La Francia is a

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

in the

Cesar-Ranchería Basin The Cesar-Ranchería Basin ( es, Cuenca Cesar-Ranchería) is a sedimentary basin in northeastern Colombia. It is located in the southern part of the department of La Guajira and northeastern portion of Cesar. The basin is bound by the Oca Faul ...

, located in the municipalities

Becerril Becerril or Becerril de Campos is a town and municipality of the Colombian Department of Cesar. Geography The municipality of Becerril borders to the east with the country of Venezuela where the Serranía del Perijá mountain ranges is shar ...

and

El Paso El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the s ...

, Cesar, Colombia owned by the Goldman Sachs Group. It mines coal from the

Paleocene The Paleocene, ( ) or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name is a combination of the Ancient Greek ''pal ...

Los Cuervos Formation, time-equivalent with the

Cerrejón Formation The Cerrejón Formation is a geologic formation in Colombia dating back to the Middle-Late Paleocene. It is found in the El Cerrejón sub-basin of the Cesar-Ranchería Basin of La Guajira and Cesar. The formation consists of bituminous coal fie ...

, which is mined in the northeastern part of the basin in Latin America's largest coal mine,

Cerrejón Cerrejón is a large open-pit coal mine in Northern Colombia owned by Glencore. At Cerrejón, low-ash, low-sulphur bituminous coal from the Cerrejón Formation is excavated. At over the mine is one of the largest of its type, the largest in Lati ...

. In 2016, La Francia produced 11.6 Megatons of coal.Producción de carbón en Colombia
- UPME

History

The mine was owned by Coalcorp Mining until 2010.UPDATE 1-Coalcorp to sell La Francia mine to Goldman unit
Reuters, January 7, 2010 It was acquired by Goldman Sachs for US$200 million in 2010. It closed in January 2013 after the contractor hired by Colombian National Resources opted out,Matthew Bristow
Colombia's Top Coal Mine Reaches Accord That May End Strike
''Bloomberg Business'', March 4, 2013 but opened again in January 2014, at a lesser capacity.Peter Murphy
Exclusive: Goldman Sachs miner halts coal exports from Colombia
Reuters, January 9, 2014 During the strikes of 2013, miners occupied the mine and refused offers provided by the companies involved.La Francia, mina de carbón lleva meses paralizada
/ref> In 2015, Murray Energy (now known as

American Consolidated Natural Resources American Consolidated Natural Resources, previously known as Murray Energy, is a US-based coal mining company. It is the fourth largest coal producer in the country, and the largest privately-owned coal company. Founded in 1988 by Robert E. Murra ...

) purchased the mine from Goldman Sachs. As of August 2020, the mine has suspended operations indefinitely.

References

Coal mines in Colombia Geography of Cesar Department Goldman Sachs {{Colombia-stub