This week, several media outlets published
photos documenting the devastation that illegal mining in Peru has wrought on
the Peruvian Amazon. Newly-released satellite
images show the scale of the growth in deforestation from 2014 to 2015. In
just one year, in the La Pampa region of Madre de Dios, over 750 hectares of
forest have disappeared. All of this is a consequence of illegal gold mining in
the area.
White TelesurTV focused on the high-level impact of illegal
gold mining, Bloomberg
published a photo essay documenting the personal side of the Peruvian
government’s campaign against the illegal mining industry. Bloomberg’s photos
show the Peruvian soldiers involved in the raids on the illegal mining camps,
as well as the miners left behind, and the devastated local landscape.
In related news, Peru this week ratified
the Minimata Convention, an international convention governing the use of
mercury in mining. The convention gradually prohibits the use, manufacture, and
export of products with mercury, and will enter into effect in 2020.
In other mining-related news, Glencore, one of the world’s
largest mining companies, announced
that it would reduce its global production of zinc by 500,000 tons and suspend
its operations in the Iscaycruz mine in Peru. Glencore explained that it made
this move in order to preserve the value of its vast mineral reserves at a zime
of very low zinc and lead prices.
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