LAS PALMERAS MINE
To guarantee the supply of coal for the Gecelca 3 Power Plant, GECELCA owns the Las Palmeras coal mine, located in the municipality of Puerto Libertador, Cordoba.
Located 33 kilometers from the GECELCA 3 Power Plant.
The mining title began in June 2008, with plate number JDF - 1600.
It has an environmental license approved by the Regional Autonomous Corporation of the Sinu and San Jorge Valleys (CVS) and authorization from the National Mining Agency (ANM).
Its approved production is up to 600,000 tons of coal per year.
The mining stage runs from June 2019 to June 2038, extendable for an additional 30 years.
PROGRESS OF THE MINING OPERATION
The mine will be developed using the open-pit mining method by the truck-and-shovel system.
Due to the low resistance of the rocks in the deposit, drilling and blasting with explosives will not be necessary.
OUR ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITMENT
To preserve GECELCA’s environmental commitment, several activities have been carried out. These include:
Its objective is to ensure that the environmental impacts on wildlife are of the lowest intensity, based mainly on training of operating personnel, and on scaring, capturing, relocating, and monitoring individuals of wild species whose habitat is disturbed by the development of the mine.
It involves the activities carried out to remove the vegetation cover present in the areas to be intervened. It includes the cleaning of herbaceous and shrub species: cutting, stacking, collecting, transporting, and chipping of shrub residues.
GECELCA carries out forest compensation for the intervened areas.
The activities include location and extension of areas for soil removal, measurement of soil thickness, removal of stripping material and arrangement of the soil stockpile area.
The internal roads, soil stockpiles, dumps and the access road to the mine are wetted daily, according to weather conditions in the area.
To monitor particulate matter and evaluate the control measures of the mine, GECELCA has a monitoring station that reports in real time; in this way, immediate decisions can be made if increases in concentration are recorded during operating activities.
GECELCA performs periodic monitoring by calculating the decibels received at each of the stations located in the project’s direct area of influence.
Additionally, the mining operator must perform periodic maintenance (lubrication and synchronization) on all machinery, according to the manufacturer’s specifications.
There is a wastewater treatment system for water from the workshops, coal yard, and offices.
GECELCA periodically takes measurements to determine the water component at the Las Palmeras
The mine has an Occupational Health and Safety Management System for the mining operation, as well as a Biosafety Protocol to deal with the health emergency caused by COVID-19. The disaster risk management plan is also being implemented.
The Las Palmeras mine is certified in Biosafety Operations by ICONTEC.
