GOLD MINING IN THE AMAZON

1. GOLD MINING IN THE AMAZON Reggie Tamse Maria Tovar Thinh Tran KenTrinh Rigo Velez Kevin Wong Nikki Phuong Yang

2. Agenda • Gold Mining • Production processes • Major global producers and quantities • Mining in the Amazon • Description of the Commodity Chain • Labor Conditions under which the commodity is produced. • Environmental Consequences of the production process. • Health effects associated with the consumption of the product. • Deforestation • Effects of the production process on people in relevant regions. • Recommendations

3. Gold Mining • Consists of the processes and techniques employed in the removal of gold from the ground. • There are several techniques by which gold may be extracted from the earth. Methods of gold mining include: • Panning- very popular in Brazil • Sluicing • Dredging • Cradling • Hard rock mining Underground: South Africa- 12 800ft depth Open-Pit: Fox Knox Mine in central Alaska • By-product - Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah

4. Top Gold Producers in The World

9. The Gold Mining Process in The Amazon • Garimperos remove ore by washing a rock face with a high pressure stream of water. • The ore is broken down in a hammer crusher. • Amalgamation-the gold-bearing ore is sluiced with mercury. • The amalgam is filtered manually, then retorted to release the mercury from the gold. • The resulting mercury vapor is distilled and reused. • The remaining mercury bound to the gold, will be released later by the gold dealers during processing.

11. Value of Commodity Chain

12. Prospecting • Early discoveries of gold relied on the blind luck of someone spotting a yellow glint in a stream or in a crack between rocks • Today, geologists know more about how gold forms and find exact place of gold with more systematics and precise • Involve science, technology, and business of discovery of gold for its removal and to sale in the marketplace

13. Mining • Milling process includes three basic procedures: • Sorting the ore by size • Crushing the rock • Extracting the gold • Depending on type of deposit • Done with heavy machinery and perfect calculation • Illegally and products should not be using

14. Extracting • Isolate pure gold from other materials • Largely matter of technology • Use geology maps • Use physical and chemical characteristics of the rocks • Cyanide is poured over these rocks to dissolve the gold

15. Refining To remove the remaining impurities left after the smelting process Create bullion bars Use chemical or electrolytic to separate pure gold 99.5% of pure gold

16. Manufacturing The uses of gold grows each year Emphasize personality and look sophisticated Competitive cost and high-quality Use in industries: Automotive, Electronics, Medicine, Nanotechnology, Space, and Engineering

17. Retailing Retail industry is one of the most profitable Measure by troy weight and grams In 2011, world gold consumption for jewelry was 1,972 tons India is the world's largest market for gold and gold Jewelry In China, more than 80% of gold jewelry is made from 24 carat gold In USA, more than 50% of the total value of gold jewelry is created by pieces over $1,000

18. Labor Conditions Under Which the Commodity is Produced.

19. Amazon Gold

20. Labor Conditions • Two types of gold mining in the Amazon: Legal and Illegal • 90-98% of the gold mining in Peruvian region is illegal • Majority Males • Legal Gold Mining Process: • Large Hoses to break apart earth • Dirt sifted to obtain raw gold • Separate gold from stone using mercury or cyanide

21. Labor Conditions: Illegal • Absolutely no regulations • No regards for safety of land or safety of miners • Priority is profit – Miners make in a day what they would in a month • Process is the same as legal mining • However, miners lack equipment and tools necessary for safe mining • Fierce competition – Wild West • Mining communities to provide protection

22. Labor Conditions: Recap • Legal gold mining is regulated and precautions are taken when handling poisonous material. • Illegal gold mining where there is no regulations and where proper equipment is lacking. • Miners expose themselves to the poisonous elements of mercury and cyanide. • Brutal working conditions, they work to make a profit • Poisoning their working environment • Dangerous to miners and the environment

23. Environmental consequence of the production process Mercury Pollution

24. Mercury Mercury- A silvery-white poisonous metallic element, liquid at room temperature. Used in thermometers, vapor lamps, batteries, and in the preparation of chemical pesticides. Used to extract any gold that is attached to an ore. Gold burned to extract vapors even more

25. How polluted? Hg is lost to the atmosphere during the burning of gold without using retorts. 40-50% of Hg is lost in rivers The United Nations Industrial Development Organization estimates that One-third of all mercury pollution is caused by artisanal mining. Mercury emission to the atmosphere represents 45 to 87% of total Hg emitted from gold mining, and also accounts for a global input of 200 to 420 tons/per. The gold mining contributes approximately 80%(168 tons) annually of Hg contamination.

26. Types Chemical Forms Methylmercury Elemental Mercury

27. Methylmercury Addition of mercury to gold laden silt, extracts gold, but contaminates large amounts of water when the processed silt is returned to the water. Happens mainly when small mining operations often dump their used mercury directly into fresh water systems.

32. Effects of Methylmercury to the food chain Once exposed to bacteria in water, mercury becomes methylmercury. Accumulates in animals. Once infected and eaten by larger organisms, they are then exposed to higher amounts of methylmercury. Continues up till till predator species develop health problems.

33. Elemental Mercury • Exposures occur when elemental mercury is spilled or products that contain elemental mercury break and expose mercury to the air. • Poorly absorbed through ingestion, but readily absorbed into blood stream through inhalation. • When gold is heated it extracts the mercury and makes it vaporized • Accounts about 95% of the total Hg in the atmosphere

35. Health Effects From Mining

36. Processing Gold • Raw gold must be harvested and separated from the stone which surrounds it • Large Scale and Artisanal Mining groups use two methods to extract gold • Two techniques to extract gold • Cyanide Extraction • Mercury Extraction

37. Cyanide Extraction Once the rock containing precious ore is broken down to fine pieces it is mixed with a sodium cyanide solution Then mixed with zinc to separate the metal from the cyanide Sulfuric Acid is used to remove the Zinc leaving only gold pieces

38. Cyanide Extraction Effects • Remaining cyanide solution is mixed with lime then dumped into tailing ponds • Exposure to solution can cause serious harm to surrounding ecosystems • The Center for Disease Control defines cyanide as “a rapidly acting, potentially deadly chemical that can exist in various forms” • Cyanide Exposure prevents body cells from using oxygen which leads to these symptoms • Rapid breathing, Restlessness, dizziness, weakness, headache, rapid heart rate, nausea and vomiting • Large amounts of cyanide can lead to lung injury and fatal respiratory failure and brain damage

39. Mercury Extraction • Fairly simple process • Fine pieces of rock are mixed with liquid mercury which separates the gold from the rock • Once the gold is collected, it is heated to burn off any leftover mercury • Commonly used by small scale miners • Often dump mercury waste into fresh water systems • United Nations Industrial Development Organization estimates that “one third of all mercury pollution is caused by artisanal mining.”

40. Mercury Extraction Effects • Mercury is a neurotoxin that causes many health effects • Health effects • Brain, nervous system, lungs and kidneys • Small quantities is very harmful, especially to pregnant women and children that are exposed • Many ecosystems experience lower birth rates, illnesses and even death from mercury poisoning • Environmental Protection Agency suggests adults should avoid eating more than one can of tuna per week to avoid health problems

41. Deforestation Deforestation is on the rise in Peru's Madre de Dios region from illegal, small-scale, and dangerous gold mining

42. How Gold Mining Cause Deforestation Hydraulic mining techniques Blasting away at river banks Clearing floodplain forests Using heavy machinery to expose potential gold-yielding gravel deposits. Mining roads can open remote forest areas to transient settlers and land speculators Cut trees for firewoods and shacks

43. Relationship Between Gold Price and Deforestation Rate

44. Fact about Deforestation rate In the Peruvian Amazon • According the study, published in PLoS ONE: between 2003 and 2009, two large mining sites A: Guacamayo B: Colorado-Puquiri • Rainforest felt for gold mining appears in these as pink scar. • The loss of 7,000 hectares of forest and wetlands (15,200 acres)—the equivalent of more than 12,000 football fields. • Forests are converted into bare, mud-streaked swaths of holding ponds and rubble piles Deforestation has increased six-fold in recent years.

45. Consequences Harmful to a variety of flora and fauna residing in and around the Amazon River Endangered and unique plants at risk Decrease vegetative buffer zone around Amazon River Removal of stability of the riverbank

46. Consequences (cont.) • Land is more susceptible to erosion • Higher concentration of sediment into the river • Reduce the amount of dissolved Oxygen in water • Decline in the survival of plants and animals • Affect indigenous people that depend on river for food

47. Effects of the production process on people in relevant regions

48. Workers Conditions Gold Mining in the Amazon has taken a toll on not just the environment but the people in the surrounding areas Physical conditions are terribly poor as you can see in these photos These “employees” work ridiculously long hours and are paid barely anything Some who work nearly all day gather hundreds of dollars worth of gold but paid less than 1/5 of what the gold was worth Madre de Dios houses 2,500+ workers in a 60 mile radius yet is an illegal mining facility

49. Towns Overnight Towns made out of dilapidated wood, blue tarp, and the like are popping up everywhere The terrible conditions are forced to be accepted if you work in the gold mining industry

50. Effect on the People Prostitution is a big issue that affects the surrounding communities Women are tricked into becoming prostitutes for the shanty towns built because of gold mining There is nearly no law enforcement Child trafficking is the norm but only 9 cases have been reported in 2008