La Colosa Open-Pit Gold Mining Project:
an imminent threat to climate change and local communities in Colombia.
La Colosa is AngloGold Ashanti’s (AGA) proposed open-pit gold mining project in Tolima, Colombia. This exploratory project threatens to devastate the local farming communities, their livelihoods, history and identity, and essential ecosystems, the paramos, for combatting climate change and water production.
Join Robinson Mejia from youth collective Cosajuca and Sara Sofía Moreno Gallo, a lawyer from Siembra, environmental defenders, in their visit to London.
In solidarity with people in Tolima, ask your MP to join this session so they understand the problem and act upon it.
Register now for Multinationals, human rights & climate change in Colombia: La Colosa mine, 13 September.
In 2017, local communities united to oppose the mine, and they were joined in this struggle by the municipal authorities, generating a ‘consulta popular’ (Peoples referendum), a binding mechanism where local communities overwhelmingly voted 98% to ban mining activities. This was a prominent achievement for local resistance in Colombia, which was copied in other areas threatened by extractivism. But multinational companies have been battling back, challenging the result of the referendums. Anglo Gold Ashanti is doing that with La Colosa. The communities are working to uphold the referendum decision, as the referendum is a democratic mandate!
The UK has a responsibility to act, as according to the Financial Times, AngloGold is redomiciling in the UK, and AGA’s main holding company subsidiary has been based in the UK since 2017. The UK needs a ‘Business, Human Rights and Environmental Act’ – a mandatory ‘human rights and environmental due diligence’ law modelled on the UK Bribery Act – similar to legislation coming into force across Europe.
What is at stake in La Colosa’s case goes beyond Anglo Gold Ashanti’s predatory economic interests in extracting gold in the region. What is at stake is the destruction of an environmentally unique area in the Andes mountains, a Paramo, a central ecosystem for water production in Tolima. This region already suffers from water scarcity and droughts because of climate change and over-demand water supply for several populated cities. Tolima is also known as the ‘breadbasket of Colombia’. An open-pit gold mine in this region is a threat to life.
Join us to meet life defenders Robinson Mejia from youth collective Cosajuca and Sara Sofía Moreno Gallo, a lawyer from Siembra, on 13 September in a public event in Parliament, during the session: Multinationals, human rights & climate change in Colombia: La Colosa mine.
London Mining Network
London Mining Network (LMN) is an alliance of human rights, development, environmental and solidarity groups.
We work for
- human rights, including the rights of Indigenous Peoples and workers, and
- sustainable development (development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs)
in communities around the world affected by the activities of mining companies based in or funded from London
