Cerro Colorado Good for Mining

Cerro Colorado is one of the largest copper reserves in the world and the Panamanian Government confirms that it is going to exploit it, reports La Prensa.

The mountain straddles the continental divide in Panama’s western Chiriqui Province and is located within the Ngobe Bugle indian reserve.

First discovered in 1932, the deposit has been under active development since the 1970s  through a series of feasibility studies and partnerships with foreign multinational corporations such as Texasgulf Inc., Canadian Javelin, the British-based Rio Tinto Zinc, and the Canada-based Teck Resources Limited and Tiomin Resources, Inc.

The Government says it sees the mining projects as a way to provide development in poorer zones.  Environmentalist and the Ngobe Bugle are more concerned about economic, ecological and social consequences of these projects which they have been fighting since the Omar Torrijos administration.