A study by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on mining in the Indigenous territories in this department states that “the subsoil in most of this region is of Paleoproterozoic origin.” This era lasted 900 million years in the same time frame when the continents stabilized for the first time. The geological past of Guainía is one of the reasons for its abundance of metals. The Mavicure Hill is 170 meters (about 558 feet) high and was formed about 1.8 billion years ago. They are rocks, but also a family of giants - a historical treasure that many Colombians do not even know they possess. In the tradition of the Puinave people, these archaic hills represent three siblings who were abandoned by their parents and who had to grow up in the distant view of their grandmother, a much smaller mountain on the other side of the Inírida River. Mavicure, Pajarito and El Mono, another nearby hill, are among the oldest rock formations in the country, according to studies by geologists at the National University of Colombia. This is a result of the sediments and granite that accumulated in the Earth’s crust over the course of 1.8 billion years.

The mountain, called the Pajarito Hill, has a near-perfect concave shape and its surface is an intense shade of dark gray, which almost seems blue. She says this was where Princess Inírida hid forever, according to García Barros’ ancestors. García Barros, a member of the Puinave ethnic group, points to the mountain in the front. From there, one can see large expanses of land holding beneath it an abundance of gold and other metals sought by the mining industry. *This report is part of a journalistic collaboration between Mongabay Latam and Vorágine, a Colombian news source.Ĭecilia García Barros is seated atop the peak of Mavicure Hill, a rocky, rounded mountain 170 meters (about 558 feet) high on the banks of the Inírida River in the Colombian department of Guainía. Some people view mining positively, but there are also complaints that the mining titles are being managed in the name of the Indigenous people, even though they have not been consulted.

Mining has not started yet in the area, and there is already division surrounding this issue in the Remanso Chorrobocón Indigenous Reserve.

There is simultaneously ignorance and enthusiasm about the prospect of new jobs. Their residents now live in a climate of uncertainty because of the promises of a better future based on mining.

Mongabay Latam and Vorágine visited the Indigenous communities surrounding the Fluvial Star of Inírida.

Authorities approved 13 proposals for mining concession contracts for extracting gold and gold concentrates.

A potential gold rush is awaiting in the surroundings of the Mavicure Hill and the Fluvial Star of Inírida, two of Colombia’s particular ecosystems.

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