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Following the 2017 Tutela Judgement , Cerro Matoso undertook detailed consultation with the eight concerned ethnic communities and, in 2019, reached individual agreements with each  on how to address environmental, health and social concerns. Five years on from reaching the agreements and ongoing engagement with local communities, we take a look at the progress made in building partnerships with communities neighbouring Cerro Matoso.  

For more information on how Cerro Matoso reached the agreements, read A Case Study in Building Community Partnerships.

The operation

Cerro Matoso is a significant producer of ferronickel and is an important driver of the local economy in the Cordoba region of Colombia. The mine and smelter have been operating for more than 42 years and were first run with the participation of the Colombian government. The operation was owned by another mining company from 1996, until South42 assumed ownership in 2015.

Cerro Matoso Communities 

Cerro Matoso has 15 communities surrounding the main operation which comprise seven Indigenous (Zenu), two Afro Colombian (San José de Uré and Bocas de Uré) and six non-Indigenous communities known as Community Action Boards who live in the San José de Uré and Puerto Libertador municipalities. 

The Tutela Judgement

South42 took ownership of Cerro Matoso in 2015 while legal actions from community groups were underway. 

In 2013, a group of eight ethnic communities began legal actions against Cerro Matoso relating to concerns about an alleged lack of formal consultation of its mining contract and operations as required under Colombian law and alleged damages to the environment and to the health of the communities. Since taking ownership of Cerro Matoso and recognising the local challenges, South42 has worked to reset and strengthen relationships with Cerro Matoso’s neighbouring communities.

In April 2018, the Colombian Constitutional Court handed Cerro Matoso and other government agencies¹ a set of orders to address the environmental, health, and community concerns of eight ethnic communities (Colombia’s Constitutional Court Tutela Judgement T733 of 2017). The orders included a requirement on Cerro Matoso:

• Providing permanent health care for members of the eight communitie  s for the medical conditions listed in the order;
• Consulting with the communities to identify potential past, present and future environmental   and cultural impacts; and 
• Agree measures to prevent, mitigate or compensate such impacts. 

From January 2019, Cerro Matoso undertook to work with each of the eight communities to complete a social baseline study and environmental monitoring tests, hold workshops to identify potential environmental and cultural impacts, and agree with communities on social investment measures to prevent, mitigate or compensate such impacts. By October 2019, Cerro Matoso successfully reached individual agreements to address environmental, health and social concerns with all eight communities. 

In addition to the eight ethnic communities covered by the court orders, Cerro Matoso engaged with the Bocas de Uré Afro Colombian community and the six Community Action Boards (non-tribal communities) who also lived in the region and voluntarily established similar agreements with them. 

Five years on 

Since the agreements were established, nearly 340 social initiatives have been implemented to address the communities' most important needs. These initiatives range from land access and housing improvements to cultural preservation and educational opportunities.

Between 2015 and 2022, the communities surrounding Cerro Matoso saw a 10.7 per cent reduction in their overall poverty level as measured by the multidimensional poverty index (the main indicator that the Colombian Government uses across the country).  

Some of the key initiatives are detailed below.

Environment

Since 2015, Cerro Matoso has run a program to educate local community members in environmental monitoring, enabling their participation in the ongoing environmental monitoring of air, water, soil, fauna and flora. These community members have direct access to the monitoring process in the air quality stations situated near their own communities and around Cerro Matoso. 

In 2022, Cerro Matoso increased the number of air-quality monitoring stations at the operation and around the peripheries of neighbouring communities to further strengthen its air-quality monitoring network. The stations have improved the quality and quantity of information received by the operation as part of its ongoing air emissions monitoring and management. As part of this initiative, the University of Córdoba provided additional training, enabling more community members to engage in environmental monitoring.

Since 2017, Cerro Matoso has planted tens of thousands of native trees to support the conservation and restoration of the surrounding natural environment, and to create a green barrier between the villages and operation. Cerro Matoso purchases the trees used in the restoration efforts from local nurseries which have been established in the gardens of 25 neighbouring communities and are primarily owned and operated by women. The restoration efforts have created small business and job opportunities for over 290 people from the local communities through the nurseries and employment in planting the trees and maintaining and monitoring restored areas.

Land access and cultural preservation

Land ownership is essential for neighbouring ethnic communities to preserve cultural practices, conserve the environment, and enhance agricultural production. Since 2019, Cerro Matoso has directly donated or provided the funds to enable these tribal communities to acquire 1,040 hectares of land, supporting their efforts to maintain their heritage and livelihoods.

Additionally, Cerro Matoso has funded the provision of legal support to neighboring Indigenous communities, which contributed to the successful creation of the Indigenous reservation Centorgua and the reservation of La Libertad. This recognition aims to provide legal protection in perpetuity for the communities’ land and grants them annual funding from the Colombian Government. These reservations help to safeguard the Zenú culture’s ancestral practices and support future generations to continue to uphold their cultural heritage.

Health

For more than 20 years, Cerro Matoso’s medical clinic has provided free emergency health care, voluntary health brigades and ambulance transportation to local communities. In addition to the medical clinic, Cerro Matoso has continued to provide free health care for those members of the eight ethnic communities involved in the Tutela Judgement for the medical conditions listed in the Court order. To date only five cases have fallen under the scope of the Tutela Judgment. Between 2022 and 2024 Cerro Matoso provided 5051 medical appointments and complementary services to neighbouring communities.

Education 

Cerro Matoso’s higher education scholarship initiative has enabled more than 170 young people from local communities to pursue technical, technological and university studies in the last 5 years. More than 30 of these students have graduated, supporting employment and development opportunities for young people in the region. 

Social investment

In accordance with the community agreements, 276 new homes have been built, and more than 1,000 improvements have been made to existing dwellings between 2020 and 2025.

In 2023, over 900 families from 25 neighbouring communities took part in 36 agricultural and livestock projects, collectively producing more than 133 tonnes of agricultural products, including rice and limes. Of this total, 76 per cent was sold, while the remaining 24 per cent was kept for self-consumption, contributing to the economic growth of rural communities.

 

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¹ Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of Health, The National Environmental Licencing Agency (ANLA), The Local Environmental Agency (CVS), General Comptrollers Office, Attorney General Office, and the Ombudsman’s Office.