Cerrejon (Colombia)

The Cerrejon open-pit coal mine is located in South America in Colombia. Situated near the basin of the Rancheria River, the Cerrejon mine is divided into three main areas – Cerrejon North Zone, Cerrejon Central Zone and Cerrejon South Zone – and stretches over 170,000 acres.

The mine has been in production since 1985, producing 32Mt of thermal coal per year. The Cerrejon mine, which is independently operated, is owned by a joint venture partnership between Anglo American (33.3 percent), BHP Billiton (33.3 percent) and Glencore (33.3 percent). In 2011, an expansion project named P40 commenced to increase the mine’s annual production to 40Mt by 2014.