AUX Grupo's El Gigante, Atico Mining's El Roble gold mine and Royal Road Minerals' La Golondrina gold deposit.

Vancouver-based Red Eagle began construction work last year at San Ramón in Antioquia, an underground mine scheduled to come online in the second half of 2016 and produce 50,000oz/y over eight years.

Colombia's gold output rose 7.7% to 519,472oz in the third quarter, according to state mining agency ANM.

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