Why We Must Regulate Amazonian Gold Mining

Gold is sought after in many cultures. It is synonymous with wealth, but how much is it really worth? Mining harms the environment in a way that can’t be fixed within one lifetime. My home is in Amador County, a prominent area during the California Gold Rush with many abandoned gold mines in the area. In my youth, my friends and I used to wander around the abandoned mining areas, finding rusted pick axes or other tools. However, since then I have learned about the long-term detrimental impacts that mining has on health and our environment. Amador County has 923 mines, one of which is the Argonaut Mine. This mine was close to my middle school and operated from 1850 until 1942. However, this mine was recently added to the National Environmental Protection Agency’s list of worst toxic sites because it contaminates the surrounding area with high levels of arsenic, mercury, and lead. This means that even though the mine shut down 81 years ago, its impacts on the environment and health of the surrounding community are still felt.

I worry about the long-term impacts on the environment and health of the communities in the Amazon because the mining that is taking place there results in lots of deforestation and pollution of the Amazon River, which is the largest river in the world. Gold mining in the Amazon Rainforest is generally illegal and is largely driven by artisanal, or small-scale, miners, which are largely part of the informal sector of the economy. Because gold mining in the Amazon is largely unregulated, it leads to under-the-table trading practices which then deprives the state of tax revenue. Additionally, artisanal miners are vulnerable to exploitation by criminal organizations that extort their gold by threatening to kill or harm them. Gold Mining in the Amazon also releases lots of mercury into the environment which kills the ecosystem and harms the indigenous peoples of the Amazon. For instance, mercury levels in songbirds that lived near gold mines in the Amazon were 12 times higher than those that didn’t live near gold mines. Mercury is a dangerous chemical and is known to cause cancers and other diseases, this is a problem because much of the mining that occurs in the Amazon is done on indigenous land. For instance, on the Yanomami land, 20,000 illegal gold miners are mining gold, while Brazil declared a medical emergency due to the massive amount of malnutrition of the Yanomami people because of the large amount of mercury polluting their land.

There are many solutions to solving the problem of gold mining in the Amazon. For instance, artisanal mining could become part of the formal sector which would allow the government to regulate it, while also increasing the traceability of gold so that criminal organizations can no longer take advantage of the small-scale miners. Additionally, having more environmental and health monitoring systems in the Amazon to detect high levels of mercury and other pollutants from mining would be helpful. Strengthening indigenous rights and creating protected areas would also help solve the problem. Ultimately, gold mining in the Amazon needs to become safer and more sustainable so that it doesn’t scar the Amazon Rainforest and harm its communities.