(Reuters) -Venezuela, casting around for income amid U.S. sanctions, recently restarted coal production with a Turkish company and is looking to export more than 10 million tons of the fuel this year, company sources say.
But the mining is occurring without environmental safeguards, polluting local air and water, according to a company source with knowledge of the operations, Indigenous leaders and members of local communities.
Venezuela's government has touted what it says is economic growth of 8.7% in the third quarter, although many international companies have long since abandoned the country, where inflation is expected to reach some 200% this year and foreign oil companies must seek U.S. licenses to operate.
Coal, however, is exempt from sanctions, paving the way for the reactivation of joint venture Carboturven, a partnership between Venezuela's state-owned Carbozulia and the Turkish company Glenmore Dis Ticaret Ve Madencilik A.S.
The coal mining ramp-up echoes other attempts by the government of President Nicolas Maduro to diversify the OPEC member's economy away from oil. It is the latest example of coal mining persisting in Latin America, even as countries like Chile pivot to renewable energy.
COAL PUSH FOR STATE COFFERS
"It's time to join forces in the construction of a prosperous country," Maduro said earlier this year, adding that the coal push will accelerate growth.
Carbozulia formed the Carboturven joint venture with Glenmore in 2018. According to five sources within the company, production at two mines, Paso Diablo and Mina Norte in the northwest of the country, resumed in late December 2024 after being suspended for several years.
Maduro has also approved plans to develop another coal project in Falcon state.
Venezuela's coal production stood at around 3 million tons in the first quarter of 2025, according to data from Carbozulia, putting the nation on track to surpass its 8 million ton annual output of the early 2000s.
Venezuela's high-energy, cleaner-burning coal is almost entirely sold for export.
Venezuela provides raw coal to Turkey, which sells it elsewhere in Europe, said one employee at Paso Diablo who asked to remain anonymous, adding that the goal was to export 10 million metric tons annually.
However, recent strikes on boats by the U.S. military in the Caribbean have halted exports, the employee said, and forced a halt to production as of a week ago, when the company ran out of storage space.
Neither Venezuela's government nor Carbozulia responded to repeated requests for comment. Reuters was unable to immediately contact Carboturven, which has no website, or its Turkish partner.
Trading tracker Import Genius shows Glenmore is registered as an exporter of bituminous coal from Palmarejo, in Zulia state.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
Environmental groups, including local non-profit Sociedad Homo et Natura, say the mines spew sulfate, lead, cadmium, cyanide and mercury into the Guasare River.
At least 12 Indigenous and rural farming communities have been displaced by mining in recent years, Sociedad Homo et Natura and other groups say, adding that they fear more could be affected by a coal expansion.
"They are trying to get their hands on everything they can," said Sociedad Homo et Natura coordinator and Indigenous leader Lusbi Portillo.
A Carbozulia environmental document dated this year and seen by Reuters lists possible mitigation measures for coal mining, including runoff treatment, emissions controls, a dust suppression system and sprinklers over stockpiles and conveyor belts, but it was not immediately clear which, if any, are in place at the mines.
The Paso Diablo worker said there was a lack of environmental control. Previously, monitors installed in each community had measured environmental contamination but they were no longer operational, said the employee.
Residents who live near the mines say coal dust is damaging crops and homes.
"You can't live here anymore," said an elderly woman from a community near Paso Diablo in a phone interview.
"We have coal on the plants, in our houses, on our clothes, in the water, and we get no benefit from it," she said, asking to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal. Residents shared images with Reuters that showed people's feet stained with coal dust and blackened drinking water containers and houses.
"We are poor communities that live by herding, and the animals are dying from the dust," an Indigenous person from La Guajira said, referring to the goats which are key to the community's economic survival. "We live in extreme poverty surrounded by coal wealth."
(Reporting by Reuters, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
