Gran Colombia Gold
Gran Colombia Gold projects are based on a long-term vision, in operations that not only monitor and take care of financial aspects but also its workforce.
The company has been operating efficiently and productively in recent years not only from within, but has been interacting with the rest of the mining sector and the surrounding area. When Lombardo Paredes arrived in February 2014, he set to consolidate the company's finances, restructuring debts whilst modernizing mining operations.
Mr. Paredes is a mechanical engineer and holds a Master's degree in Economic Analysis and Financial Economics. With over 20 years of experience, he has also worked in the oil sector, holding important financial and development positions for Petroleos de Venezuela and affiliated companies. Mr. Paredes's work has had a positive and impressive impact on Gran Colombia Gold's financial and technical aspects as well as human resources.
High production at lower costs
Gran Colombia Gold is currently developing the Segovia and Remedios operations (both in Antioquia) and Marmato (Caldas) projects.
Gran Colombia Gold bases its vein mining using the electrohydraulic drilling system, facilitated by selective and highly cyclical mining. This secure system makes ore available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The latest figures show that between April and June 2016, Gran Colombia Gold produced a total of 38,229 ounces of gold, 21 percent more than their first quarter; for a total of 69,718 ounces of gold in the first half of 2016. Total gold production for 2016 is estimated to be between 120,000 and 138,000 ounces.
By project ...
• Segovia: 57,883 ounces of gold produced during the first half of 2016 - of which 31,884 were between April and June, it is on its way to reaching between 96,000 and 110,000 ounces by the end of the year.
• Marmato: 987 tons were processed per day, generating a production of 6,345 ounces of gold in the second quarter of this year, bringing the total to 11,835 ounces for the first half of 2016. The year-end projections for this mine total between 24,000 and 28,000 ounces.
Technology for productivity
Gran Colombia Gold's machine pool is best described as being: efficient and causing low environmental impact, equipment that has the necessary specifications required for each mining operation, and able to maximize productivity all the while using energy and fuel in a way that causes minimal environmental impact.
This equipment includes different types of drilling jumbos, seven ton capacity underground mining trucks, sprayed concrete equipment for rock support, and jacklegs for narrow vein secondary drilling.
Engineering and design is supported by Vulcan and Surpac, specialized 3D mining software.
Integration of local resources
In collaboration between Gran Colombia Gold and The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Gran Colombia Gold is involved in integrating and formalizing unregulated mining operations carried out in the surrounding area; moreover, it looks within the local population to supply its labor force and uses local service providers.
Additionally, the company has development processes in place when capacity or experience constraints hinder work with suppliers.
Human Resource Management
Gran Colombia Gold is committed to homegrown talent when filling vacancies and uses specialized management agencies when required. The company has a succession planning program whereby internal people are identified and developed with the potential to fill key business leadership positions in the company.
Gran Colombia Gold also benefits from the collaboration of institutions such as the National Service of Learning (Colombia) (SENA, its local acronym), a government initiative that looks to boost technological development of Colombian companies.
Internally, its open environment enables more than 1,900 direct employees to express their views to senior management.
Links with the community and small-scale mining
Gran Colombia Gold has many community contribution programs in place, including, empowering women entrepreneurs, elimination of child labor, preservation of biodiversity and water resources, implementation of the Global Mercury Project (GMP) and recognizing health as a fundamental right.
Gran Colombia Gold is likewise working to regularize and formalize 50 of its Small Mining Productive Chain units within the next five years.
The GMP has reduced more than 50 tons of mercury in mining operations during the last three years, directly benefiting 42 thousand inhabitants in the Segovia region, a city with the world's third highest mercury contamination levels.
Gran Colombia Gold's environmental management for the first half of 2016 reached 60.78 percent of the targets set forth for the entire year, with a planned investment of US $2.073 million.
