UNIVERSIDAD INTERNACIONAL SEK

Name: Josu Pozo

Date: 22/06/2015

Illegal Mining in Per, an Environmental Issue

Safeguard the environment ... It is a guiding principle of all our
work in support of sustainable development; It is an essential
component in the eradication of poverty and one of the foundations of
peace.
-Kofi Annan
Small-scale and informal mining became a major issue during the late
70s and 80s in Latin America. Extensive and easy to exploit mineral deposits,
especially gold, attracted the interest of small and artisanal miners and offered
an option for earning a living in a context of economic downturn. Large
settlements of small-scale and informal miners appeared in Colombia, Peru
Venezuela, Bolivia and Brazil. Countries in the region, however, have not been
successful in controlling, regulating or banning small-scale mining. Poor
management of mining rights, overlapping with indigenous land rights, along
with the pollution of the environment, emerging social conflicts and the onset
of other illegal activities, were part of the usual set of problems faced by
states. Given the complexity of the phenomenon, assessments of the nature of
the problem were frequently incomplete, as were the set of solutions to
address it (ELLA, 2012).
In the last decade, illegal mining activities have expanded significantly
throughout the region in a context of rising international commodity prices and
lack of adequate domestic social regulations that respond to the reality and the
economic dynamics and behind this phenomenon. In this context, difficulties
are evident from states to implement effective policies for the management of
informal mining which can incorporate the legality small informal miners and
also identify and punish illegal miners operating outside the law, violating the
rule of law of countries region. This situation has made the illegal mining in one

of the main threats that press on the ecosystems of the Amazon Basin
countries, threatening their sustainability and well-being of its inhabitants
(Tranca & Heck, 2012:5).
A current example of a global commodity having such an effect in
developing countries is gold. Over the last decade, the price of gold has
increased 360% with a constant rate of increase of ~ 18% per year. The price
continues to set new records, rising to over >$1400/oz at the time of this
article's publication (Sweson, Carter, Domec & Delgado, 2012).
Major environmental threats caused by gold mining in the developing
world include deforestation, acid mine drainage, and air and water pollution
from arsenic, cyanide, and mercury contamination. It is estimated globally, that
artisanal mining since 1998 produces 2030% of global gold production and is
responsible for one third (average of ~1000 t/y) of all mercury released in the
environment (Veiga, Maxson & Hylader, 2006).

Peru, likely to be the fifth largest gold producer in the world this year, does not
restrict mercury imports. Peruvian mercury imports have risen 42% (2006 to
2009) to 130 t/yr. Over 95% of this imported mercury is used directly in
artisanal mining (Sweson et al. 2012).
Douglas cited in Sweson has commented us that Peru's Department of Madre
de Dios provides us with an example typical of many other low-governance
areas of the world (Yu, 20 in Sweson et al. 2012). Kirkby also has approved us
that en el Land use here is not well regulated, appears to be determined by
local private interests, and is changing rapidly (Kirkby, 2010 in Sweson et al.
2012). The Department of Madre de Dios is Peru's third largest producer of
gold, and generates 70% of Peru's artisanal gold production (Sweson et al.
2012).
The number of informal miners is not known, nor therefore is the percent that
have applied for mining permits. However, the Madre de Dios Department has
the highest number of unapproved mining permits of the country Acquiring a
permit requires an environmental impact report, yet because there is currently
little effective enforcement neither of unapproved permits nor of illegal miners,
there is less incentive to apply for a permit (Sweson et al. 2012).
Madre de Dios Department occupies Peru's lowland Amazon which is globally
recognized as one of the most biologically rich and unique areas on Earth and
is proclaimed by Peruvian law (No. 26311.), to be the Capital of Biodiversity.
This region is part of one of the largest uninterrupted expanses of forest
remaining in the Amazon (Sweson et al., 2012).
Thus, the state of public health in MDD is closely related to the predominantly
predatory and uncontrolled activities carried out by the informal / illegal mining
and generating mercury contamination but not only deforestation, destruction
of the Amazon alluvial soils, silting of channels water, physicochemical and
microbiological water pollution, etc (Osores et al., 2012).
The effects of mercury have been relatively understudied or monitored in this
region in recent years, Artisanal gold mining in Madre de Dios is occurring

along waterways and wetlands guided by the presence of deposits and water
bodies necessary for extraction. Mercury is being released directly into
waterways and sediments, and is carried to biological channels through
methylation and subsequent bioaccumulation and magnification. This area is a
valuable headwater region for the Amazon River as an ecosystem service for
the thousands of people along the river as well as the species that depend
upon it (Fernandez, Podos & Lundberg, 2004). Crompton and collaborators
says In addition to the relatively well known human health and environmental
risks, there is also evidence of a higher incidence of malaria infection with
mercury exposure (Crompton et al., 2002 in Sweson et al., 2012).
For example, only in the last decade, taking into account official figures for
gold production in Madre de Dios have been released about 400 tons of
mercury into the environment, which has finally been deposited in the beds of
the channels of the rivers where it undergoes methylation processes
generating processes in the food contamination food chain of all those living
beings - especially fish-dependent water sources and eventually become part
of the human diet. This statement can be extended to other areas of illegal /
informal mining in Peru using mercury to extract the gold. Especially when we
consider that in Peru more than half a million people directly or indirectly on
artisanal exploitation of minerals, mainly gold depend (Osores et al., 2012).

They lack adequate supplies of primary health care systems as well as

occupational health surveillance by the state, just as potable water, solid waste
and wastewater are almost nonexistent creating a serious risk to the health of
populations using water directly from rivers (Osores et al., 2012).
These are some of the damages that have been reported by a few
investigations that are in the government entities, we can say that the all food
chain including us it seems very affected, because being a water body affected,
the pollution is maximized, due to the fact that all the alive beings need it, in
the last years the Department of the Environment of Peru has tried to stimulate
the legalization and control of the mining industry.
In terms of policy approaches, Peru's newly created Ministry of Environment is
actively struggling with the illegal mining issue (MEP,2009). A recent effort to
reign in mining was made through a moratorium on new mining concessions.
Peru has been recognized as having the potential to be a world leader in
mercury stewardship. Thus far national and regional-led efforts tend to focus
on curtailing unapproved or illegal mining for example using police forces,
fines, or equipment seizures, strengthening the mining approval process, and
improving mining practices to minimize mercury exposure (Sweson et al.,
2012).
At the global level, a recently approved agreement to tackle mercury
contamination by the United Nations Environmental Programed may support
the Peruvian government's efforts (UNEP, 2009).
The informal and illegal mining is a highly pernicious activity to human health
in Madre de Dios and Peru in general, affecting populations where mining

activity is carried out, as well as to those found in remote locations to the

same. The informal and illegal mining not repaired at all in the care of the
human being, the implementation of occupational safety regulations, paying
taxes to support adequate health infrastructure, or applying best extraction
technologies, mitigation and bioremediation (Osores et al., 2012).
Inasmuch as the data shown here applies to other similar mining operations in
developing countries, the negative consequences to the environment and
human health throughout the mining and drainage areas may ultimately prove
to be catastrophic unless prompt control and remediation steps are taken. We
predict that conditions will worsen with a stable or increasing price of gold
(Sweson et al., 2012).
industry brings, continuing disobeying the scanty laws that exist, this is
because the lack of control of the Mother's Department of God is already
possibly because there exists a convenience of both parts, this must end and
there must be realized an environmental suitable health, otherwise the whole
relation between the biosphere and the human beings will meet affected and of
irreversible form.

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