The multinational Zijin Mining Group sued Colombia over alleged failures to protect its mining interests from violence by paramilitary group EGC.
The lawsuit was filed before the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) over Zijin’s gold mine in Buritica, a town in Antioquia.
The Chinese mining company acquired the Buritica mining rights in 2020 when they bought a majority stake in Continental Gold, a Canadian firm with multiple operations in Latin America.
Zijin paid $1 billion for Continental Gold’s stocks and its security problems in Buritica, which had become a paramilitary stronghold because of its gigantic gold reserves.
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According to Reuters, Zijin was forced to suspend more than half of its operations in Antioquia because of alleged EGC attacks and disputes with local miners.
The miners claim that a mining formalization process in the early 2010’s led to the hoarding of mining titles by Continental Gold at the expense of local enterprises.
The EGC, which makes money by “taxing” local miners and financing mining operations, has sides with these miners and has violently opposed Zijin’s attempts to operate their mines.
Continental said in 2018 that guerrillas killed three geologists that had been hired by the company to develop its mining operations in Buritica.
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Zijin’s public relations chief, Jorge Castaño, told press last year that two of its workers were killed and 15 were injured in some of thousands of armed attacks against its operations.
According to Castaño, the local miners are illegally operating some 60% of Zijin’s mines with the armed support of the EGC.
Zijin sued the Colombian state because it allegedly failed to protect the investments of the Canadians and the Chinese against local opposition and paramilitary attacks.
The lawsuit will be considered by international law experts that could force the Colombian state to pay the Chinese company.