Colombia Proyecto de Ley 282/2025 — Nueva Ley Minera para la Transición Energética Justa

Mechanism

Proyecto de Ley 282 de 2025 proposes to repeal and replace Ley 685/2001 (the Código de Minas), Colombia's foundational mining statute of 23 years. The bill was developed over an extended period involving prior consultation (consulta previa) with more than 13,000 representatives of 115 indigenous peoples and approximately 400 Afro-Colombian organisations — a constitutionally required process for legislation affecting ethnic-minority territorial rights.

Strategic Mineral Areas (AME). The cornerstone of the reform is the concept of Strategic Mineral Areas, under which the state designates zones containing copper, lithium, nickel, and other energy-transition materials as areas subject to direct state planning and control. Within AMEs, concessions would be issued only under state-approved strategic development plans rather than on an open-application basis.

Zoning architecture. The bill establishes a two-tier zoning overlay: Excluded Mineral Zones (ZEM) — covering environmentally sensitive, culturally significant, or socioeconomically at-risk areas where mining is prohibited — and Permitted Mining Zones (ZAM), where activity is conditionally allowed subject to planning instruments.

Concession and royalty reform. The existing concession model (contract-based, privately initiated) is restructured to give the state greater directive authority over which deposits are opened, when, and under what conditions. Community and ethnic-group participation rights in licensing decisions are strengthened. Royalty distribution formulas are revised to direct a larger share to mining-affected municipalities and indigenous territories.

State as rector. The bill explicitly frames mineral resources as national public-interest assets, removing the private-speculation element of the current model and positioning the state as strategic planner rather than passive licensor.

Legislative status. The bill was filed 1 October 2025 (Senado). As of April 2026 it was reported in Senate committee deliberation (Gaceta del Congreso 282 de 2026). No final vote date has been announced; enactment is expected no earlier than late 2026 given the contentious royalty and concession provisions.

Downstream implications

• Increases policy uncertainty for foreign miners operating in Colombia (particularly copper and

nickel projects) pending final legislative text and scope of AME designations.

• The AME framework could restrict private-sector access to deposits identified as strategic,

shifting project-approval risk from commercial to political timelines.

• Prior consultation requirement embedded in the bill may extend licensing timelines for any new

concession in ethnically inhabited territory.

• Structurally distinct from — and escalating beyond — the sub-regulatory measures it supersedes:

ANM Resolución 1006/2023 (strategic-minerals list) and Decreto 0977/2024 (mining districts) were sub-legislative instruments under Ley 685/2001; this bill replaces the statutory basis entirely.

• Relevant to EM critical-mineral supply-chain risk for copper (global transition demand),

nickel (battery cathodes), and lithium (Colombia has Cauca Valley deposits under early exploration).

Open questions

• Which specific deposits will be designated as AMEs? The bill grants the Ministry discretion

to designate; the list will materially affect valuation of existing exploration licences.

• Will the bill pass intact, or will concession-reform provisions be softened under industry

and investment-treaty pressure?

• Impact on existing Ley 685 concession holders: will grandfathering provisions protect

current licence-holders or subject them to renegotiation?