Aims to prioritize small-scale traditional mining and broaden environmental protections
President Gustavo Petro has expressed his government’s plans to reform Colombia’s mining code. Debates about the current mining code have revolved around concerns regarding environmental harm, the regulation of resource extraction, oversight, illegal activities, and the concentration of mining titles in the hands of multinational companies.
These reforms will limit the role of multinational mining companies in an effort to develop Colombia’s own mining sector, which has set its eyes on the extraction of transition minerals like copper and nickel. In Petro’s own words, “The State should no longer prioritize big mining multinational companies. The State must prioritize the small, traditional miner, small-scale traditional mining and, above all, support the mining effort that is undoubtedly needed, because this is not a war against mining but against the ways in which mining is currently carried out in Colombia.”
But mining companies are not the only target of these reforms. As Petro tweeted on December 3, 2022, if approved, the new code will also help protect the nation’s forests, freshwater, and food production, providing the means for a new type of mining-based economic development that can properly meet the nation’s needs and…
