As gold prices spike, illegal gold mining is spreading rapidly in the Amazon rainforest

“Peru Is Losing a Battle Against Illegal Gold Mining in Its Rainforests,” reports Bloomberg News:

As a military helicopter roared overhead and soldiers fired the first warning shots, six wildcat miners rushed onto a boat and tore downriver. Another plunged into the water and swam after them, leaving behind a makeshift camp that would soon go up in flames.

The scene in a dense, remote jungle south of the Amazon was part of an operation by Peruvian troops to blow up as many engines and fuel supplies as possible. The aim was to disrupt illegal gold mines growing out of control as the precious metal’s high prices create fresh demand.

At best, this type of mission can slow the pace of deforestation and pollution. Halting it is another story. Even when operations go according to plan, it’s only a matter of days — or even hours — before miners return with new equipment…

“Mining is winning,” a Peruvian prosecutor said. Raids by the military in Tambopata National Reserve happen only now and then, but miners work around the clock, every hour, every day of the year. Illegal miners “have the upper hand because it’s almost impossible to stop them.”

Near muddy pits dug throughout the Tambopata National Reserve, “soldiers used machetes to take apart the wooden structures miners use to sift gold from dirt. Others tore down the blue plastic sheets tied to trees that serve as walls and roofs at the camps and brothels.” Fleeing miners saw smoke rising from what had once been their beds and gas stoves. Some of the miners had been preparing to cook and eat a headless lizard. The miners left behind mounds of beer cans.

Dozens of mining camps were raided inside the reserve on that day, where wildcat miners were plundering the area like “never before.”

Gold prices have risen from $254 per ounce in 2001 to $4,530 per ounce today.

The Tambopata National Reserve is part of the Amazon rainforest. Illegal gold mines are also spreading in the Amazon rainforest of neighboring Brazil, such as in the Juruena River Basin.

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