Colombian gold production is expected to more than double over the next decade as a crackdown on leftist rebels makes wide areas of the country safe for exploration after decades of violence.Colombia, home to the legend of a gold-filled lake called El Dorado, will produce 41.5 tonnes (1.463 million ounces) of the metal this year, twice what it did before the government went on the attack against the guerrillas six years ago, Director of Mines Beatriz Duque told Reuters on Tuesday.
In 2002, when popular President Alvaro Uribe was first elected on promises of crushing the 44-year-old insurgency, Colombia produced 20 tonnes of gold. The rebels, financed by cocaine smuggling, have since been pushed deep into rural areas having lost several top leaders this year.
Speaking from her offices in the capital, Bogota, Duque said gold output would likely hit 106 tonnes by 2019 as new mines come on stream.
“We are still an underexplored country on a detailed level in terms of mining, precisely due to the fact that security conditions kept us closed to investment,” Duque said.
EL DORADO: MYTH OR REALITY?
Duque’s job is to jump-start the flow of information and other services to investors as the sector draws new interest. Fifty-four companies, more than half of them Canadian, are exploring for gold and other metals in Colombia.
Improved security is drawing prospectors in droves, just as the Spaniards were lured to Colombia centuries ago by the myth of El Dorado.
Foreign investment in the overall mining sector was $798 million in the first quarter of this year compared with $466 million in all of 2002, according to central bank figures.
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