Colombia pushes ahead with small-scale miner formalization drive

Colombia has created four areas set aside for small-scale mining operations, part of a government drive to formalize one of the country's most informal sectors.

The special reserve areas known locally as Ares will help register 1,500 gold, silver and limestone mining concessions in Antioquia department's Cauca valley, the energy and mines ministry said.

The formalization effort will improve living and labor standards for small-scale miners as well as control the illicit trade of mercury, explosives and fuel, according to the ministry

A seven week protest against the formalization effort by about 10,000 gold miners in Antioquia's Remedios and Segovia provinces has left at least three dead and 20 injured in clashes with police.

President Juan Manuel Santos, along with the leaders of Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, is seeking to halt money laundering, deforestation and pollution of the Amazon jungle by formalizing informal miners. The government has identified 7,000 mining operations in 16 departments, according to the ministry. Small-scale mining accounts for 70% of the operations in the country.

Colombia, Latin America's largest coal producer, produced 789,195oz gold and 194,694oz silver through the first half, according to the national mining agency (ANM).

PERU

Peru, where the government is also struggling to formalize an estimated 200,000 informal miners, the police destroyed 64,197 pieces of equipment seized from illegal mining operations in Madre de Dios region in the southern Amazon jungle.

The police have carried out 2,720 operations against illegal mining camps around the country this year, website Inforegión reported, citing interior minister Carlos Basombrío.

The police also raided nine illegal gold milling operations in Lima's outlying district of Carabayllo, detaining four people and rescuing 17 victims of the white slave trade, according to an interior ministry statement. Police seized mercury, sticks of dynamite, fuses, computers, a rifle and ammunition, the ministry said.

Illegal and informal miners, who generate an estimated US$3bn in annual revenue, produced about 20% of Peru's 145t of gold output in 2015, according to the energy and mines ministry (MEM). Tax authority Sunat has impounded at least 2t of illegally produced gold since 2011.