(Minews) - For months, coal miners operating in Colombia have warned that new regulations paired with delays in environmental approvals have began to affect production and damage the embattled local mining industry even further.
In fact, production at the world's fourth largest coal exporting nation dropped 4% to 85.5 million tons last year, below its 89 million target. While not dramatic, the drop is costly for both private companies and the Colombian government, which counts on mining royalties and taxes calculated largely on the amount of coal produced.
On top of that, the nation’s Large Scale Mining Association, which represents 13 of the country’s largest miners, such as Cerrejón, Cerro Matoso, AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) and Drummond, recently denounced that there are about $7.3 billion of expected investments currently stalled.
Coal shipments account for 12% of the Colombia's total exports, placing them second to oil, which makes up 40% of all exports. Exports of the commodity now outpace the South American country's more well-known products, such as coffee and bananas.
Some of the world's top mining companies have operations in Colombia, including Anglo American and BHP Billiton, which jointly own Cerrejón, the country's largest coal producer.
