About

Jorge Álvarez has been head of legal affairs at integrated coal company, Carbones de Cerrejon, for over 20 years. During his tenure he has been involved in the exit of original shareholder Carbocol, which sold its holdings to a consortium of subsidiaries of Anglo American, Billiton and Glencore in 2000-1; their subsequent buyout of the other original shareholder, Exxon Mobil subsidiary Intercor, in 2002; and Glencore’s sale of its holding to Xstrata in 2006. More recently, in 2011, the company initiated a $1.3bn expansion plan (‘P40’), to quintuple its output from 8 to 40 million tonnes, with all the consequent project work that this implies, not least the expansion of its port facilities at Puerto Bolivar. He’s ‘one of the few mining lawyer who has a genuinely integrated vision of the mining sector, from pithead-matters to railways and ports and from environmental matters to relations with indigenous communities’, comment admirers; ‘moreover, he’s very experienced in terms of relations with state authorities and regulatory matters’. He has recently led on negotiations between Cerrejon and neighbouring mining concessionaire Drummond with regard to the exploitation of the methane gas reserves that accompany their coal beds; reports indicate these to be of strategic importance, according to the minister of Mines and Energy, Amylkar Acosta, and would double the country’s known natural gas reserves. ‘Jorge is unique, he has remained as presidents have come and gone and his knowledge is simply unmatched’.