Andean region struggling to halt spread of illegal mining

Peru is pushing ahead with efforts to bring order to unauthorized mining, part of a region-wide bid to formalize the burgeoning sector.

The government issued operating certificates to 32 small-scale miners in Pataz province in La Libertad region, the energy and mines ministry (MEM) said in a statement. The process will enable communities to formally provide food, transport and lodging for 600 mineworkers in the northern highland area, the ministry said in a statement.

Another 270 small-scale miners working on Minera Poderosa's concessions are on track to formalize their operations in the first quarter of 2019, said the ministry, which has launched a drive to formalize another 10,000 small-scale miners in 2019.

The region, a major gold producer, has managed to formalize 1,911 miners to date, more than any other of the 15 Peru regions that are riddled with informal mining.

The government estimates there are as many as 400,000 informal miners, who generate an estimated US$3bn in annual revenue and produced about 20% of Peru's 153t of gold in 2016.

The governments of Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru and Colombia have made joint efforts in recent years to formalize unauthorized mining along their border areas. The sector is believed to generate US$200bn in revenue worldwide, according to the Better Gold Initiative.

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Illegal mining has spread across six countries sharing the 7Mkm2 Amazon basin, according to NGO RAISG, which mapped 2,312 illegal gold, diamond and coltan operations in 245 areas of the tropical rainforest.

In the Amazon, illegal miners make use of 30 rivers to transport machinery, raw materials and workers, while operations are ongoing in 55 of the area's 649 protected areas and are affecting another 41 by operating as buffer zones, according to the NGO.

Illegal miners in the Amazon dump 200t/y of mercury into the environment, equivalent to 71% of global mercury emissions and affecting 115 of the 6,207 indigenous territories, according to RAISG.

In Venezuela, meanwhile, children are dropping out of school to work in illegal gold mining operations in Bolívar department, according to local NGO Cecodap.

About 45% of mineworkers in the southeastern state were found to be aged under 18, many of them suffering from malnutrition and malaria, Bogotá website NTN24 reported.

And in Bolivia, police arrested 20 thieves who had stolen 570kg of minerals from state miner Comibol's Huanuni underground tin mine in Oruro department, state news agency ABI reported.

The government has launched a crackdown on mineral theft, known as jukeo, after an explosion caused by thieves in the Huanuni mine killed 10 mineworkers in April.