Miners across Latin America are digging up gold—and arousing anger
By Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers
Steadily high prices for gold are having a dramatic impact on parts of Latin America, bringing a flood of foreign investment and stirring a gold bug among wildcat miners.
Some of Latin America’s poorest nations – Bolivia, Honduras and
Nicaragua – have seen their balance sheets strengthened by gold
production, while major producers Peru and Mexico reap billions in
foreign exports.
But even as miners unearth deposits of gold, they also open up veins of
social discontent. Protests over gold mining have become the coin of the
day in areas where villagers complain of water pollution, a lack of
jobs and environmental devastation.
U.S. and Canadian mining companies can be lightning rods for the
discontent. But watchdog groups say global mining companies have grown
more responsible in their dealings abroad. As often as not, it is small
companies, and even independent miners, who generate the frictions and
pollution.
19:06
The average price of gold has risen more than sixfold since 2001, when
it stood around $270 an ounce. Some analysts see prices heading higher amid global economic
uncertainty.
Mexico, known for centuries for its silver mines, recently saw gold
surpass silver to become its No. 1 mineral export, partly because gold
production has more than tripled since 2004 to more than 84 metric tons a
year.
“We’ve found an area that is extremely concentrated in gold. . . . It’s
quite staggering,” said Richard Whittall, of Newstrike Capital Inc.
From Nicaragua’s mining district to the goldfields in Colombia’s
northwest, and on to Peru’s Madre de Dios jungles, wildcat miners are
tearing up forests and dumping mercury in rivers in their quest for
gold.
Notes and Vocabulary
arouse angry v.
to make someone feel very unfriendly and angry
friction n.
/ˈfrɪkʃən/
disagreement, angry feelings, or unfriendliness between people
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