Colombia has seen economic growth in the past couple of decades, and has emerged as one of the leading economies in South America. This economic growth has, in the main, been based upon the exploitation of the nation’s natural resources, and indeed Colombia is a country rich in natural resources.

Mineral resources

It has, of course, been historically well known that Colombia has an abundance of natural resources, and this was one of the reasons why the country was a colony of Spain for over three hundred years. The Spanish mined extensively for gold and emeralds; precious resources to be shipped back to Europe. Today Colombia remains the world’s largest producer of emeralds, and recent statistics show that every year the country produces over 50 percent of the global production of the precious stones.

Colombia is also a major producer of gold, along with the other South American countries of Peru, Brazil and Chile. It is estimated that Colombia is second to Brazil in terms of gold reserves in Latin America. In 2006, Colombia mined 15.6 tonnes of gold, putting it 21st on the global list of producers. Colombia also possesses significant reserves of silver, and is the continents only producer of platinum.

Other major metallic resources of Colombia also include nickel, iron ore and copper, all of which are extensively mined, with large percentages of these metals also exported.

Energy resources

Colombia is also rich in energy resources; and the country is believed to possess the largest coal reserves of any country in South America. Annual production of coal is in the region of 70m tonnes, with the majority, in the region of 90%, of this production amount exported. Globally, Colombia is the sixth largest exporter of coal.

Colombia is also rich in oil resources, and recent exploration suggests that the country has the second largest oil reserves in South America. Again, Colombia exports this natural resource, although in the case of oil, this export figure is in the region of 25 percent of oil produced. Conversely though, Colombia does have to import certain refined petroleum products; a situation which will remain until investment is undertaken to build adequate refining centres to process the crude oil extracted in the country.

Alongside crude oil, Colombia also has a large reserve of natural gas; believed to be the third largest in South America.

There is also huge hydroelectric potential in Colombia, and is second only to Brazil in terms of this potential. Colombia has many large rivers in its portion of the Amazon Basin, as well as rivers running down from the mountains. Work, and investment, is required to fully utilise this potential, as well as to bring existing structures up to full working capacity.

These energy resources have meant that it is now a net-exporter of energy, with Colombia selling energy to neighbouring countries.

In terms of natural resources, both mineral and energy, Colombia is extremely rich, and the exploitation of these resources has enabled the country to show relatively rapid economic growth over the past two decades.