El Cerrejón
El Cerrejón is a hard coal mine in the northernmost part of Colombia . It stretches over a total of 69,000 hectares , making it the largest open-cast coal mine in Latin America and one of the largest in the world.
Location and economic importance
 
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Location of El Cerrejón in La Guajira |
The open pit is located on the Guajira peninsula in northeast Colombia. The annual output in 2008 was 31.3 million tons of coal, which is 42% of the total output of Colombia. 90% of the coal is exported through long-term contracts, primarily to North America and Europe, and increasingly to China.
Approximately 0.4% of Colombia's gross domestic product is generated through coal exports totaling 2.5 billion US dollars . In 2008, 5,116 people were employed in the opencast mine; with suppliers and subcontractors, it employs over 9,200 people. By 2017, production in El Cerrejón is to be expanded to 60 million tons per year. [outdated]
history
In December 1976, the Colombian state-owned company Carbones de Colombia SA, Carbocol and the ExxonMobil subsidiary Intercor founded the El Cerrejón Norte joint venture . The area was explored from 1977 onwards, in 1980 the open pit mining began and in 1986 the first coal was mined. In 1999 the Colombian state extended the mining license until 2034.
From 1981 onwards, coal was mined by various companies in the central part of the mine . In 1995 Glencore acquired the mining rights and founded the company Carbones del Cerrejón, SA In 1997 company shares were sold to Anglo American , and 2,000 additional shares to BHP Billiton . A second mine in this area was produced by a joint venture between the Colombian state and Carbones del Caribe . In 1995 it sold its mining rights to Oreganal, SA , which it sold to Carbones del Cerrejón in 1999.
In 2000 Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Glencore bought the shares in El Cerrejón Norte from Carbocol, and in 2002 also the shares in Intercor for a value of US $ 366 million. The companies Carbones del Cerrejón, SA and Cerrejón Norte were merged to form the Cerrejón Coal Company .
The mining rights for the third, 32 hectare Patilla area were granted in 2001.
The fourth mining area in the south of the open pit was awarded to a consortium of subsidiaries of BHP Billiton, Anglo American and Xstrata in 1997 and is currently being explored.
Geology and reserves
The reserves of the Cerrejón deposit are low in sulfur and therefore well suited for power generation and steel production. Around 950 million tons of total output are estimated up to 100 m depth , 2,000 million tons up to 200 meters and 3,000 million tons up to 300 meters depth.
Coal quality
The production consists of highly volatile "bituminous B" coal. The conveyed material is mixed in such a way that it achieves a uniform export quality (properties: moisture: 11.0%; ash: 7.5%; sulfur: 0.7%; calorific value: 27.2 MJ / kg).
Production and Infrastructure
The coal is extracted from seven open-cast mines. The overburden is blasted and removed with various excavators. Over 95% of the workers and employees in El Cerrejón are men and over 80% of the employees are unionized.
The open pit mine is connected to the Caribbean port of Puerto Bolívar by a company-owned, 150 km long standard gauge railway. Two freight trains with a length of up to 130 wagons transport 48,000 tons in four journeys a day. The port can process up to 6,000 tons per hour and load ships with a single loading dock. There is also a company-owned airfield on the mine site and another in Puerto Bolívar.
criticism
Because of the resettlements associated with the opencast mine, protests by the local population occur again and again. In addition, the Sintracarbón miners 'union has repeatedly complained of violations of workers' rights and death threats against its members and community representatives. The documentary La buena vida - The good life of Jens Schanze is also devoted to the effects of coal mining in El Cerrejón and, in particular, the problem of resettlement .
Colombia is Germany's largest coal supplier; German coal importers (including RWE , E.ON and STEAG ) are therefore accused by environmental and human rights organizations of tolerating inadequate environmental and human rights standards.
Fossils
In 2009, vertebrae of the extinct giant snake Titanoboa were discovered in the open pit mine .
See also
Web links
- Cerrejon SA website (English)
- Colombia: Bloody coal for German electricity , ZEIT ONLINE, September 27, 2012
Individual evidence
- ↑ What we do on www.cerrejoncoal.com ( Memento of the original from May 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ Yamileth Dominguez-Haydar, Inge Armbrecht: Response of Ants and Their Seed Removal in Rehabilitation Areas and Forests at El Cerrejon coal mine in Colombia . In: Restoration Ecology . tape 19 , 2011, p. 178-184 , doi : 10.1111 / j.1526-100X.2010.00735.x .
- ^ BHP, Anglo y Xstrata, con carbón a China , in: la.migalhas.com, March 15, 2010. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
- ↑ Informe de Sostenabilidad 2008 (sustainability report) of the company (Spanish, PDF; 5.29 MB) ( Memento of the original from September 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Peter Buerstedde: Columbia im Kohlerausch (PDF; 85 kB), Federal Agency for Foreign Trade 2008. Retrieved on March 22, 2010.
- ↑ a b Nuestra historia on www.cerrejoncoal.com (Spanish) ( Memento of the original from March 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Informe de Sostenabilidad 2008 (sustainability report) of the company (Spanish) ( Memento of the original from September 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ https://www.cerrejon.com/index.php/nuestra-operacion/mining-operation/?lang=en
- ↑ Instalaciones y servicios de soporte on www.cerrejoncoal.com (Spanish) ( Memento of the original from March 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ [1] Sintracarbon: Colombia: Attack on Labor rights by contracting agency for El Cerrejon mine, July 9, 2009. Accessed March 22, 2010
- ↑ International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers' Unions: Union, Contract Workers Continue Fight for Work Rights at Cerrejón in Colombia ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , January 11, 2010. Retrieved March 22, 2010.
- ↑ Frauke Manninga: No accidental victims: The trade unions in Colombia are looking for a means against repression , lateinamerikanachrichten.de, text: Frauke Manninga Edition: Number 402 - December 2007
- ↑ FIAN-FoodFirst Information and Action Network eV: After a lecture tour in Europe - Colombian community representative threatened several times ( memento of the original from January 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , January 18, 2010. Retrieved March 22, 2010
- ↑ http://www.dasguteleben-film.de/start/
- ↑ Bitter Coal. (PDF; 1.4 MB) urgewald and FIAN , accessed on October 10, 2013 .
- ↑ Roberta Kwik: Scientists find world's biggest snake , in: Naturenews, February 4, 2009. Accessed March 22, 2010
Coordinates: 11 ° 0 ′ 21 ″ N , 72 ° 40 ′ 22 ″ W.