Petro pledges support for Colombia’s small miners

Colombia will carry out a machinery census to help formalize small-scale mining and grant titles so that cooperatives of small miners can take over the territories of the Bajo Cauca region, which has been affected by a mining strike for 20 days.

The measures were announced by President Gustavo Petro during a visit to Bajo Cauca, which is located in Antioquia department.

"We will start this activity so that the gold does not belong to the big gold launderers and drug traffickers, but to the population that inhabits the territory," Petro said.

He also offered financial and technological support to small miners through reforms to the mining code that will help them purchase machinery and protect the environment.

Petro added that the government will push ahead with a plan of creating a district for mining and agriculture production.

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As part of the country's energy transition policy, the government said it will support exploration, production and industrialization of minerals considered key for the transition.

In a statement, copper, cobalt and lithium were singled out.