Brazilian troops to control wildcat mine in Amazon
29 Jan 2007 16:37:23 GMT Source: Reuters
By Raymond Colitt BRASILIA, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Brazilian troops and police have started patrolling a sprawling wildcat gold mine dubbed the New El Dorado deep in the Amazon jungle to curb crime, disease and environmental damage, officials said on Monday. About 6,000 wildcat miners, or garimpeiros, have set up camp in the forest some 80 km (50 miles) by road and river from the town of Apui in Amazonas state, authorities say. "We have secured the access roads and rivers, checking for firearms, drugs, and prostitutes," said Mauro Sposito, the federal police agent in charge of the operation. "You need to crack down now, otherwise these mines become a mess." Nearly 90 armed federal agents are backed up by air force helicopters are patrolling the region, he said. Sposito said crime was already on the rise. In Apui, thieves assaulted one miner, snatching three kilograms of gold from him worth 117,000 reais ($54,930). A monthly salary as a farm hand is about 350 reais. Since the discovery of the gold deposits became public in late December, peasants, politicians and even priests have picked up shovels and axes to dig into the heavy clay soil and panned the earth at a nearby branch of the Juma river. Authorities are concerned about an outbreak of malaria and other diseases as sanitary conditions deteriorate and the mine pits fill with stagnant water, where mosquitoes carrying diseases multiply quickly. "I'm worried. Our hospital is already full of miners with malaria, hepatitis and venereal diseases -- it's a disgrace," Apui Mayor Antonio Roque Longo said. Authorities are keen to prevent a repeat of Serra Pelada, a wildcat mine in the Amazon that drew as many as 30,000 garimpeiros in the 1980s. Images of the slave-like working conditions in which haggard, mud-drenched miners carried bags of earth on their shoulders at Serra Pelada became world famous through Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado. Environmental authorities said miners at New El Dorado had cleared trees from the equivalent of a couple of football fields but there were no traces yet of toxic mercury garimpeiros often use to bind the gold into nuggets. "So far the impact is limited. We have prohibited miners from entering with heavy machinery, that reduces further damage," said Mario Jorge, interim inspection chief at the environmental protection agency Ibama in Manaus. The miners formed a cooperative and are permitted to dig for gold while the government decides whether to grant them an operating license. With the recovery of the price of gold, more people in the region are again digging for their ticket out of poverty. But Apui's mayor Longo says wildcat mines bring more harm than good. "The miners go on a binge and my town is left with crime, prostitution, and drugs," he said. "I wish it would go away."
