Source: International Business Times
Protests among Peru’s indigenous population against newly planned mining projects are escalating. People are in affected areas are growing increasingly resentful of foreign mining companies, while wider concerns are also growing about illegal gold mining projects in the Amazon basin. The number of illegally operating small-scale prospectors has climbed to 40,000 in the country’s Madre de Dios province. Continuously rising gold prices at the world market have triggered a Peruvian gold rush without equal in the country’s history.Peru is the fifth largest gold mining country in the world, with 175 metric tons of gold mined there each year. Illegal small-scale prospectors contribute about a fifth to Peru’s total mining output per year. The gold rush in the country’s resource-rich provinces during the last few years has been particularly evident across wide areas of the Amazon basin, and the costs resulting from the environmental damage caused by illegal gold mining activities are rising. As Peru’s environment minister Antonio Brack has pointed out, the rise in gold prices over the last few years has meant that the miners – both legal and illegal – are earning (pre-tax) about $1,000 per ounce mined.
This has encouraged more and more Peruvians to seek work in mines in the Amazon basin – in Peru and well as in neighbouring Brazil and Bolivia. Serious environmental damage is being caused by some of these mines, as large areas of the rainforest are cleared, with highly toxic mercury trickling into the soil, contaminating the local food chain. Small-scale prospectors usually use very rudimentary methods to extract gold from the mined ore. Gold ore is amalgamated with mercury, helping to isolate the pure gold content. The mercury/gold alloy is subsequently heated over fire resulting in an evaporation of the mercury. At the end of the process pure gold remains. This method is also harmful for the health of the small-scale prospectors, since they inhale highly toxic mercury vapours.
Illegal gold mining structures are particularly prevelent in the province of Madre de Dios. These involve a large number of local politicians. The best-organised enterprises have the capital to invest in expensive mining equipment and hydraulic dredges from companies such as Caterpillar and Volvo, thus accelerating the illegal mining activities. Since illegally-mined gold is not subject to tax, the prospectors’ profits are astronomically high. Less than $20,000 was transferred in taxes to Peru’s government last year arising from gold mining activities in the province of Madre de Dios. As in neighbouring Ecuador, police are starting to conduct raids on illegal mines, and are ordered to destroy mining equipment used in illegal activities. But given how profitable these activities are, the financiers of the rogue mines substitute destroyed or confiscated mining equipment straight away in order to continue the mining activities.
While it seems to be difficult for police to stop the activities of small-scale prospectors – despite several casualties after clashes with police – media sources have reported a growing number of violent clashes between miners and the Amazon basin’s Indian natives as well. The Indian natives fear the devastation of their natural environment caused by the gold rush, which has already affected over 180 square kilometers of the basin’s jungle territory. Illegal gold miners are coming under attack from Indians who are armed with guns and other weapons.
Tensions are also rising in the southern province of Puno. Riots broke out following the news that the Canadian firm Bear Creek Mining Corporation wanted to open a new silver mine. Many Peruvians in these areas are hoping that the newly elected leftwing president Humala – who already announced an increase in taxes on foreign mining firms – will crack down on illegal mines, which was an election promise of his.
On Saturday, Humala cancelled Bear Creek’s silver mining license and announced a 36-month moratorium on all planned mining projects after five more people were killed in the course of violent protests on Friday, when protestors attempted to storm a local airport.
