The three major Colombian coal operators plan port upgrades. The largest coal producer, El Cerrejón,
exports through Puerto Bolivar. (Photo courtesy of El Cerrejón)
Several major Colombain coal operators
have reported progress on expanding port
facilities, which is essential to meet their
goals of growing production to 120 million
metric tons per year (mt/y) in two years,
according to La Republica. This year,
Drummond, Cerrejón and Prodeco will
invest more than $1.3 billion in construc-tion projects and material handling
upgrades. According to Alfonso Saade,
executive director of Fenalcarbon, by 2030
the mines located in regions such as Cesar
and La Guajira plan to produce as much as
200 million mt/y. Saade believes the exist-ing investment allocated to ports and gen-eral facilities will generate enough confi-dence for Colombia to achieve its goals in
terms of future production.
Augusto Jiménez, president of Drum-mond Colombia, said the main works to
construct the port facilities have already
started. These works will allow the compa-ny to load the coal directly into ships
instead of transloading. The $450 million
project is expected to be completed by
2013. In addition to increasing exports,
Jiménez said the projects would also strive
to minimize the emissions.
As featured in Womp 2012 Vol 05 - www.womp-int.com