The main producer in the Guajira
department is the Cerrejón mine,
owned and operated by a consortium
of BHP Billiton, Anglo American and
Glencore. Total production in 2012 from
the Cerrejón Basin, as reported by
Ingeominas,
2
was 35.09 million t – of
which 34.45 million t came from the
Cerrejón mine. Production from the
mine is transported for export by rail to
Puerto Bolivár on the Caribbean. The
port has recently been upgraded for a
maximum capacity of 40 million t.
Similar to other Colombian
producers, production at the Cerrejón
mine has been impacted by industrial
disputes – particularly rail strikes
during the period.
La Caypa mine, operated by Pacific
Coal, is nearing the end of its original
designed opencast reserves and Pacific
have been trialling underground
mining in order to access underground
coal resources.
The typical regional geological
structure of the basin consists of
southeast and northwest dipping thrust
sheets, probably splays off the Cerrejón
hrust to the southeast, which are broken
up by east-west and northwest-
southeast striking steeply dipping
strike-slip/normal and reverse faults.
Broad open folds occur between the
large thrust faults. To the northwest, the
coal bearing strata are limited by the
Rancheriá thrust. Strata within the
César-Rancheriá Basin have an average
dip of about 15˚ to the southeast.
Thrusts have produced repetition of the
coal bearing strata at the Cerrejón mine
and have favourably impacted on
stripping ratios.
In Cesar, the largest producer is the
La Loma (Pribbenow) mine, owned and
operated by Drummond, which has
also recently begun operations on the
Descanso mine. Adjacent mines include
La Francia and El Hatillo (recently
acquired by Murray Energy Corp.) and
Calenturitas (Prodeco/Glencore
International). Prodeco/Glencore also
operate most of the production in the
La Jagua area and transfer
higher‑quality coal by road for blending
at Calenturitas. In 2012, Drummond
production at La Loma and at Descanso
was 17.18.4 million t and 8.83 million t
respectively, while the total production
from the department of Cesar was
46.68 million t.
The main producing region is
centred on the town of La Loma and the
La Loma syncline, with the nearby La
Jagua de Iberico syncline holding some
higher calorific value (CV) coals, but in
Table 1. Coal production 2005 to 2013 (thousand t) (2013: Q1 production only)
Department
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
Guajira
27 180
29 073
30 069
31 940
31 431
31 098
33 356
35 093
4584
Cesar
27 710
31 118
33 187
33 676
34 050
36 016
43 688
46 679
12 057
Other Departments 4785
6000
6647
7887
7332
7235
8765
5557
1753
Total
61 680
68 197
71 910
75 511
74 822
76 359
87 820 89 341
18 394
Source: Ingeominas.
Main coal occurrences in Colombia.
18
|
World Coal
|
December 2015
