Abstract The article analyzes the history of mining in Colombia from an institutional perspective. Since colonial times the official order established formal institutions to govern the mining resources, institutions that, for the most part, created an exclusive and extractive system that became a historical constant. However, local agents did not passively receive those official institutions and in consequence have established parallel systems of management of mining resources based on community authorities and experiences. Therefore, the history of mining activity in Colombia has been the one created by the interaction and collision of those different legal orders. The interaction of those legal orders have been particularly tense in the last couple of decades due to the increased pressure that local territories are experiencing, a socio-economic dynamic that has triggered a complex socio-environmental conflict that is defining not only the areas in which mining is taking place, but also rural areas in general. The official legal system lacks the categories to solve the conflicts and to understand the regulatory complexity that characterizes those resource rich areas. In consequence, the article closes with a call to explore legal pluralism as an alternative framework capable of decoding the regulatory diversity seen in Colombian mining areas, as well as a first step to start organizing the multiple legal orders operating on the ground in these complex social areas.