"The debts of copper in Carmen de Atrato: An examination of the El Roble mining project" - March 15, 2025 –

...The El Roble mine, located in El Carmen de Atrato, Chocó, is the only copper mine currently in operation in Colombia. Established by the Gaviria family in the 1990s, its operations expanded rapidly after being acquired in 2013 by the Canadian multinational Atico Mining Corporation. Although the project was declared a Project of National and Strategic Interest (PINE) in 2018 due to the high international demand for copper for the energy transition, its history has been marked by irregularities and mounting debts... El Roble operates with an expired mining title, without an environmental license, and with a multi‑million‑dollar debt in unpaid royalties from more than 30 years of copper extraction in Colombia. Its expansion has contributed to the displacement of rural farming communities and to the forced transformation of the productive vocation of El Carmen de Atrato, once considered the agricultural breadbasket of Chocó. Promises of development stand in stark contrast to a scenario of illegality and environmental devastation that demands immediate responses...