Gunmen of the Gulf Clan, a drug-trafficking militia in Colombia, are seizing tunnels inside one of the largest gold motherlodes in Latin America. The mine belongs to Zijin Mining Group, a Chinese company, which says it has surrendered nearly two-thirds of its tunnels and lost an estimated $200 million worth of gold in 2023. WSJ's Juan Forero reports. This episode has been updated to include comment from the Gulf Clan. Further Reading: -A Drug Gang Stole 3 Tons of Gold in a Scam So Perfect It’s Still Going Further Listening: -Smuggling Migrants Toward the U.S. Is a Booming Business -Why Black Lung Is Rising in Coal Country Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the significance of Buritica in Colombia's gold mining scene?
Last summer, our colleague Juan Ferrero left his home base in Bogota, Colombia, to visit a small town in the Andes Mountains.
You know, you're on a highway and then you turn off and you're very soon on a very narrow road that is a winding road that starts to drop, you know, toward a valley. Beautiful scenery. You know, you see this tapestry of different shades of green where farmers are producing their crops. And down below, several miles down, is the town of Buritica.
Burritica sits nestled within the mountains. And in those mountains is a resource that people have been fighting over since the arrival of Spanish conquistadors. Shining, glimmering, valuable gold. Nowadays, it's not the Spanish who are looking for gold. Instead, it's a multinational giant out of China, the Zijin Mining Group. Zijin's mine in Buritica is the richest gold mine in Colombia.
When Juan visited, he found a mine under siege.
When we got deep into the mine, you know, there's a point where Zijin is just not in control anymore. And so what you see are sandbags everywhere. And behind those sandbags are guards. And they're outfitted, you know, with bulletproof vests and so forth. And they're toting shotguns.
On the other side of the sandbags is a rival group of miners who are invading Zijin's tunnels to steal the company's gold. In 2023, the miners stole tons of it, worth about $200 million, according to the company's estimates. And they're stealing it with the help of a powerful militia group, meaning the conflict often turns violent.
The way they put it is this is underground trench warfare. I mean, it is 600, 700 yards underground. I don't know of another place in the world where you have two sides that are going at it that far underground. And of course, they're fighting over gold.
Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Thursday, January 2nd. Coming up on the show, the battle for gold raging within Colombia's mountains. The mine at the center of this conflict has been operated by the Zijin Mining Group since 2020.
Zijin Mining Group is a Chinese state-controlled company, and it operates all over the world. I mean, it has operations in the Congo. It has operations in Asia, of course, in China, and in many other countries. How important is Zijin Mining Group to China?
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Chapter 2: What challenges does Zijin Mining Group face in Buritica?
To address that issue, the government says it needs to transform the economy of places like Buritica so that citizens have a choice of better jobs. One way to do that is to open up a path for illegal miners to legalize their operations. On his trip to Buritica, Juan visited one mine that could potentially go down this path, La Centena. A handful of illegal miners run a small operation there.
This mine is a lot different than Zijin's. It's full of narrow corridors that burrow about 200 yards into the mountainside. The ground is flooded with muddy water. But at the end of the tunnel, above their heads, the ceiling glimmers. One miner, Andres Rave, points to a vein of gold, running his fingers over the minerals.
Andres, show me again. This is the vein that goes here. This is the one that carries the gold.
They get to work extracting the gold. Among the people working this mine is Eric Dubier, the miner you heard from earlier, who's worked in the illicit tunnels that break into Zijin's mine.
It has its dangers. Ah, yes, it has its dangers.
Eric says working these smaller mines is also dangerous. The miners try to make them as safe as they can, using wood beams to support the ceiling above them. But here, if an accident happens, they don't get any protection or insurance. They're on their own.
What would you like to formalize in a way?
Ah yes, of course, the work in the future begins to be mechanized, after there is mineral, it begins to formalize and mechanize everything.
Eric and the other miners want the government to recognize and legitimize their mining, so they're no longer operating illegally. President Petro has signaled that he wants to give out more licenses and help to miners, but has not made any big changes. La Santana has also caught up in the Zijin conflict.
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