2,312 Illegal Mining Sites/Region In 6 Amazon Basin Nations Level Forests, Spew Mercury

[hatrack]

Fueled by the surging price of gold, an epidemic of illegal gold mining in the Amazon is threatening indigenous territories and other protected lands in the world’s largest tropical rain forest, according to a study published by a group of environmental organizations this week. Analyzing data from six Amazon countries, researchers identified 2,312 illegal mining sites and 245 large-scale areas where miners have established sophisticated infrastructure, tearing down native forests and contaminating rivers with mercury as they dredge for gold and extract diamonds and coltan, which are used to make mobile phones.

“The problem is worse than at any other time in history,” said Alicia Rolla, one of the coordinators at the Amazon Geo-Referenced Socio-Environmental Information Network, known as RAISG, which published the study this week. “We wanted to give visibility to the enormity of an issue that doesn’t respect borders.”

The report compiled data from local partners, news reports and research from eight independent environmental groups that scanned satellite images, mapping mining sites in Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela.

Each site on the map contains details about the material being mined and the mines’ environmental and social impacts, such as how dredging disrupts rivers and how toxic pollutants seep into plants, animals and people. Venezuela had more illegal mines than any other country studied, followed by Brazil and Ecuador, according to the report.

EDIT

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/10/world/americas/amazon-illegal-mining.html

[Farmer-Rick]

1. Capitalism at its best.

Encouraging criminal activity to survive while destroying the environment at the same time. A 2fer for the right wing.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. The way these miners use mercury, 100% of it ends up in the environment.

I saw a documentary showing how untrained miners, with minimal equipment, dump mercury into a big vat of gold ore/mud and water and mix it by treading the mixture, sort of like stomping grapes. The mercury absorbs most of the metallic gold. Then they wash off the mud and water (the very dense mercury sinks to the bottom), and heat the mercury with a blowtorch until it all boils away, probably breathing in some of that mercury at the time. So all the mercury is dumped into the environment one way or the other.

Since mercury is so much cheaper than gold, they sell the gold and spend only a part of the profits to buy more mercury. It may be the most ecocidal black-market operation in the world, though illegal logging and slash-and-burn cattle ranching are heavy competition. All aspects of the invisible bloody hand of the glorious unrestrained free market.