Colombian mining company Carbones del Cerrejon Ltd. has inaugurated Latin America's first large-tire recycling plant, which will export part of its production to other countries in the region and to Asia.

The plant in Albania, a municipality in the northeastern province of La Guajira, has the annual capacity to recycle 2,360 tires from mining equipment used at Cerrejon's massive open-pit coal mine, which produces more than 33 million tons of thermal coal a year.

Annual production from the plant will amount to approximately 2,300 tons of steel, as well as 5,000 tons of crumb rubber that can be used for the new fourth-generation highway network being built in Colombia, Vice President German Vargas Lleras, who headed Friday's inauguration ceremony, said.