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Mining concessions in Colombia: proposals, the 30 year contract, exploration and construction periods, the mining and environmental bond, assignments and forfeiture

Last verified: 2026-10-27 · Status: Stable

Every mining right in Colombia is a concession contract with the State, applied for through the national mining authority on a grid of cells and running up to 30 years from registration in the Registro Minero Nacional. The contract moves through three years of exploration, three years of construction and assembly and then exploitation, with one extension of up to two years for exploration, one of up to one year for construction and a renewal of up to 30 more years. The holder must post a mining and environmental bond of 5 percent of planned annual investment during exploration and construction and 10 percent of annual production value during exploitation, needs authority approval to assign the title, and can lose it through forfeiture (caducidad) for listed breaches.

USD figures use the TRM (tasa representativa del mercado) of COP 3,157.94 per US dollar, valid 27 October 2026, from the official TRM series published by the Superintendencia Financiera on the national open data portal. Conversions are for orientation only.

Key facts

Maximum term of a mining concession contract, from registration	30 yearsLey 685 de 2001 art. 70, as of 2026-10-27 · in force
Exploration period of a mining concession	3 yearsLey 685 de 2001 art. 71, as of 2026-10-27 · in force
Construction and assembly period of a mining concession	3 yearsLey 685 de 2001 art. 72, as of 2026-10-27 · in force
Maximum single extension of the exploration period	2 yearsLey 685 de 2001 art. 74, as of 2026-10-27 · in force
Maximum extension of the concession contract before exploitation ends	30 yearsLey 685 de 2001 art. 77, as of 2026-10-27 · in force
Mining and environmental bond during exploration, share of planned annual exploration investment	5 %Ley 685 de 2001 art. 280, as of 2026-10-27 · in force
Mining and environmental bond during exploitation, share of annual production value at the mine mouth price	10 %Ley 685 de 2001 art. 280, as of 2026-10-27 · in force
Deadline for the mining authority to decide an assignment of mining rights	60 daysLey 1955 de 2019 art. 23, as of 2026-10-27 · in force
Unauthorized suspension of works that can trigger forfeiture	6 monthsLey 685 de 2001 art. 112 lit. c, as of 2026-10-27 · in force

The rule

1. The mining concession contract is entered into between the State and a private party to carry out, at the private party's own cost and risk, the studies, works and exploration for State owned minerals in a given area and to exploit them under the Code. It covers technical exploration, economic exploitation, processing of the minerals and closure or abandonment of the works. The contract is governed for its whole term and extensions by the mining laws in force when it was perfected; later laws apply only where they widen or improve the holder's rights, except changes to the economic considerations owed to the State or territorial entities.Ley 685 de 2001, Código de Minas, Art. 45 and art. 46, 2001-08-15 official text · verified 2026-10-27

2. A proposal states the applicant's identity, the municipality, department and environmental authority of the area, the area and minerals sought, any ethnic groups permanently settled there or indigenous, black or mixed mining zones, any restricted zones that need other authorities' consent, and the reference terms and mining guides to be applied with the estimated exploration investment, on the authority's standard form with a map. The authority may require one correction, with up to 30 days to cure and 30 days to decide; it rejects the proposal if the whole area lies in an excluded zone, overlaps earlier proposals or titles entirely or fails the requirements. If ethnic groups occupy the area, they are notified and have 30 days to exercise their preference. Technical documents must be signed by a licensed geologist or mining engineer.Ley 685 de 2001, Código de Minas, art. 270 as amended by Ley 926 de 2004 art. 1, Art. 270, 271, 273, 274 and 275, 2001-08-15 official text · verified 2026-10-27

3. All applications and proposals are evaluated on the mining grid (cuadrícula) set by the national mining authority, and proposals may not overlap on the same cell, except concurrent concessions; titles granted before the grid migrate to it keeping their original conditions and coordinates. For granting titles and approving assignments of rights and areas, the national mining authority requires applicants to prove economic capacity for the project, and concession contracts signed since 2015 include an obligation to prepare and carry out social management plans scaled to production.Ley 1955 de 2019 art. 24; Ley 1753 de 2015 art. 22, Ley 1955 art. 24; Ley 1753 art. 22, 2019-05-25 official text · verified 2026-10-27 · changed: Ley 1955 de 2019 (Diario Oficial 50.964, 25 May 2019) introduced the grid system for all applications; Ley 2294 de 2023 art. 372 kept in force the articles of Ley 1753 and Ley 1955 it did not expressly repeal, and neither of these is on its repeal list.

4. Within three years of registration the holder must carry out technical exploration of the area (a shorter period may be agreed). Construction and assembly then runs three years, though the holder may extract and sell early with prior written notice and a provisional works programme. The exploitation period is the remaining term of the concession. The holder may ask once for up to two more years of exploration and up to one more year of construction and assembly, at least three months before the period ends and only if obligations and fines are paid; if not answered in time, the extension is deemed granted. Before exploitation ends the holder may request an extension of up to 30 years, perfected by a signed record registered in the Registro Minero, with a preference to contract the same area again afterwards.Ley 685 de 2001, Código de Minas, Art. 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76 and 77, 2001-08-15 official text · verified 2026-10-27

5. On signing the concession the holder must take out a compliance bond (póliza minero ambiental) covering mining and environmental obligations, fines and forfeiture, approved by the authority and kept in force for the life of the concession, its extensions and three more years. The insured value is 5 percent of the year's planned exploration investment during exploration, 5 percent of annual investment during construction and assembly, and during exploitation 10 percent of estimated annual production multiplied by the mine mouth price set yearly by the Government. If the bond is called, it must be replaced.
Cost to do it: 5 percent of planned annual exploration or construction investment, then 10 percent of annual production value at the mine mouth price, plus the insurer's premium, which varies by provider.
Example: Planned exploration spend of COP 2,000,000,000 in a year needs a bond of COP 100,000,000; once producing, an estimated annual output worth COP 30,000,000,000 at the official mine mouth price needs a bond of COP 3,000,000,000. / About US$31,666 on about US$633,324 of exploration, and about US$949,986 on about US$9,499,864 of production value.Ley 685 de 2001, Código de Minas, Art. 280, 2001-08-15 official text · verified 2026-10-27

6. Assigning rights under a mining title requires an application by the title holder with the assignment agreement; the national mining authority must decide within 60 days, checking the legal and economic capacity requirements of Ley 1753 de 2015 art. 22, and the approving act is registered in the Registro Minero Nacional.Ley 1955 de 2019, Art. 23, 2019-05-25 official text · verified 2026-10-27

7. The contract may be ended by declaring forfeiture (caducidad) only for listed causes, including dissolution of the company other than by merger, financial incapacity (presumed when compulsory liquidation opens), failing to carry out works on time or unauthorized suspension for more than six continuous months, late or incomplete payment of royalties and other economic considerations, assigning without prior notice, unpaid fines or failure to replace the bond, serious and repeated breaches of technical, safety, health or labour rules or loss of the environmental authorizations, breach of the rules on excluded and restricted zones, and declaring a false origin for the minerals extracted.Ley 685 de 2001, Código de Minas, Art. 112, 2001-08-15 official text · verified 2026-10-27

8. No exploration or exploitation works may take place in zones declared and delimited under environmental law as protected areas that expressly exclude mining, which are the areas of the national natural parks system, regional natural parks and forest reserve zones, delimited by the environmental authority on technical, social and environmental studies. With a prior reasoned act of the environmental authority removing (sustracción) the area, the mining authority may authorize mining in parts of forest reserve zones.Ley 685 de 2001, Código de Minas (conditionally upheld by the Constitutional Court), Art. 34, 2001-08-15 official text · verified 2026-10-27

9. The State owns the subsoil and non renewable natural resources, and their exploitation causes a royalty in favour of the State. Royalties on minerals are percentages of production value at the mine mouth set by law (for example 4 percent on gold and silver, 5 percent on iron and copper, 5 or 10 percent on coal depending on volume); the full table is on the sector overview page.Constitución Política de Colombia de 1991; Ley 141 de 1994 as amended by Ley 756 de 2002, Constitución art. 332 and 360; Ley 141 art. 16, 1991-07-20 official text · verified 2026-10-27

Stage	Length	Extension	Bond
Exploration	3 years from registration	Once, up to 2 years	5% of planned annual exploration investment
Construction and assembly	3 years	Once, up to 1 year	5% of annual construction investment
Exploitation	Rest of the term, up to 30 years in total	Up to 30 more years, then preference to contract again	10% of annual production x official mine mouth price

Stages of a Colombian mining concession (Código de Minas art. 70 to 77 and 280)

Worked example

A junior explorer budgeting COP 2,000,000,000 (about US$633,324) of exploration in year one posts a bond for COP 100,000,000 (about US$31,666), pays the annual surface fee in advance on the whole area and must finish exploration within three years, or five with the single extension.
A foreign company buying into an existing title files the assignment with the agreement, proves economic capacity and waits up to 60 days for the authority's decision before the change is registered.

Step by step

Check the target area against excluded zones (national and regional natural parks, forest reserves) and ethnic territories before filing; a fully excluded or fully overlapped area is rejected outright.
File the proposal on the authority's standard form over grid cells, with the area map, minerals, environmental authority, ethnic presence and the exploration investment estimate signed by a licensed geologist or mining engineer.
Answer any correction request within 30 days; if ethnic groups occupy the area, allow for their 30 day preference window.
Before signing, set up the Colombian branch or subsidiary that will hold the contract and arrange the mining and environmental bond.
Register the contract in the Registro Minero Nacional: the three year exploration clock starts on registration.
Diary the deadlines: extension requests at least three months before each period ends, the Programa de Trabajos y Obras and environmental licence before exploitation, and the renewal request before exploitation ends.

Common traps

The right exists only from registration: a proposal or even a signed but unregistered contract gives no mining right.
Extensions are available only once per period and only if obligations and fines are up to date; silence after a timely request counts as approval, a late request does not.
Assignments need prior authority approval and proof of the buyer's economic capacity; assigning without notice is a forfeiture cause.
The bond must stay in force for three years after the concession ends, so budget the premium beyond closure.
Suspending works for more than six months without authorization, or declaring a false place of origin for minerals, are separate forfeiture causes.

Sources

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