A new vision for the country?
Hardly realizing our vision of the country has begun to change quietly but substantially. "Colombia Country Mining 2019" is the new dream of our planners, the Executive and the diplomatic corps, in order to attract substantial amounts of foreign direct investment, FDI, and thus leverage the country's growth in coming decades. Some figures are as relevant in this respect:
1. "According Ingeominas, since 2004 the government has handed over 1,536 titles to explore and exploit gold deposits and there are 7,770 pending . According to Dane, between January and March this year gold sales already exceed $ 31.6 million in coffee exports. Back remains forever the Colombia Coffee, now we Colombia Minera, when we had forgotten the days of El Dorado.
2. According to Vanguardia Liberal, "on behalf of boom mining in the country, to Colombia could reach nearly $ 45 billion in Foreign Direct Investment, FDI. This was stated by the president of the Latin American Mining Organization Aurelio Martinez, who also said that in the last two years' have come to Colombia more than 50 foreign companies from Canada, Australia and the United States, among others, as well as India and China have strong interest in business prospects. " The official recalled that in 2009 74% of the $ US7.201 billion of FDI that came to Colombia is oriented to mining and petroleum sector. "
A first approach
face reality of such proportions and in such a magnitude of potential impacts on our society, biodiversity, water sources, human rights, employment, their local dynamics, ... - well worth it to open public debate, democratic, peaceful and documented.
1. A first approximation we can make our neighborhood looking. Peru is a good example. According to El Nuevo Herald, "mining represents 60 percent of Peru's exports and is what prompted a growth of 6.7 percent between 2002 and 2008 ."
2. Our mine La Colosa, the largest mining project current-, located in the municipality of Cajamarca, in the central-western department of Tolima, and was officially "discovered" in December 2007, would be the third of its kind in Latin America size, just behind Yanachocha mines of Peru, and La Escondida in Chile. In Figure No. 1, the reader can observe the current state of the land on which mining would be located in La Colosa. The question is: in a few years, this forest reserve will look the same now offers Yanachocha in Peru (see Figure No. 2)? Or repeat the tragic history of Cerro dePasco in Peru? This case deserves a separate discussion. Let's see:
The case Cerro de Pasco
1. Came to be called by the English "la Ciudad Real de las Minas,''attracted miners from all over the world and came to have nine consulates around the turn of last century. All era ephemeral splendor.
2. Cerro de Pasco today exists only in ruins , to the point that in 2008, and the threat of closing operations by the company, the government of Alan Garcia gave the last 11 acres of land, including the square Main village and the colonial church.
3. In Cerro de Pasco is only misery and " nine of every 10 children have high levels of a 14 heavy metals, including lead, cadmium and arsenic."
is true that we could argue that "things have changed." In fact, President Garcia "supported mining companies, arguing that the technology makes the pollution from mining is 'a subject of the last century'." But the actual behavior of our mining companies does not seem to sufficiently support the commitment of President García, especially when operating in fragile environments legislation poor governance and lack of political maturity as is the case in our societies. Countless examples illustrate this assertion. Here are some:
1. example of poor governance : "The municipality of Barrancas, Guajira, receives royalties from the coal mine Cerrejón since the late eighties and even in 2003 the mayor asked the central government financial resources because water had not yet safe for its inhabitants "(Pax Christi, page 10).
2. Example of legal compliance: "AGA exploration started when had not yet declared the exclusion of 6.4 hectares ( the 516 requested by AGA, to the initial scan) of the forest reserve area "of the Colossus, and well recognized by the Colombian environment minister Carlos Costa in a radio interview with Radio Network The W.
3. Example of social conflict: in Figure No. 3 presents the statistics of social conflicts generated by mining activities in Latin America, according to the Observatory of Mining Conflicts in Latin America. As we see, Colombia, despite being considered a young country in mining, and is among the most troubled countries in the region due to mining activity. Are we ready as a country -Legislative, institutional, democratic, technically, ..- to assume a model of development based on mining? 
4. Example of corporate behavior: Anglo Gold Ashanti, despite having over 60 years of history and being the third-largest gold producer, was just accepted into the group called the Voluntary Principles on responsible mining in 2007. But, as Pax Christi notes, "... the Voluntary Principles are known (sometimes loosely) by some of the directors of the company, but AGA has not yet fully integrated in their operations." And not even a charge to do so.
Not everything is dark
However, objectivity compels us to affirm categorically that not everything is dark. In the world, although very recently, there is a new school of responsible mining that is taking a very rapid development. I will cite some obvious signs of this latest trend:
1. The Voluntary Principles and their various adaptations, as described above.
2. The European Parliament Resolution-PE-just adopted, on 5 May, by which urges the European Commission-EC, and its Executive Chairman, to ban the use of cyanide in mining by December 2011 and to conducive to industrial redevelopment in areas degraded by mining activities in the past.
3. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, EITI, for its acronym in English, "NGO, founded in 2003 with a specific management model on 12 principles and 6 criteria, guideline, protocol and Indicators for Transparency in Government-Company-Company. Currently already has 2 countries accredited, 29 candidates, 1 and 3 countries suspended the process, including the only Latin American country that figure is Peru.
4. Industry standards for responsible mining, offered by the Ethos Institute of Brazil and the Global Reporting Initiative.
5. Models of accountability Colombian mining firms with operations in Colombia or have been built in recent years. I deserve special mention Social Intervention Model Mineros SA-see Figure No. 4 - and the style Cerrejón Socially Responsible Mining SA-see Figure No. 5 -.
But much remains to be done, especially in the areas of mining legislation, the institutional control, local governance and community participation. It will be necessary to establish a concerted action of multiple actors and, above all, lots of clear principles. The conclusions of the V International Congress on Mining, Oil & Gas held in Cartagena, Colombia, last year leaves no doubt that there is clarity of principle. I will cite only three of those principles contained in the conclusions of this congress:
1. No future in the mining sector, if we are convinced of its close relationship with the economic, social and environmental mining regions and their inhabitants.
2. The industry's motto should be: "Do the minimum necessary, but as much as possible."
3. For the future of mining in Latin America, it is important to provide clear rules investors and geological .
The problem then it seems to be clear, but political will to implement and to do so with urgency . It will largely depend on the near future will allow us to dream or to confront new and probably irreversible nightmares in the future of our country.
______________ Notes:
1. Consultant Social Responsibility. President of the Technical Committee Icontec made by the Colombian standard of social responsibility and Member of the Colombian mirror to the ISO in the construction of the future ISO-26000.
2. National Institute of Geology and Mining, on the record.
3. National Bureau of Statistics, on the record.
4. Revista Semana. Bogota, Colombia, May 15, 2010.
5. Vanguardia Liberal newspaper. Bucaramanga, Colombia, May 12-10.
6. Newspaper El Nuevo Herald. Miami, USA, April 24, 2010.
7. Newspaper El Nuevo Herald. Miami, USA, April 24-10. Citing Center for Disease Control United States.
8. Newspaper El Nuevo Herald. Miami, USA, April 24-10.
9. Colombian department on the Caribbean coast, adjacent to Venezuela's Zulia state.
10. The coal mine open world's largest, located in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Colombian Guajira.
11. Pax Christi report on AGA Mines Project (Anglo Gold Ashanti, the mining company that wants to exploit the mine La Colosa) in Cajamarca. Page 10.
12. Revista Semana. Bogota, Colombia, June 5 to 9.
13. The Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (PV) were released in December 2000 by the Department of State United States government and the Foreign Office in the UK, after a year-long process involving representatives these governments, NGOs and companies in the oil, gas and mines with headquarters in the participating countries. Were collected later in developments such as the Council International Mining and Metals, ICMM for its acronym in English, in 2003 and more recently been adopted and adapted in Colombia Isagen, Isa, Oxy and Ecopetrol Cerrejón to the accompaniment of the Government and several NGOs.
14. Pax Christi, op. cit., p. 11.
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