Technical Cooperation with Colombia

Facility for processing gold-ore in Colombia Source: BGR

The BGR has been active in Colombia since the beginning of the 1960’s, within the context of the bilateral Technical Cooperation (TC) on behalf of the BMZ.

Up to now, the focus of this longstanding cooperation was the geological advising of authorities and ministries in the exploration of metallic and non-metallic raw materials and energy resources (coal). The BGR supported the specialized and technical development of geological and geo-technical laboratories and the training and continuing education of technical personnel in applied methods of the geo-sciences, such as prospection and exploration. The focus of today’s activity is environmental protection in mining, in particular the introduction of environmentally compatible technologies in small-scale gold mining.

The longstanding partners on the Colombian side were ministries responsible for raw materials, their subordinate authorities and the geological survey. Today, the partners are regional authorities (at the “Departamento" level) responsible for environmental and resource protection.

Colombia's economic situation is ranked in the middle of the Latin American field. The country is now classified as a “partner country” of the German development cooperation. The internal political situation in Colombia is characterized by several decades of longstanding internal armed conflict. The German development cooperation supports the peace-building and crisis prevention as well as the continued protection of the environment and resources.

One problem in Colombia is the pollution of scarce resources by small-scale mining. In particular, the pollution of surface waters by small-scale gold mining represents a potential conflict between miners and those using water.

The current focus of technical cooperation (TC) of the BGR with Colombia is therefore the environment as it relates to small-scale mining. It is possible in the long-term to protect sustainable jobs in rural areas, improve the living conditions of rural populations and reduce their vulnerability to internal conflict. The BGR supports the regional environmental authority CDMB (Corporación Autónoma Regional para la Defensa de la Meseta de Bucaramanga) in building a consulting division for environmentally-sustainable small-scale mining. The consulting services of the BGR help to persuade the miners and their administration unions to adopt changed and environmentally-responsible ways of working. This should reduce the pollution of river water caused by mining activity down to the legally prescribed levels and secure the water supply for the Bucaramanga metropolitan area.

Over the past years, due to the price development of raw materials, there is to be observed an exploration boom especially on gold, in Colombia. This resulted in a completely changed scenario: In the mining region of California, the small scale mining for gold has completely disappeared for the reason that all of the mining concessions have been sold to exploration companies, exploring for gold in this area. In the mining region of Vetas, similar incidents are occurring, however there are still some small scale mining operations active. Most recent BGR-advisory services referred to hydrogeological issues concerning possible contamination of groundwater caused by omnipresent exploration activities.