Pribbenow Coal Mine

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Pribbenow Coal Mine (Mina Pribbenow) is an operating coal mine in Cesar, Colombia.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Pribbenow Coal Mine	Cesar, Colombia	9.575297, -73.484914 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the coal mine:

Loading map...

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Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Opening Year	Closing Year
Operating	–	1995	–

Table 3: Operation details

Note: The asterisk (*) signifies that the value is a GEM estimated figure.

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
–	5.75	2022	Surface	Open Pit	66	60*	3500

Table 4: Coal resources and destination

Total Reserves (Mt)	Year of Total Reserves Recorded	Total Resources (Mt)	Coalfield	Coal Type	Coal Grade	Primary Consumer/ Destination
561	–	–	Cesar Coal Basin	Bituminous	Thermal	Puerto Drummond coal port

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
Drummond Ltd	Drummond Company Inc [100%]	United States

Note: The above section was automatically generated and is based on data from the GEM April 2024 Global Coal Mine Tracker dataset.

Background

Pribbenow coal mine (or Mina Pribbenow, La Loma Mine) is an open-pit coal mine, operated by Drummond Ltd, a subsidiary of Drummond Company Inc, in the Cesar Coal Basin, near La Loma, Colombia. Mina Pribbenow is operated by Drummond Ltd and owned 100% by Alabama-based Drummond Company Inc through its Colombian subsidiary Drummond International LLC. Along with the nearby El Descanso mine, Pribbenow is a part of Drummond's Colombian coal mining operations. Coal from Pribbenow is transported 193 kilometers (120 miles) by railcar on the renovated portion of the Colombian National Railroad System to Puerto Drummond on the northern coast for export.

In January 2019, Colombia's national mining agency announced that it had extended Drummond’s license to operate its La Loma mine for an additional 20 years.

• Owner: Drummond International LLC
• Parent company: Drummond Company Inc
• Location: Cesar Coal Basin between La Loma and and La Jagua de Ibirico.
• GPS coordinates: 9.567351, -73.500957
• Mine status: Operating
• Start year: "early 1990s"
• Mineable reserves: 561.2 million tonnes
• Coal type: bituminous
• Mine size: 6,600 hectares
• Mine type: Surface
• Production: 7.6 million tonnes (2021)
• Additional proposed production:
• Equipment: 21 diesel-fueled generator (Caterpillar® 3516 and 3516B), 21 apron feeders, Marion 8750 Dragline, 145 793B, 793C and 793D Cat trucks, Caterpillar Customer Communication system and Allan Bradley RS Logix 500, KRUPP Conveyor System Spreaders
• Number of employees:

Coal Production & Exports

In early 2022, Drummond reported that it had been Colombia's leading coal producer for six consecutive years. Combined production from all of Drummond's Colombian mines totaled 28.9 million tonnes in 2021, while exports rose to 31.5 million tonnes. The Pribbenow mine accounted for slightly more than a quarter of Drummond's Colombian production (7.6 million tonnes) in 2021.

Coal production at Drummond's Colombian operations totaled 29.3 million tonnes in 2020 and 32.6 million tonnes in 2019, with the Pribbenow mine contributing 7.8 million tonnes in 2020 and nearly 10 million tonnes in 2019. In 2022, the Pribbenow (La Loma) mine reportedly produced 5.7 million tonnes of coal, and was projected to produce 6.7 million tonnes in 2023.

Production and Exports - Drummond Mines in Colombia

Mtpa = million tonnes per annum

Year	Production - El Descanso (Mtpa)	Production - Pribbenow (Mtpa)	Total Production (Mtpa)	Total Exports (Mtpa)
2022	20.4	5.7	27.6	27.7
2021	20.6	7.6	28.9	31.5
2020	21.5	7.8	29.3	29.7
2019	23.1	9.5	32.6	31.1
2018			30.8	31.5
2017			32.5	32.4

Ownership

Mina Pribbenow is a project of the Drummond Company Inc. In 2011 Drummond sold a 20% stake in its Colombian mining operations to the Japanese company Itochu Corp. In early 2021 Drummond Company Inc reassumed 100% ownership of the mines.

Controversies and paramilitary links

According to the New York Times in 2002, Drummond has been "accused of encouraging the assassination of three union leaders at its giant coal mine in Colombia. Drummond has been investigated over accusations it paid local paramilitary groups to kill union leaders. As of August 2022, the Colombian Commission for the Clarification of the Truth has confirmed that Drummond, along with other multinational mining companies, did form alliances with paramilitaries as early as 1996, through agreements adding up to almost 5,000 million pesos, to ensure and expand its mining projects. Jaime Blanco, a Drummond contractor in charge of supplying food for La Loma mine workers, confessed to using his company Servicios y Alimentación (ISA) as a mechanism to channel money from Drummond in favor of the Northern Bloc of the AUC through cost overruns in food contracts." Through these alliances, paramilitaries assisted in taking land from peasants and giving it in mining titles to Drummond. In 2012, the alliances between paramilitaries and mining companies including Drummond resulted in the murder of landowners in Mechoacán and El Prado, as well as other human rights violations.

In 2013, after "continuously fail[ing] to retool its operations" per a Colombian government mandate, Drummond was forced to pay a $3.6 million fine, according to In These Times.

In 2013, a ship carrying coal at Puerto Drummond overturned, spilling hundreds of tons of coal into the water. As a result, the Colombian government suspended Drummond's export license for nearly a month and implemented a new regulation requiring direct ship loading as of 1 January 2014.

Drummond blamed the spill in part on construction delays tied to a 2013 mine workers' strike. According to In These Times, "the unrest that led to that labor action arguably stems from the same situation environmentalists blame for the dumping: the notorious impunity of many multinationals in the Global South, particularly in the energy sectors, which exploit poor countries' resources and workers to feed carbon-burning industries abroad."

In September 2017, a senior construction supervisor was killed by a falling electric gate in the warehouse area of Pribbenow mine.

Articles and Resources

Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of world coal mines, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Mine Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.