Cerrejón
El Cerrejón is a coal mine in the northern part of Colombia. It extends over a total area of 69,000 ha and is the largest coal mine in Latin America and one of the largest coal surface mines in the world.
Location and economic importance
The mine is located on the Guajira Peninsula in northeastern Colombia. Your capacity in 2008 was 31.3 million tons of coal and thus good 42 % of the total coal production in Colombia. 90 % of the coal will be sold and exported through long-term contracts. The coal from El Cerrejón is mainly sold to North America and Europe but increasingly also to China. With the coal export about 2.5 billion U.S. dollars will be achieved, which makes up 0.4 % of the gross domestic product of Colombia. In the mine 2008 5.116 persons were employed in the year; with suppliers and subcontractors, it offers over 9,200 people work. By 2017, the promotion in El Cerrejón should werden.Vorlage expanded to 60 million tonnes a year: Future / in 3 years
History
In December 1976 founded the Colombian state company Carbones de Colombia SA, Carbocol and Intercor, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, the joint venture Cerrejón El Norte. The mine site was explored in 1977, 1980, work began at the mine in 1986 and began mining in the northern part of the mine. 1999 extended the Colombian state the mining rights for the area to 2034th
In the central area of the mine has been mined since 1981 by various companies coal. 1995, the Company acquired the Glencore mining rights and founded the company Carbones del Cerrejón, SA. , 1997 company shares were sold to Anglo American, Billiton 2,000 additional shares in BHP. In a second mine in this area was supported by a joint venture between the Colombian government and Carbones del Caribe coal. 1995 sold the mineral rights to his company Oreganal, SA ', which sold them to Carbones del Cerrejón 1999. In 2000, Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Glencore bought the shares in El Norte Cerrejón of Carbocol, 2002, the shares of Intercor worth U.S. $ 366 million. The company Carbones del Cerrejón, S. A. and Cerrejon Norte were then used to Cerrejón Coal Company merged.
The mining rights for the third mining area, the 32 -acre Patilla area were awarded in 2001 .. The fourth mining area in the south of the mine was Billiton in 1997 to a consortium of subsidiaries of BHP, awarded Anglo American and Xstrata and is currently being explored.
Geology and reserves
The reserves of the Cerrejón are low in sulfur and therefore well suited for energy production and for the production of steel. Approx. 950 million tons of total flow rate can be estimated to 100 m depth, 2,000 million tons to 200 meters and 3,000 million tons to 300 meters depth. 2009 were discovered on the site of the mine vertebrae of the extinct giant snake Titanoboa.
Quality of the coal
The production consists of highly volatile " bituminous B" coal. The material is mixed so that there is a uniform export quality achieved (Properties: Moisture: 11.0 % Ash: 7.5 % Sulfur: 0.7 % Calorific value: 27.2 MJ / kg ( 11,700 BTU / lb) )
Production and infrastructure
Coal is mined in the Cerrejón in seven open pit mines. Waste from the production to be moved over twelve P & H 2800. The coal is removed mechanically with a bulldozer and demolished only there where the rock is too hard. About 95 % of workers and employees in El Cerrejón are men and 80% of the employees are unionized.
The mine is connected via a proprietary 150 km standard gauge railway line to the Caribbean port of Puerto Bolivar. Two up to 130 cars long freight trains transporting 48,000 tonnes in four trips per day. The port can handle up to 6,000 tons per hour and can be loaded with a single charge dock ships. In addition, a company's own airport is on the site of the mine and another in Puerto Bolívar.
Criticism
Because of the inherent open pit relocations, it always comes back to protests by the local population. In addition, the mine workers 'union complained Sintracarbon repeated violations of workers' rights as well as death threats against its members and to community representatives. Colombia is Germany's largest coal supplier; German coal importers ( including RWE, E.ON and STEAG ) is therefore accused by environmental and human rights organizations to tolerate inadequate environmental and human rights standards.