Colombia rejects Glencore unit's return of two coal mining concessions
BOGOTA -Colombia’s national mining agency (ANM) said on Wednesday it has initially rejected a request by coal miner Prodeco, a wholly-owned unit of miner and commodity trader Glencore, to return two of its Colombian concessions.
Anglo-Swiss company Glencore said in February Prodeco would
hand back its operations at the Calenturitas and La Jagua mines to Colombia,
after its request to keep the operations on care and maintenance was denied by
the ANM.
The two mines were placed on care and maintenance last March
amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Obligations which must be met before returning two of the
contracts for concessions included within La Jagua - including for
environmental management - remain outstanding, the ANM said in a statement,
making the request to return them “legally inviable.”
“It’s not possible for the (agency) to approve the request
for resignation because it is not up-to-date in complying with all contractual
obligations at the time of submitting the resignation, as required by the
mining code,” ANM President Juan Miguel Duran said in a separate message.
While the request to hand back the DKP-141 and HKT-08031
contracts has initially been denied, the company can request to relinquish the
concessions again in the future.
“Prodeco is acting in full accordance with the legal and
regulatory framework governing our operations and the mining sector,” the
company said in an email, adding that it is evaluating the ANM’s decision.
The two mining operations are made up of five concessions,
including one at Calenturitas. Resignation requests for the three remaining
concessions are still being evaluated, Duran said, while a sixth concession at
La Jagua finished in 2019.
Glencore’s coal production in 2020 fell 24% to 106 million
tonnes, with Prodeco’s output plummeting 76% to 3.8 million tonnes.
Production at Cerrejon - a Colombian coal mine owned jointly
by Glencore, Anglo American and BHP - also fell last year, declining 52% to
12.4 million tonnes.
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