Mercury has contaminated waterways, wildlife and people
Eight Peruvian navy personnel jumped from a helicopter into a clearing that illegal gold miners had carved out of the Amazon rainforest along the Malinowski River in Peru’s Madre de Dios region, according to the Associated Press. Sand and dust swirled around them as they ran toward the mining site.
The forest gave way to giant holes gouged into the earth, filled with opaque, muddy water. Gasoline and other chemicals glistened on the surface.
Makeshift wooden mining platforms straddled the pools, surrounded by pumps and thick plastic tubes used to suck up and sift through sediment for tiny particles of gold.
As the troops closed in, several miners stood watching from a distance. The officer leading the patrol fired a warning shot into the air. Within seconds, the miners vanished into the forest.
The raid, which stretched over several days this week, is part of an intensified government campaign against illegal gold mining in Madre de Dios, one of Peru’s most biodiverse regions, according to the Associated Press. Authorities are trying to stop the activity from advancing into protected areas of the Amazon.
The Associated Press documented members of the Peruvian Navy destroying a dredge used for illegal mining in the Tambopata National Reserve near Puerto Maldonado on Tuesday, Aug. 11.
Mining has stripped away vast areas of rainforest, leaving behind a scarred landscape of contaminated pools and altered rivers in the hunt for lucrative gold.
Mercury used to separate gold from sediment has contaminated waterways, wildlife and people, including Indigenous communities that depend heavily on fish.