La Minería ilegal, según la ley, es aquella desarrollada sin estar inscrita en el Registro Minero Nacional y, por lo tanto, ejercida sin título minero. Informal mining besides being practiced without the respective title, It does not have Environmental Management Plans, fails to make payment of royalties for municipalities, It does not bind workers to social security and possesses no protection on the farm.

The exercise of illegal mining, besides being a crime punishable by imprisonment in prison with sentences ranging from 48 and 108 months in prison, in accordance with the Law 1453 of 2011, also causes significant damage to rivers and water bodies that supply the aqueducts of towns and cities, likewise causes erosion, avalanches and destruction of the ecosystem.

The Colombian laws have been tightened to punish in an exemplary manner offenders and environmental criminals, it is pertinent to state that law enforcement today has legal instruments that allow you to immobilize the machinery that is in the exploitation of illegal mines, Law also 1333 of 2009 empowers the operator of the environmental authority in harmony with other punitive rules to combat this environmental infringement.

environmental impacts of illegal mining

– It generates erosion and harmful effects on soil, which results in lower productivity, impairment of biodiversity and problems associated with natural cycles as the water cycle and biological processes of the fauna and flora.

– The release of toxic substances used for extracting metals, minerals and general, ground or underground organics, are harmful to the survival of animal species, plant and human health.

– Mismanagement of sulfuric acid and iron oxides, greatly harm the surrounding environment, whenever the concentration of these substances lead to an imbalance in soil properties and progressive devastation of flora.

– The informality of the procedures used for illegal mining, often transgress standards technical suitability and thus, acrecenta environmental detriment.

With the philosophy of the current direction of Corpoguajira, to coordinate with other state entities exercising environmental authority, we can show that in coordination with the Ejercito Nacional de Colombia, No battalion 6 Cartagena and members of the National Police; an outbreak of illegal mining was intervening basins of the rivers that descend from the Sierra Nevada mountains and flow into the Caribbean Sea in the municipality of Dibulla was dismantled.

Artisanal and informal detected in the Department of La Guajira, They are being combated firmly by Corpoguajira, but also be subject to intervention to formalize activity, understanding that the mining operation developed by our indigenous and other informal miners should embrace the opportunity granted them by law and this administration for their prompt legitimacy.