24 July 2013, by Andrew Willis and Michael Smith (Bloomberg)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2013-07-24/colombia-illegal-gold-mines-prosper-in-global-rout.html

Excerpt:

Colombia’s unlicensed gold miners are proving to be resilient to the steepest price drop in 16 years and government efforts to regulate their operations.

Investments by companies including AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (ANG) are being held back as ambiguous local regulations exacerbate the effects of the global gold slump.

In contrast, informal operations in remote rivers and jungle areas are flourishing.

The government acknowledges that the number of producers without licenses probably has risen from the last census in 2010-2011, when they accounted for 87 percent of all gold mines.

“The informal sector is booming as they have much lower overheads,” Trident Gold Corp. (TTG) Chief Financial Officer Andrew Smith said in an interview from Medellin.

“Their great advantage is that they can operate on a much smaller scale.

For international companies, just being listed is a burden.”

While authorities are shutting down unregulated producers at an unprecedented rate, the growth of new operations shielded from environmental and labor restrictions is even faster, police say.

Armed groups can reap more profit from illegal gold mining than cocaine.

Anticipation of a new regulatory code for the industry were dashed in May after a court ruled indigenous groups weren’t properly consulted.

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