Qualla: Cerrejon

Cerrejon: Introduction

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zero Gravity at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Sixty million years ago, the land that is now Cerrejon was a tropical swamp ruled by Titanoboa cerrejonensis, the largest snake ever to have lived, a creature that stretched over 12 meters long and weighed more than a ton. Today the same ground has been carved into one of the largest open-pit coal mines on the planet, a terraced moonscape stretching over 690 square kilometers across the arid plains of La Guajira in northern Colombia, near the Venezuelan border. The Rancheria River basin that once nourished ancient reptiles now feeds an industrial operation that has produced over 500 million tonnes of coal since 1985. From the air, Cerrejon looks like a wound in the earth. What it means depends on whom you ask.

Read more: Cerrejon on Qualla

Image: Zero Gravity at English Wikipedia | Public domain

Cerrejon: When Snakes Were Kings

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Petruss, CC0. Paleontologists working in the Cerrejon Formation have unearthed a lost world. Titanoboa cerrejonensis, described from fossils found in these coal seams, lived approximately 60 million years ago in a tropical ecosystem far warmer and wetter than today's arid landscape. It dwarfed...

Read more: Cerrejon on Qualla

Image: Petruss | CC0

Cerrejon: A Mine the Size of a City

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tanenhaus, CC BY 2.0. Cerrejon sits in the northeastern part of the Cesar-Rancheria Basin, hemmed between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta to the west and the Serrania del Perija to the southeast. The mine is divided into three zones: North, Central, and South. Its fleet of 258 trucks, with load capac...

Read more: Cerrejon on Qualla

Image: Tanenhaus | CC BY 2.0

Cerrejon: Concessions and Corporate Shifts

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit en:User:Zero Gravity, Public domain. Coal was first identified in the region in 1864 by the American civil engineer John May, though small-scale mining had already begun in the 19th century. The modern operation dates to December 1976, when the Colombian state firm Carbocol partnered with Intercor, then an Exxon sub...

Read more: Cerrejon on Qualla

Image: en:User:Zero Gravity | Public domain

Cerrejon: The Wayuu and the Dust

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hour.poing, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Wayuu people, an indigenous community with deep roots in La Guajira, have borne disproportionate consequences of the mine's expansion. Coal dust settles on their communities. Water sources have been polluted or diverted. In June 2020, Wayuu lawyers petitioned the United Natio...

Read more: Cerrejon on Qualla

Image: Hour.poing | CC BY-SA 3.0

Cerrejon: Coal and Consequence

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Petruss, CC0. From 1985 to 2011, Cerrejon generated over two billion dollars in royalties for Colombia. Its coal heats homes and powers industry across Europe, the Mediterranean, Asia, and the Americas. Puerto Bolivar's ships carry Colombian energy to the world. But the same operation has disp...

Read more: Cerrejon on Qualla

Image: Petruss | CC0