Thermal coal producers in north-eastern Colombia have begun the arduous task of exporting 220,000 tonnes of the mineral after shipments were halted and mines shuttered as Venezuela closed several border crossings, an industry official said on Wednesday. The small-scale miners are shifting as little as 900 tonnes a day, meaning it could take weeks to move the stored fuel which usually goes via neighbouring Venezuela, destined for the United States, Central America, the Caribbean, Brazil and Peru.
Colombia is the world's fourth-largest exporter of coal. The artisanal producers from Norte de Santander province normally move the coal at a daily rate of 6,000 tonnes across the border and by barge through Lake Maracaibo to the Caribbean. Socialist President Nicolas Maduro has shut several major border crossings over the last month and deported more than 1,500 Colombians in what he characterizes as a crackdown on smuggling and crime. Another 16,000 have returned home voluntarily.
"The stored coal has started to move by highway and via the Magdalena River toward ports in Barranquilla and Santa Marta," said Jaime Rodriguez, director of coal producers' association Asocarbon, referring to major ports on Colombia's northern Caribbean Sea. "Initially 900 tonnes are moving daily, but we need to increase this capacity to get the largest quantity possible out," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Colombia's roads are notoriously badly maintained and slow-moving. Some mines were obliged to halt production and can only restart if the coal is exported, Rodriguez added. Small-scale subterranean mines in the area produce as much as 2.2 million tonnes a year at a rate of between 1,000 and 15,000 tonnes per month.