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The train was on its way from the Cerrejon opencut mine to the Puerto Bolivar port when a bomb attack derailed the train.
“Cerrejon Coal Limited views this deplorable act as not only an attack on the wellbeing and development of La Guajira, but also on that of Colombia," the company said in a statement yesterday.
No one was hurt during the attack but damage to the train and railroad is still being evaluated.
The company said coal transport is expected to be back up and running in a few days and shipments would not be disrupted.
Typically the coal is transported 150km from the mine to the export terminal with trains of up to 130 coal cars. An average of seven trains are dispatched every day for the 12-hour round trip.
The Cerrejon mine, located in the northern tip of Colombia, expects to produce 31 million tonnes of coal this year. The mine is equally owned by BHP Billiton, Anglo American and Xstrata.
