Cerrejón is a large open-pit coal mine in Northern Colombia owned by Glencore. At Cerrejón, low-ash, low-sulphur bituminous coal from the Cerrejón Formation is excavated. At over the mine is one of the largest of its type, the largest in Latin America and the tenth biggest in the world. Cerrejón is divided into three sections, North Zone, Central Zone and South Zone. Total proven reserves are estimated at 503 megatonnes. In 2016, the mine produced . In June 2020, lawyers for the local Wayuu community lodged a request to the United Nations special rapporteur for human rights and the environment for work to be immediately halted over environmental and human rights concerns. In September 2020, several UN independent human rights experts called for the mining operations to be halted, 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. These experts include the Special Rapporteur for human rights and the environment, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, the Special Rapporteur on the right to health, the Special Rapporteur on the rights to water and sanitation, the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, the Special Rapporteur on hazardous substances and wastes, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, and the Working Group on human rights and transnational corporations. Geography Cerrejón is located in Northern Colombia in the southeast of the department of the arid plain La Guajira, close to the border with Venezuela. The mine extends over and is situated in the northeastern part of the Cesar-Ranchería Basin, the basin of the Ranchería River, between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in the west and the Serranía del Perijá to the southeast. Prehistory Cerrejón was once home the Titanoboa, the largest snake on the planet, that dwarfed even today's anaconda and also dominated prehistoric Cerrejón, 60 Million Years ago along with large fish, Turtles and even crocodiles; with crocodiles being its main food sources. Titanoboa may have eaten the fish that roomed the waters of its home and may have preyed on them like the crocodiles, but due to the changing climate Titanoboa and the creatures that lived with it disappeared from the face of Cerrejón. History The 19th century There is controversy about the discoverer of Cerrejón mine, and some names are shuffled: the American civil engineer John