Cerrejón

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Cerrejón is a large open-pit coal mine in northern Colombia, in the La Guajira region near the border with Venezuela. It covers about 690 square kilometres and is one of the biggest coal mines in Latin America and among the largest in the world. The mine extracts low-ash, low-sulphur bituminous coal from the Cerrejón Formation, operating in three zones: North, Central and South. It began production in 1985 and is currently owned mainly by Glencore (about 99.9%). In 2016 it produced around 32.68 million tonnes of coal, and reserves are estimated at about 503 million tonnes.

Coal is transported by a 150-kilometre railway to Puerto Bolívar, the largest coal-export port in Latin America, which can handle ships up to 180,000 tonnes. The operation also relies on a highway and a long rail line to move coal to ships. The mine employs thousands of workers, with many from La Guajira and the nearby Caribbean coast.

In 2020, the Wayuu indigenous community asked the UN to halt work over environmental and human-rights concerns, and UN experts called for temporary suspension to address environmental damage and impacts on health and rights.