By Luis Jaime Acosta
BOGOTA, Oct 2 (Reuters) – Mostly illegal alluvial gold production in Colombia expanded 4.5% by area year-on-year in 2025 to 118,410 hectares, with the increase primarily on Afro-Colombian communities’ land, a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the government showed on Friday.
The increase of 5,100 hectares compared to 2024 marked the third consecutive year of growth, the UNODC told Reuters.
“Seventy-five percent (of alluvial gold production) is illegal, 21% has technical and/or environmental permits, and 4% is in the process of becoming legal,” the report said.
Alluvial gold is found in river and stream beds and is typically extracted with gravity-based separation methods such as panning, sluicing and mechanized dredging and washing.
Because the techniques require relatively little equipment and investment, alluvial deposits often attract small-scale illegal or informal miners.
Nearly half of Colombia’s 32 departments showed evidence of alluvial gold exploitation last year, with 61% of the increase on Afro-Colombian lands. Alluvial gold production was also detected in 30 Indigenous reserves, the report said.
Indigenous and Black Colombians have historically been more likely to be victims of the country’s six-decade-long conflict, suffer poverty and live in more isolated areas.
Almost half of the areas where the production took place are zones where mining is not permitted, including forest reserves and national parks.
According to security sources, illegal gold mining is the second-largest source of financing for illegal armed groups after drug trafficking.
Illegal gold mining is destroying forests and polluting rivers with chemicals, Mines and Energy Minister Maria Nohemi Arboleda said during the presentation of the report.
Seventy-nine municipalities with alluvial gold mining in 2025 also had coca cultivation.
“Nearly half of the area with alluvial gold mining also has coca crops. It’s a mix, a perfect business. This is not a debate about mining. It is a confrontation between the state and criminal economies that use gold to finance violence,” Arboleda said.
Arboleda said countries that buy gold should require traceability systems to verify the metal is legally sourced.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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