ANM corrects mining zone delimitation of Black communities in La Toma

The National Mining Agency (ANM), through its Vice Presidency of Promotion and Development, issued Resolution VPF-2654 of 2026, dated July 21, which corrects the first article of Resolution VPF-829 of March 11, 2026, which in turn corrected Resolution VPF-1436 of May 29, 2025. The administrative act was published in the Official Gazette number 53,613 on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, on page 39.

The decision rectifies formal transcription errors and the presentation of geographic information for the Mining Zone for Black, Afro-Colombian, Raizal, and Palenquera Communities, declared in favor of the Community Council of Black Communities of the corregimiento of La Toma, located in the municipality of Suárez, department of Cauca. This ensures the correct incorporation of the zone into the Integral Mining Management System (SIGM) and its registration in the National Mining Registry, an indispensable step for the ethnic mining formalization of the community.

Background of the declaration

Resolution VPF-1436 of May 29, 2025 established and delimited the Mining Zone in favor of the Community Council of La Toma, with an area of 90.7496 hectares, and ordered the Mining Cadastre and Registry Group to incorporate it into the Ethnic Mining Zones layer of the SIGM and register it in the National Mining Registry within fifteen (15) days after its execution. Said resolution became final on July 2, 2025.

Subsequently, Resolution VPF-829 of March 11, 2026 corrected the first article of VPF-1436, adjusting the vertices of the polygon. However, during the technical validation of the geographic component, the National Mining Cadastre and Registry Group noted new inconsistencies that prompted the present correction.

Rectified errors

The technical validation, carried out via email on April 22, 2026, identified the following inconsistencies in Resolution VPF-829:

• 116 duplicate vertices in the coordinate list, compared to the 212 vertices that comply with the provisions of Resolution number 504 of 2018.
• A point shapefile with 94 vertices, a discrepancy that needed to be corrected.
• A transcription error in the header of the geographic information, which labeled the polygon as “Ethnic Mining Zone in process,” when it actually corresponds to an already declared Mining Zone for Black, Afro-Colombian, Raizal, and Palenquera Communities.

After adjusting and rounding the vertices to the fifth decimal place, a single polygon was obtained with an area of 90.40151 hectares (90 hectares and 4,015 m²), using the MAGNA-SIRGAS spatial reference system and the National Origin Transverse Mercator cartographic projection. The inconsistencies do not imply a modification of the material meaning of the decision nor of the already established polygon.

Scope of the resolution

Resolution VPF-2654 of 2026 stipulates that the Mining Cadastre and Registry Group proceed with the removal of the annotation of the polygon corresponding to the Ethnic Mining Zone application currently in process, identified with attributes ID 5008 and an area of 90.749767 hectares, and orders the notification of the decision to the legal representative of the Community Council of La Toma. The other provisions of resolutions VPF-1436 of 2025 and VPF-829 of 2026 remain intact.

The act was signed by the Vice President of Promotion and Development, Carlos Augusto Ortega Galvis, and was issued in Bogotá, D.C., on July 21, 2026. No administrative appeal is applicable against the resolution, and it takes effect from the date of its issuance, in accordance with Article 45 of Law 1437 of 2011.

Relevance for the community

The administrative correction is key for the Afro-descendant community of La Toma, as it clears the technical obstacles that prevented the incorporation of their mining zone into the official records. Once the formal errors are corrected, the Community Council will be able to move forward with the formalization of ethnic mining in its territory, within the framework of Law 70 of 1993 and the ANM regulations, consolidating the recognition of its territorial and productive rights in the municipality of Suárez, Cauca.

Source: Official Gazette (Colombia), year CLXII, number 53,613, Wednesday, September 2, 2026, p. 39 (official reference: Resolution VPF-2654 of 2026).