The Unpaid Price of Gold

The search for gold has felled many who traveled to the Amazon in search of it, from Colonel Fawcett in the 1920’s to Elton Thompson just last month. But it has also claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of indigenous peoples over time. Gold mining has impacted the ways of life of indigenous communities, polluting rivers, and bringing with it violence, prostitution, and disease. The price of gold has recently reached record levels, due to the turbulence in the financial markets which caused so many to invest in gold. And the new gold rush is again causing problems in the Amazon. For more information, check out The Guardian’s recent article , which describes the situation in Peru, Guyana, and Brazil.

The Yanomami lost about 20% of their population to a gold rush in the 1980’s, which saw tens of thousands of miners on their lands.They are concerned that the same scenario will repeat itself.In the words of Davi Kopenawa, a Yanomami leader, “Government authorities need to talk to indigenous leaders and be very clear about what “mining” is, and what the impacts are.Mining won’t bring anything to my forest. It won’t provide water, health or food for our children.It only brings illness, and more people who come to kill Indians, and to destroy the lungs and heart of the earth".
Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, UFRR Notícias, July/August 2011

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