The National Mining Agency ("ANM") published for comments a Draft Resolution, by which it intends to modify the administrative procedure of the Special Reserve Areas ("ARE"), established in Article 31 of the Mining Code (the "Proyect"). 

The Project complies with the guidelines set forth in the National Development Plan 2018-2022, which establishes the importance of proposing a legal framework that integrates differentiated mining and environmental instruments and strengthens the figure of the ARE as a legal mechanism for the formalization of traditional mining. 

Thus, the Project contemplates 7 chapters and 25 articles that regulate the administrative procedures that must be carried out to request the declaration of an AER, the causes for its rejection, the procedure for its delimitation, the rights and obligations of the beneficiaries of a declared AER, among others. 

It is important to remember that, according to article 31 of the Mining Code, "the mining authority or the person acting on its behalf [...] shall delimit, in those areas where there are traditional informal mining operations, zones in which new proposals for all or some minerals will not be accepted on a temporary basis" with the aim of carrying out geological-mining studies and developing strategic mining projects in the country and its implementation. In any case, the article establishes that "the geological-mining studies and the initiation of the respective projects may not take more than 2 years", and that the ARE concession will only be granted to the same communities that have carried out the traditional mining operations. 
 

The ANM will receive comments from the interested community until May 25, 2020, and these should be sent to the e-mail:  grupodefomentominero@anm.gov.co 

To see the Project, please go to the following link: https://www.anm.gov.co/sites/default/files/DocumentosAnm/res_
proyecto_modifica_tra_admin_areas_reserva_esp_art31_ley_685_2001.pdf