Cerrejón

Cerrejón
Colombian coal mine
Industry Open-pit coal mining
Headquarters Albania, La Guajira, Colombia
Products Coal
Owner Republic of Colombia

Cerrejón is a field or coal mine, located in the basin of the Ranchería River, southeast of La Guajira Department in Colombia, east of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and west of the Perijá Mountains, in line with the border with Venezuela. It is an open-pit mine, and is one of the largest mines of that type. The coal mine was divided into three main corresponding areas Cerrejón North Zone, Cerrejón Central Zone and Cerrejón South Zone. The mine extends over 69,000 hectares (170,000 acres).

History

The 19th century

There is controversy about the discoverer of Cerrejon mine, and some names are shuffled, the American civil engineer John May, hired by the national government, which conducted the examination in 1864, the writer Jorge Isaacs and Mr. Juan Gomez Osío, native of La Guajira. In the 19th century small scale mining began.

Cerrejón North Zone

As a major part of the history of the Cerrejón mine, it should be mentioned the "defunct" company Intercor (International Colombia Resources Corporation Intercor), which was the company that became reality, which in its time was called "The Cerrejón Zona Norte Coal Project".

In December 1976, a partnership contract was signed between Carbocol S. A. (Carbones de Colombia S. A.), a state-owned firm, and Intercor (International Colombia Resources Corporation Intercor), at the time Exxon, today ExxonMobil subsidiary, to develop the north zone of Cerrejón. This contract considered three stages: exploration (1977–1980), construction (1981–1986), and production (1986–2009). In January 1999, the Colombian government extended the concession for a further 25 years, to 2034.

Cerrejón Central Zone

In this zone, there are two areas under concession:

Patilla Area

In 2001, after a public tender, this area was ceded to a consortium comprising Carbones del Cerrejón S. A. and Cerrejón Zona Norte S.A., which is currently concessioned to subsidiaries of BHP Billiton, Anglo American, and Xstrata.

Cerrejón South Zone

In 1997, after a tender process, the exploration and mining contract for this zone was awarded to the consortium now comprising subsidiaries of BHP Billiton, Anglo American, and Xstrata. Currently, the Cerrejón South Zone is under exploration.

Operation, installations and operator

The Cerrejón is a thermal coal mine, currently operated by the company “Carbones del Cerrejón Limited, Cerrejón”, currently extracting and exploiting coal in the coal mine Cerrejón. "Carbones del Cerrejón Limited, Cerrejón", producer and exporter operating in La Guajira department, Colombia. Its operations include an open-pit mine producing over 32 million tonnes of coal a year, a 150-km railway line, and Puerto Bolívar, a maritime shipping terminal servicing vessels of up to 180,000 tonnes. The added value of this mining operation lies in its integrated operation (mine-railway-port), which is unique in Colombia. The integration guarantees greater production efficiency and less environmental impact.

Corporate identity of the company Carbones del Cerrejón Limited, Cerrejón. Company currently, extractor and exploiter of the Cerrejón coal mine.
Overburden removal.
Mining operations at one of Cerrejón pits.
Coal train.
Bolívar Port.

Integrated Operation

Figures

Mining Fleet

Carbones del Cerrejón has a mining fleet comprising 493 pieces of equipment: 258 trucks with a load capacity of 190, 240, and 320 tonnes, 50 hydraulic shovels, and 185 pieces of auxiliary equipment.

Infrastructure

Railway

Puerto Bolívar

Airports

Mine-Puerto Bolívar Motorway

Mushaisa Residential Unit

Extraction Process

The extraction process begins with the identification and relocation of wildlife in the area slated for intervention. Then the land is cleared and the topsoil is removed and stored in soil banks for the future reclamation of areas intervened by the mining operation. Subsequently, the area is drilled and explosives inserted for blasting so the hydraulic shovels can remove the overburden. This waste rock is loaded on 240-tonne and 320-tonne trucks and deposited in waste rock dump sites.

See also

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cerrejón.

Coordinates: 11°05′22″N 72°40′31″W / 11.08944°N 72.67528°W / 11.08944; -72.67528

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, January 09, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.