What is the future for mining in Colombia, if and when an abiding peace deal is signed between the government and armed opposition forces?
That’s a question prompted by a new report which accuses FARC of using income from gold mining to finance its illegal activities.
But, should this guerrilla organisation bear all the blame for the mining-related violence, visited upon local communities? According to Robert Carrington, president and chief executive of Colombian Mines Corporation: “Every once in a while someone reinvents the terror wheel about Colombia… There are some foreign companies operating in some parts of Colombia and I don’t know how they’re operating unless they’re paying protection money… There are some companies…that I still elect not to work in. And whether it’s because they have military security there or maybe they pay protection money, I don’t know.”
See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=12058&l=1.
Among London-listed mining companies involved in Colombia are Amerisur Resources, Anglo American, AngloGold Ashanti, BHP Billiton, Cambridge Mineral Resources, Glencore, Rio Tinto, Touchstone Gold, Xstrata and Yamana Gold.