Colombia miners brace for environmental crackdown

After no candidates were able to reach on Sunday’s election more than the 50% of votes required to win outright, the South American nation will have to choose between Gustavo Petro, a leftist former guerrilla member and once mayor of Bogotá and Rodolfo Hernández, a business magnate viewed as a conservative, populist outsider.

Colombia, known for its vast reserves of coal, petroleum, emeralds, gold and copper, has seen its resources sector grow in the past decade.

Not only mining exports in the first three months of the year jumped 44% from the same period of 2021 to $3.75 billion, the best result in a decade. The industry is also on track to bring in a record 8.8 trillion pesos ($2.2 billion) in taxes and royalties during 2022, according to the Colombian Mining Association (ACM).

Assuming the new president doesn’t overhaul the sector, Colombia’s income from mining would jump 69% this year from the previous 2021 record of 5.2 trillion pesos, the association said last week, crediting rising prices for the projected increase.

Petro, the 62-year-old left-wing candidate, is running on a platform that proposes radical changes to the country’s economic model to combat one of the highest inequality rates in the world.

Petro has said that under his administration, coal and oil reserves will be left buried and new licences prohibited, while his government will search for ways to finance the country’s economy decarbonization. He has also promised to ban large-scale open-pit mining.

The candidate, who be the first leftist president in Colombia’s history if he wins in June, wants the state to take control of all water basins used for energy generation and mining projects.

Petro, who obtained 40% of the votes, has also vowed to increase environmental, labor and tax controls on ongoing mining operations.

He said he’ll protect artisanal and small-scale miners, while making big companies responsible for environmental liabilities, including land rehabilitation and water sources clean-up.

Petro’s rival in the runoff will be billionaire Hernández, the self-proclaimed “King of TikTok” who adopted a confrontational stance with traditional media, drawing comparisons to that of former US President Donald Trump and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro.

When it comes to mining, Hernández is less specific than Petro. The 77-year-old, who obtained 28% of the votes, has said he’ll hold multinationals accountable to the same standards they have to follow in their countries of origin. At the same time, he wants to attract investment in the sector with clear permitting rules that included strategic meeting with communities close to projects.

Hernández also wants to modify the Penal Code to include damages to the environment, including risks to public health, as a crime.

He proposes a special protection plan for the Colombian Amazon and the country’s biodiversity-rich areas, which today are affected by illegal extraction and deforestation.