From an analysis of neoliberal rationality and considering the marked progressive narrative that presupposes the exploitation of environmental resources as a form of development for the regions, we approach the amalgam formed by State and enterprise in the framework of neoliberal economies, in relation to the phenomenon of mining. For this purpose, we present the findings of a study carried out in a municipality in the department of Caldas (Colombia), methodologically based on symbolic interactionism and involving “de hecho” miners and other types working for the mining company. From the accounts, we conclude that large-scale mining, although it has represented formal labor possibilities, has not only implied environmental impacts and dislocated forms of local production. The neoliberal rise of the figure of the company and the State-company articulation configured within it, have made mining work and ways of life rooted in tradition more precarious.