Gran Colombia resumes gold production as protests end

Gran Colombia Gold, the country's largest precious metals producer, said it restarted operations after government brokered talks ended a 10 day protest by illegal miners in northern Antioquia department.

National and regional government officials agreed to set up a roundtable with small-scale miners whose demonstrations against a formalization drive halted operations at the company's underground Segovia and Remedios gold-silver mines last week, Toronto-based Gran Colombia said in a statement.

The company, which last month raised its 2016 production guidance to 145,000oz gold from an earlier 135,000oz, added the stoppage will not have a "significant effect" on output.

"We are pleased to see this civil unrest come to an end," CEO Lombardo Paredes said in the statement. "Our contract mining model, under which more than 2,500 miners in Segovia and Remedios are currently working with the company, is fully aligned with the requirements of the mining regulations in Colombia."

The company, which has agreements in place with 41 cooperatives within its concessions, said it plans to start individual negotiations with illegal miners in the area next week with backing from USAID and the Antioquia regional government.

The roundtable, which is to hold its first session on October 5, recognizes that small-scale mining is an age-old activity in the region, Antioquia regional government secretary Victoria Ramírez told RCN Radio.

The roundtable will involve officials from the mining ministry, the national mining agency (ANM), the Antioquia regional government, local municipalities and the company, who will seek to solve persisting local social and economic problems, according to Radio Caracol.

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 energy and mines ministry. Small-scale mining accounts for 70% of operations in Colombia, Latin America's largest coal producer.

Total gold output rose 32.4% to 1.05Moz in the first half from 791,320oz a year earlier, according to ANM.