Wildcat gold miners lay waste to Peru's Amazon

On the banks of the Madre de Dios river, dredges work day and night in search of gold, part of a scourge of illegal mining that is slowly devouring the Peruvian Amazon.

This mega-diverse region of southeast Peru has lost on average 21,000 hectares of rainforest - an area twice the size of Paris - every year since 2017 despite policing locals say are insufficient.

Where trees used to stand there are now deep sinkholes flooded with brown water where dredges sift through mountains of rubble for the valuable particles.

"The community can no longer plant corn, bananas, cassava, because this land is practically dead," said Jaime Vargas, a 47-year-old Shipibo Indigenous leader and reforestation activist.

Although mining is prohibited in their territories, Indigenous people have no choice but to coexist with invading gold prospectors in the Madre de Dios department of some 180,000 inhabitants near Peru's borders with Brazil and Bolivia.

Some even end up working for them.

As gold prices soared, the hunt increased in Peru - the world's tenth biggest producer.

Illegal mining is a major source of cash for organized crime in places like La Pampa, a lawless enclave in Madre de Dios.

"Illegal miners are invading us from all sides," Lucio Quispe, 40, said with more resignation than anger.

With two brothers, Quispe runs a 200-hectare concession granted by the state. His brothers were just attacked by machete-wielding men in a region where clashes over mining often turn violent.

A process has been under way since 2016 to issue licenses to informal but sanctioned miners such as the Quispes.

In 2022, data showed Peru produced 96 tonnes of gold - but exported 180 tonnes.

To protect nature reserves in Madre de Dios, Peru in 2010 demarcated a corridor of 5,000 square kilometers where informal miners will be allowed to operate until the end of this year. Of the 9,000 informal miners registered by the 2019 cutoff date, only about 200 have obtained a license to date.

Every 100 cubic meters of soil dredged yields about 10 to 15 grams of alluvial gold, which fetches US$63 (HK$490) per gram.

"You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs; you can't mine in Madre de Dios without sacrificing the forest," said Augusto Villegas, regional director of energy and mines for Madre de Dios.

Many miners also continue to use toxic mercury to separate gold from the sediment, despite Peru signing an agreement to scale down its use and banning imports.

As mercury prices surged, some smal miners are betting on "ecological gold."

Lucila Huanco, 54, said she stopped using mercury three years ago on her 3,000-hectare concession, using instead a gravitational technique to release the gold.

At first, her gold fetched a lower price because of its appearance, which is different from gold mined using mercury. But then she reached a deal with a buyer in Lima who pays her about US$70 per gram.

"Honestly," Huanco said, "I don't want us to be known as a polluter anymore."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE