| Topics |
| Competent authorities to destroy machinery used in illegal mining activities |
| Draft of the bill through which the Mining Law is enacted |
| Criteria for the determination of fees for the collection of inspections and visits by the mining authority |
| Conditions and periodicity of the mining titles production information report |
| Royalties base price |
| Bills |
I. DRAFT OF DECREE – MINISTRY OF DEFENSE
| Topic | Competent authorities to destroy machinery used in illegal mining activities |
| Description | The draft decree seeks to amend articles 2.5.7.2 and 2.5.7.3 of the Sole Regulatory Decree of the Administrative Defense Sector to establish new competent authorities to execute the measure of destruction, disabling or neutralization of machinery used in exploration or exploitation activities without a registered mining title or an environmental license when required. The new competent authorities would be the National Army and the National Navy. |
II. DRAFT BILL – MINISTRY OF MINES AND ENERGY (“MME”)
| Topic | Draft of the bill through which the Mining Law is enacted |
| Description | The Ministry of Mines and Energy published the draft bill for public comment, through which the “Mining Law for the Just Energy Transition, National Reindustrialization and Mining for Life” is enacted. The draft will be open for comments until March 31, 2024. The draft bill intends to amend the mining classification (artisanal, semi-technical, and technical), the mining agreements, the contractual conditions, the mining closure, the forfeiture, fines, and the suspension of the mining agreement, among other topics. The draft bill also intends to create the Areas Excluded from Mining and Areas Suitable for Mining (Strategic Minerals Areas, Mining Formalization Areas, Mining Development Areas, and Ethnic Community Mining Areas). |
III. DRAFT OF RESOLUTIONS – NATIONAL MINING AGENCY (“ANM”)
| Topic | Criteria for the determination of fees for the collection of inspections and visits by the mining authority |
| Description | The draft resolution establishes the criteria and rates for the collection of inspections, monitoring, control, and mining safety visits. Among other matters, the draft lists the activities carried out during the inspection. It establishes the elements considered to set the criteria and the value to be charged for field inspections. Some of the elements are hectares, production, minerals explored or exploited, scope, content, complexity of the service, equipment required, and travel costs to carry out the visit. These provisions would only apply to mining titles prioritized in the biannual Action Plan of the Vice-Presidency of Monitoring and Control. |
| Topic | Conditions and periodicity of the mining titles production information report |
| Description | The NMA seeks to establish the conditions and periodicity of the information reporting that mining owners and beneficiaries must submit through the “Production Control” platform. The above is to provide evidence of the actual production data and support the control processes under the provisions of the first paragraph of Article 17 of Law 2056 of 2020. Through the information registration forms provided by the ANM, the titleholders should fill out the information related to production, inventories, royalties, use of transport machinery, exports and sales, production stoppages, machinery inventory, installed technological capacity, as well as those considered necessary by the mining authority to determine the volume of production. |
IV. RESOLUTIONS – MINING-ENERGY PLANNING UNIT (“UPME”)
| No. | Objective | Period |
| 683 of 2023 | Whereby the base price for liquidating nickel royalties is determined. | The third quarter of the year 2023. |
| 682 of 2023 | Whereby the base price for liquidating coal royalties is determined. | The fourth quarter of the year 2023. |
| 684 of 2023 | Whereby the base price for liquidating royalties of precious stones and metals, iron ores, metallic minerals, and polymetallic concentrates is determined. | The fourth quarter of the year 2023. |
| 324 of 2023 | Whereby the base price for liquidating royalties of non-metallic minerals is determined. | Year 2023-2024 |
V. BILLS
| No. | Objective | Status |
| 114/2022 – Senate 413/2023 House of Representatives | Whereby the exploration and production of certain unconventional reservoirs and the use of the technique of Multi-Stage Hydraulic Fracturing in Horizontal Sections, known as Fracking, is prohibited in the national territory, and other provisions are enacted. | Pending third debate. |
| 195/2022 – Senate 425/2023 House of Representatives | Whereby measures are adopted to promote the rational and efficient use of energy, guidelines are established for the energy efficiency plans of public entities, incentives are provided for sustainable construction, and other provisions are issued. | Pending third debate. |
| 206/2022 – House of Representatives | Whereby natural gas is declared as green energy and other provisions are issued. | Pending second debate. |
| 275/2022 – House of Representatives | The development of the zero- and low-emission hydrogen ecosystem in Colombia is promoted and encouraged to guarantee a correct energy transition, and other provisions are issued – hydrogen economy. | Pending second debate. |
| 248/2024 – Senate 258/2022 –House of Representatives | Whereby the Coffee Cultural Landscape and its buffer zone are established as areas excluded from mega-mining and other provisions are established. | Pending designation of rapporteurs for the third debate. |
| 049/2023 – House of Representatives | Whereby the concept of peasants is adopted, their rights are set forth, their characterization is established, their work is promoted, the legal commission for the defense and protection of peasants is created, and other provisions are enacted. | Pending presentation for the first debate. |
| 076/2023 –House of Representatives | Whereby the Mining Code is reformed, and other provisions are enacted. | Pending presentation for the first debate. |
| 181/2023 –House of Representatives | Whereby the territorial registry system of local labor and entrepreneurs is created as a measure to promote local employment and other provisions are enacted. | Pending the first debate. |
| 125/2023 –Senate | Whereby the rural property is formalized for peasants who can prove tenure or possession, and uncultivated land is awarded to peasant families without land or with insufficient land and to victims of the armed conflict subject to land restitution in areas where processes of exploitation of non-renewable natural resources are being carried out. | Pending first debate. |
| 284/2023 – House of Representatives | Whereby the destination of heavy machinery and its parts confiscated in illegal mining activities is prioritized for developing PDET and ZOMAC works, and other provisions are issued. | Pending designation of rapporteurs for the first debate. |
| 344/2023 – House of Representatives | Whereby the Colombian mineral company -ECOMINERALES- is incorporated, its purpose, nature, organizational structure, and other provisions are determined. | Pending designation of rapporteurs for the first debate. |
Author: Ana Sandoval