SMALL SCALE MINING IN COLOMBIA: NOT SUCH A SMALL ACTIVITY

This article shows the results of this study that solicited information mostly from environmental and mining authorities on both the territorial and national level of the country in order to perform a quantitative and qualitative characterization of the main social, economic, environmental and public policy aspects that surround small mining in Colombia. To that respect we found that 72% of the country's mines correspond to small mining and within this percentage, 66% is illegal. In regards to illegal mines we were able to determine that 39% has more than 10 years of mining exploitation whereby they can be considered non-legalized traditional mining. The role of women and ethnic groups on small mining is also underlined. Finally, failures that the national Government has had to legalize and formalize this activity are evident