Amazon gold rush threatens Indian tribes

By Dale W. Kietzman
Special to ASSIST News Service

PASADENA, CA (ANS) -- High prices for gold on world markets have triggered a gold rush without equal in the history of the Amazon basin. In just a decade, gold has more than tripled in value. The ensuing rush is endangering the lives of thousands of native Indian people.

River beds are scoured for pockets of sand, in which flecks of gold, like grains of sand, might be found.

A gold rush that accelerated with the onset of the 2008 global recession is compounding the woes of the Amazon basin, laying waste its rain forests and spilling tons of toxic mercury into its rivers. All the way down the Amazon River in Brazil, the Ticuna Indians see their children sickening and dying because of the mercury in the water they drink.

The government of Peru estimates that the number of illegally operating small-scale hydraulic miners has climbed to 40,000 in the country's Madre de Dios province alone. The jungles of Madre de Dios are home to a score of unprotected Indian tribes.

Peru is the fifth largest gold mining country in the world. Illegal small-scale prospectors contribute about a fifth of Peru's annual gold output. The rise in gold prices over the last few years means that miners - both legal and illegal - are earning about $1,000 per ounce mined.

This has encouraged more and more surface mining in the Amazon basin - in Peru and in neighboring Brazil, Ecuador and Bolivia. Serious environmental damage is being caused by these mines, as large areas of the rainforest are cleared, the subsoil washed away by hydraulic mining methods, highly toxic mercury used to refine the gold trickling into the soil and water, thus contaminating the local food chain, and slowly poisoning the native Indians.

Little towns, offering no services, spring up alongside unpaved roads pushed through the jungles

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. This method is especially harmful for the health of the small-scale prospectors, since they inhale highly toxic mercury vapors.

It is difficult for police to stop the activities of small-scale prospectors. Media sources report a growing number of violent clashes between miners and the Amazon basin's Indian natives. The Indians fear the devastation of their natural environment caused by the mining, which has already turned hundreds of square miles of the basin's jungle territory into unusable badlands. Illegal gold miners are coming under attack from Indians who are armed with guns and other weapons.

Many Peruvians in these areas are hoping that the newly elected left-wing president Humala, who has already announced an increase in taxes on foreign mining firms, will curb the illegal miners. He made an election promise to crack down on them. Humala imposed a 36-month moratorium on all planned mining projects after five people were killed in violent protests.

A young boy besides the jungle floor, gouged out by hydraulic mining methods, and the holes are left behind.

The state of Madre de Dios, on the basis of its biodiversity, attracts eco-tourists to see its monkeys, macaws and anacondas. But an estimated 35 metric tons of mercury is released annually by miners in this state alone, slowly poisoning people, plants, animals and fish. Diesel exhaust sullies the air, trees are toppled to get at the sandy, gold-flecked earth and the scars inflicted on the land are visible on satellite photos. One such "scar" is two miles wide and 10 miles long.

The state prides itself on its biodiversity; yet its forest is pocked with craters gouged by grime-coated men who tear the earth away with high-pressure water hoses. And that is only the beginning. To capture the gold flecks, mostly the size of a grain of sand, mercury is used because it is the cheapest, easiest method. It then seeps into the air and rivers, an estimated 35 metric tons a year in Madre de Dios alone, slowly poisoning people, plants, animals and fish, scientific studies show.

Unskilled new arrivals generally can amass about a gram a day, currently worth more than $40. It is a princely sum for Peruvian highlanders accustomed to $3-a-day wages.

The town of Huepetuhe is flanked by mountains of gravel mine tailings towering over washes that further disfigure a mining wasteland 1.2 miles wide and more than 10 miles long. In front of the town is a brown sea of silt, the accumulated runoff of adjacent mines that is slowly engulfing the red-light district.

One miner reports that he has to keep the area's Amaraukiri Indians happy.

"They say this land is theirs. They come pointing guns. If you don't pay them they damage your equipment. They've thrown motors into the mud," he said.

He is also worried about being poisoned by mercury, which he is exposed to constantly as it is burned out of the puttylike amalgam it forms when it clings to gold dust. Additional mercury is burned off in open-air storefronts that buy the gold, including a half dozen opposite the main market of Puerto Maldonado.

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Dale W. Kietzman, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of Intercultural Communication at William Carey International University. From 1946 on, he was a member of Wycliffe Bible Translators (now retired). He served in Mexico, Peru, and Brazil, and later as Director of the home offices in North America. He currently serves as Director of Development for Latin American Indian Ministries (www.laim.org). His e-mail address is: dale@laim.org.