Gold In South America

Gold has historically played a major part in Latin and South American indigenous culture. The use of gold in South America began in 1200 BC when the Peruvian indigenous group known as the Chavín were making gold ornaments by hammering sheets of the metal. In approximately AD 500 the Nazca people in southern Peru developed casting to craft ceremonious ornaments. The people of the Chimu empire would later develop more advanced technical skills, such as combining metals to make alloys and plating more common metals with gold. Their advances in technology were shared with the Incas who would be some of the first natives to meet the Spanish upon their arrival in the 16th century. Gold has long been present and significant in the culture and economics …show more content…
Peru is number five in the top producers of gold in the world but it is estimated that 20-30% is mined illegally on the national level while up to 97% of gold in the Peruvian state of Madre de Dios is mined illegally (Risk Analysis). The main issues with the rampant illegal mining are the environmental damages, the violence that comes with the organized crime, and human trafficking. According to the Peruvian minister of energy and mines (Risk Analysis) The workforce that it takes to bring over 150 metric tons of gold out of the earth is composed of over a half a million people. It has been reported by the US department of state that criminal organizations have been trafficking workers into mining operations and using them as a cheap way to build their labor force. This slave labor is used not only for mining but also some of the illegal logging operations that plague the amazon, which are another effect the mining operations are increasing. The mining operations clear land for transport and operations but the real environmental damage comes from the mercury used in the mining process. Workers are exposed to the mercury as a liquid and a vapor and often leads to mercury poisoning. The mining leaks mercury into the sediments and water table. The vaporization of mercury which is used in refining the gold is vented directly into the atmosphere (Swenson). The illegal mining …show more content…
The legal operators must obtain a concession to mine on the land, this includes an environmental impact study, rights to the water use on the property, a certificate stating there are no archeological artifacts on the land to be protected, and much more. The process is lengthy and difficult but on paper it conserves the ecological and anthropological significance of the rainforest. Since the process is so difficult this divides the mining operations between the legal and illegal with very stark differences. The legal operations have management practices to uphold and have significantly more overhead and are generating less profit than the illegal operations; which are reliant on slave and child labor, operate on older cheaper methods which in no way have conservation in mind. The workers of any mining operation are also stake holders in the land. They rely on the process for their living. There are many people that rely on artisanal gold mining as a manner of subsistence. The subsistence mining is typically panning for gold and platinum but can include small mechanical operations. Other stakeholders in Amazonian gold mining are the countries to which the gold is exported, notably Switzerland, the US, and Canada. These buyers may unknowingly or knowingly be purchasing illegally mined gold due to the lowered cost of mining without