Colombian police dismantle highest illegal gold mine in the country

Valentina Ruiz Leotaud | November 15, 2017 | 8:02 pm Precious Metals Latin America Gold 
Colombian authorities destroy highest illegal gold mine at Alto de Toche. Photo by the Colombian Air Force.

Following months of intense training to be able to do a 48-hour hike up a 2,800-metre mountain, 60 officers from the Ibagué Metropolitan Police were able to reach and dismantle Colombia’s highest illegal gold mine.

The 60-hectare site, the largest found in the region to date, was located at Ibagué city’s Alto de Toche jurisdiction, in the western Tolima department. The place is a paramo-forest reserve and the illegal operations happening there were polluting the soil and three rivers that provide drinking water to nearby towns.

“Besides affecting the flora and fauna in the area, the groups operating there were producing almost 10,000 grams of gold every week, worth almost $265,000 or $1.12 million per month,” said Jorge Morales, chief of the Ibagué Metropolitan Police, in a statement (in Spanish).

Morales’ team operation was backed by the Colombian Air Force, the Office of the Attorney General and the local mayor. Illegal machinery, such as crushers, diesel engines, granulators, pulley systems, and even tailings ponds, all of which was valued at almost $1 million, was destroyed.

Apparently, people working at the mine were warned about the police operation, as authorities were not able to find or detain anyone. They believe, however, that activities there were being carried out by a criminal organization with headquarters in a different part of the country.

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3 Comments

  • Altaf

    If an illegal mine is producing 10,000 grams of gold, i.e. 322 ounces, annual production must be 16,720 ounces!! Thats the equivalent of a medium mine!!. If an illegal mine with crude process and outdated machinery could produce 16,700 ounces annually, why no one in government thought of running it themselves?
    Just imagine what a government run responsible mine could to differently :
    1. It will make all the poisoning of the environment disappear,
    2. Provide legal employment to locals from nearby towns,
    3. Generate gross national product worth 20 million dollars,
    4. Infuse further service industry in the locales,
    5. Add to the global supply of gold.
    Who knows if run professionally, the production of ore can be increased and with reduced wastage / runoff in crude processing, the output of gold can be manytimes more.
    Actually this should be the top down approach of the government. If required, running the mine can be passed on to private industry and let bottom up approach of the local population decide the best way forward.
    If one mine can make so much difference, think of all the mines which are wasting resources, polluting sorroundings and forcing bonded labor.

  • Sven

    Batero Gold is in Colombia. Cheap.

  • E. Reis

    Over the last thousands of years, rulers, kings, government or who ever is in power have proven to be incompetent in providing minimum to the population they rule!
    This incompetence has created a vacuum where drug dealers and gold diggers penetrate to provide enough profits to irrigate and control poor communities. Once I heard that Medellin is irrigated every year with USD8B from drugs;
    By simply shutting down illegal gold operations the poor always will be the first to suffer; Governments, if working for the people, should be the first one to replace illegal activities with legal ones, using the info provided by the small miners and mining professionals;
    But this requires knowledge (which they lack) brains ( they have none) and determination (non-existent);
    In short they will do nothing, will shut down eventual gold operations, and life for the poor will remain much unchallenged.

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