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Cerrejon
Cerrejon is a coal mine located in the Guajira department in the north of Colombia. It is the largest mining operation in Colombia and among the largest open-pit coal mines in the world. The legal entity managing the Cerrejon operation is known as the Cerrejon Coal Company, and was started as a joint venture of three international mining firms BHP Billiton, Anglo American Plc and Glencore International AG, each with a 33.3% shareholding; in 2006, Glencore's operations were bought by Xstrata Plc.
The output of the mine in 2004 was 24.9 million tons . Cerrejon contributes about half of Colombia's coal exports of 52 million tons, with Colombia ranked sixth among major coal exporting nations. The company plans to expand production to 32 million tons by 2008.
History
The Cerrejon mine is divided into three main zones.
Development of the north zone began in 1976 as a joint venture
between Carbocol (owned by the Colombian government) and Intercor
(owned by ExxonMobil). The total investment in the project,including the mine, port and infrastructure, was approximately
US$3,000 million. The original joint venture was for 33 years, but
the expiration date has since been extended to 2034.
In November 2000, the government sold its 50% share in the venture to a consortium of BHP Billiton, Anglo American and Glencore International. This consortium acquired the remaining 50% from ExxonMobil in February 2002, for US$366 million.
Production in the central zone began in 1981. It was owned by
several companies before being acquired by Glencore International in
1995. Anglo American and BHP Billiton joined the venture in 1997
and 2000, respectively.
The three partners acquired the exploration and production rights to
the south zone in 1997. As of 2005, this zone remained at the
evaluation stage.
Production
The operation is an open-pit mine, in which the
topsoil and other material is cleared away to expose the coal seam.
The coal is loaded onto trucks that carry it to the crushing
facilities and then to two silos, from where it is loaded onto
trains.
The company has its own 150km standard-gauge railroad, connecting
the mine to its coal-loading terminal at Puerto Bolivar on the
Caribbean coast. There are two 120-car unit trains, each carrying
12,000 tons of coal per trip. The round-trip time for each train,
including loading and unloading, is about 12 hours. The coal
facilities at the port are capable of loading 4,800 tons per hour on
to vessels of up to 175,000 tons of dead weight.
The mine, railroad and port operate 24 hours per day.
Cerrejon directly employs 4,600 workers, with a further 3,800
employed by contractors.
The reserves at Cerrejon are low-sulfur, low-ash, bituminous coal.
The coal is mostly used for electric power generation, with some
also used in steel manufacture. The surface mineable reserves for
the current contract are 330 million tons. However, total proven
reserves to a depth of 300 metres are 3,000 million tons.
See also
Puerto Bolivar Airport
External links
Cerrejon Coal website. Contains information on operations as well as the company's environmental and community projects.
BHP Billiton - Cerrejon Coal Company. Information from one of the three shareholders in the mine.
Mining-Technology.com. Cerrejon information at a mining industry website.
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Cerrejon
