Mining in Colombia The Sector's Development and Needs

This document addresses the issue of mining in Colombia from the point of view of the regulatory provisions designed for the exercise of this activity, in contrast with the jurisprudence of the high courts with respect to environmental protection, considering that although the state authorities in charge of regulating mining matters in the country have issued a considerable body of regulations, these have been guided more towards the legal security of the licences and concession contracts that, through administrative channels and in compliance with the constitutional principles of the administrative exercise, are handed over to individuals, than towards a significant valuation of environmental protection, This has been guided more towards the legal security of licences and concession contracts that are granted to individuals through administrative channels and in compliance with the constitutional principles of the administrative exercise, than towards a significant valuation of the defence of the environment, fundamentally in defence of the precautionary principle, due to the same need that the government has created for mining, which, being a strategic sector in the country's productivity, has been defined as a locomotive within the current government's economic plans.