Bogota officials, who asked exporters to begin using direct ship loaders instead of barges by the beginning of Q1 2014, have allowed Drummond an extension, but added the extension will be short. Environment Minister Luz Sarmiento, for her part, declined to disclose a precise date when the Birmingham miner will have to comply before its exports are halted.
But the extension “can’t be a very extensive period,” Sarmiento said in comments on Colombia’s Mining Ministry website. “We will not allow companies to skip regulation;” Drummond will miss the deadline by two and a half months, spokesman Paulo Gonzalez said in an interview, according to Reuters News.
The government of Latin America’s fourth biggest economy and one of the region’s leading coal exporters, has sought to tighten regulations for exporters after a Drummond barge sank, dumping coal into the Caribbean in Q4 2012.
