Valoración económica de los impactos ambientales generados por la explotación de una mina de esmeralda (municipio de Quípama Boyacá)

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out with the objective of identifying, characterizing and qualifying the environmental impacts related to the mining of emeralds, in qualitative quantitative and monetary terms. At present there is no secondary information on this subject, due to the lack of access to these areas, which were once dominated by groups outside the law. In the first step, the field inspection was carried out to describe the extractive process of the emerald. Based on these process, the environmental impacts generated by the "Los Azulejos" mine were identified, using Conesa´s methodology (1997). Subsequently, with the environmental impacts classified as "critical", the "Total Economic Value" was calculated using direct economic valuation methods (Contingent Valuation: Surveys) and Indirect (market prices), which yielded an environmental cost for the mine´s life "Los Azulejos" of: $ 360,425,977 COP. As the final result, the project cost / cost calculation was calculated on 0.97. This value indicates that social benefits don´t cover the monetary costs of environmental impacts and the development of the emerald mine. On the other hand, compared to the environmental impacts generated by other mineral extraction activities, the emeralds undoubtedly conceive impacts to very low effect.