Mining and Indigenous Peoples in Colombia

Following the adoption of various regulations that allowed for the private ownership of mines and oil fields and required the State to grant concessions for their exploitation on empty State lands, Law 20 of 1969 established the nation's dominion over mineral resources and the subsoil, declared the public utility and social interest of the mining industry and opened up the possibility of direct exploitation by the State. In application of this Law, the Colombian Oil Company, Ecopetrol, and the Colombian Mining Company, Ecominas, were created and established as the direct administrators of the subsoil resources, which were to be exploited directly or via Partnership Agreements. The El Cerrej?n coal mines, in La Guajira, thus began operating and a public company, Carbones de Colombia, S.A. or Carbocol, was established for this purpose. In 1976, a Partnership Agreement was signed between this company and Intercor, a subsidiary of the North American Exxon Mobil Corp