Tomorrow Thursday 11th August is the official swearing-in ceremony of Irene Vélez, Colombia’s new Minister of Mines and Energy. An avowed anti-mining environmental activist and academic, we already know that in partnership with the new Minister of the Environment, her first move tomorrow will be to send a law project to Congress to ban fracking in Colombia. As for her hard rock mining credentials, take a look at this academic paper she published in 2014 on the subject and if Spanish isn’t your thing, run it through Google Translate to get the picture. Fascinating stuff and it’s notable how even back then, Ms. Vélez Torres was fully aware of the controversy around the Páramo de Santurbán (Minesa et al).
As from this week, exposure to Colombia-based mining companies is akin to throwing your money down the toilet so later down the line, don’t say you weren’t warned.