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DJ Peru Minister:Nearly All Gold Mining In Madre De Dios Is Illegal77 days ago
LIMA, Peru (Dow Jones)--Virtually all of the informal gold mining in one southern Peru region is by miners who don't have legal permission to do so, Environment Minister Antonio Brack said Tuesday.
Informal miners extract some 20 tons of gold a year in Peru, according to government officials, with some 16 tons coming from a southern region known as Madre de Dios, where the miners pan for alluvial gold in rivers.
"Ninety-nine point ninety-nine percent of the gold mining in Madre de Dios is illegal," Brack said on RPP radio. Rising gold prices are said to be driving more interest in the informal mining.
Brack added that the informal miners don't carry out environmental impact studies nor present any plans on how they will safely close their mines.
"They leave everything destroyed. It is completely illegal," he said, adding that formal mining operations have to follow strict regulations in order to open and operate.
Brack noted that informal miners dump large amounts of mercury in the ecosystem as part of the process of extracting the alluvial gold.
Peru, the world's sixth-largest country for gold mining, produced about 180 tons of the metal in 2008. Government officials expect that amount to increase by about 3% this year.
Recent reports suggest that imports of mercury, used in the informal gold mining to help separate the precious metal, have doubled in the last four years. One report said that an estimated 50 tons of mercury was used annually in Madre de Dios.
Brack said that the government is trying to crack down on the illegal mining activity.
-By Robert Kozak, Dow Jones Newswires; 511-99927-7269; peru@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 24, 2009 09:10 ET (14:10 GMT)
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