TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The Colombian government over the weekend announced that it planned to hold workshops with those who may be affected by the boundaries and those who would be involved in the sustainability of the Páramo of Santurbán, before it would declare the final boundaries of the environmentally sensitive area.

Colombia-focused project developer Eco Oro Minerals on Monday announced that the Colombian Environment and Sustainable Development Ministry, also known as Mads, on Saturday indicated that, among other things, decisions relating to the Páramo would reflect the overall strategy of the national government, integrating social, environmental and economic aspects, further noting that Mads would only declare the boundaries of the Páramo after it had held the workshops.

Mads said that the workshops would focus on ecological restoration and protection of water, sustainable mining and agriculture activities, and payment for environmental services.

These workshops would entail national and regional multidisciplinary governmental authorities, control agencies and industry representatives.

The first of these workshops would involve settling on the methodology to be adopted and timelines, and was expected to take place during next week.

“We will continue to work with all relevant stakeholders to facilitate the Colombian authorities' delineation of the boundaries of the Páramo of Santurbán and, in particular, in the area of the Angostura project.

“We believe that Eco Oro should not be inhibited from proceeding with developing the Angostura project on the basis of the finding of the ecosystem biodiversity study, conducted by Ecodes Ingenieria, that the company's Angostura deposit was not in the Páramo and [on the basis of] the legal definitional criteria set out in the National Development Plan,” Eco Oro president and CEO João Carrêlo said.

Carrêlo in August told Mining Weekly Online the firm was eagerly awaiting a decision by the Colombian government defining the boundaries of the Páramo, which would potentially impact on the company’s operations at its flagship multimillion-ounce Angostura project, located in north-eastern Colombia.

The company had been involved with the project for 18 years during which it had invested more than $230-million in the project's development and in that of the surrounding communities.

The Colombian government had in June declared the Angostura project a “project of national interest”.

Eco Oro, formerly known as Greystar Resources, had faced opposition from local authorities, the country's inspector general and environmental groups. They called its Angostura gold project a threat to the delicate Andean ecosystem.

Critics have said mining would affect Santurban, a so-called "paramo" area believed to be the source of rivers and streams that supply water to 2.2-million inhabitants in Colombia.

The move by the country's Environment Ministry to create the park effectively rules out any mining in an area of more than 12 000 ha in northern Santander province.

The Angostura deposit covers a total area of 215 ha of which 193 ha, or 90%, falls outside of the unofficial surface boundaries of the park. Of the previously disclosed mineral resources for the deposit, about three-million ounces of gold equivalent, or 89% of the indicated resources, and 2.3-million ounces of gold equivalent, or 96% of the inferred resources, fall outside the surface boundaries of the park.