[1] In September 2020, several UN independent human rights experts called for the mining operations to be temporarily suspended, citing the serious damage to the environment and the negative effects on the health and other rights of the indigenous peoples who live in the area due to the spread of coal dust and water pollution.

[2] Cerrejón is located in Northern Colombia in the southeast of the department of the arid plain La Guajira, close to the border with Venezuela.

Cerrejón was once home to the Titanoboa (Titanoboa cerrejonensis), the largest snake ever on the planet, that dwarfed even today's anaconda and also dominated prehistoric Cerrejón, 60 million years ago along with large fish, turtles and crocodiles; with crocodiles being its main food sources.

There is controversy about the discoverer of Cerrejón mine, and some names are shuffled: the American civil engineer John May, hired by the national government, which conducted the examination in 1864; the writer Jorge Isaacs; and Mr. Juan Gomez Osío, native of La Guajira.

[3] The "defunct" company Intercor (International Colombia Resources Corporation) was in its time called "The Cerrejón Zona Norte Coal Project": In December 1976, a partnership contract was signed between Carbocol S. A.

In November 2000, the Colombian government sold its Carbocol S. A. shares (50%) in the partnership contract Cerrejón North Zone to a consortium comprising subsidiaries of BHP Billiton, Anglo American, and Glencore.

In February 2002, this consortium acquired the remaining 50% of shares from Intercor (ExxonMobil), thereby becoming sole concessioners of the Cerrejón North Zone.

In 1997, after a tender process, the exploration and mining contract for this zone was awarded to the consortium now comprising subsidiaries of BHP Billiton, Anglo American, and Xstrata.

Cerrejón was at one point the tenth largest coal mine in the world and the biggest in Latin America.

[4] Production started in 1985, when the mine was operated by Carbocol, a Colombian state company and Intercor, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil.

[7] As of 2017 Cerrejón was owned in equal parts by subsidiaries of three international mining companies BHP, Anglo American and Glencore.

Carbones del Cerrejón's directly employed 5,373 workers (62% from La Guajira, 28% from other parts of the Caribbean coast, and 10% from the rest of the country).

The Tren del Cerrejón connects the mine with Puerto Bolívar[citation needed] Puerto Bolívar 1,600 metres (5,200 ft) is the largest coal-export port in Latin America with covered conveyor belts and a direct-loading system since 1985, receives vessels of up to 180,000 tonnes (180,000 long tons; 200,000 short tons).

Then the land is cleared and the topsoil is removed and stored in soil banks for the future reclamation of areas intervened by the mining operation.

Subsequently, the area is drilled and explosives inserted for blasting so the hydraulic shovels can remove the overburden.