海角大神

On a sweltering day in Peru鈥檚 Amazon, Riquelme loads a bag of rocks onto his back, sticks a plastic hose in his mouth, and steps off the back of a makeshift barge into the chai-colored Tambopata River. He鈥檒l spend the next two hours with his eyes closed, vacuuming up sediment from the river bottom.

On the barge, his partner Borian works the vacuum鈥檚 motor and sprays the mixture onto a rug. Once it dries, Borian puts it into a cylinder with mercury, then squirts it into a handkerchief in a crude separation process. Specks of gold 鈥� occasionally 鈥� emerge.

Welcome to an Amazon gold rush.

Skyrocketing gold prices have spurred hundreds of thousands of small-time entrepreneurs to spend day after day trolling through mud, hoping for that brilliant yellow fleck. For every 鈥淏uy Gold NOW鈥� ad you鈥檝e seen, there鈥檚 a peasant here who鈥檚 decided to go forty-niner. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been here for a few days, but we haven鈥檛 found any gold yet,鈥� Borian smiles. But he鈥檚 optimistic. He can make more in days than most of his nonmining peers can make in a month.

But it takes about five grams of mercury to extract a gram of gold. That mercury is usually tossed overboard, poisoning one of the world鈥檚 most biodiverse rain forests. And Borian鈥檚 form of mining is among the most benign. Illegal cartels with heavy equipment clear-cut and mine huge areas of virgin forest, alarming environmental activists.

But patrolling the remote area is difficult. Just down the river from Borian and Riquelme, government environment officials sit in the shade. 鈥淭here aren鈥檛 enough of us and we have very basic equipment,鈥� says guard Harry Henderson Cooper, pointing to a dug-out canoe with a 5 horsepower engine. It鈥檚 no match for faster boats used by the illegal miners.

But the real problem, say most experts, is the local government, which is accused of being part of the illegal gold and timber cartels. 鈥淲e are proposing the formalization of gold mining, so it can be managed sustainably, but the regional government doesn鈥檛 listen,鈥� says Victor Zambrano, who heads a local conservation group. 鈥淭he miners pool gold to pay off government officials. Everyone puts in a few grams.鈥�

Environment minister Antonio Brack Egg pledges to fight corruption. 鈥淚 have detailed information on all public officials involved in the corruption. We will take them out one by one,鈥� he says. Mr. Egg and others say that the international community should create a process to certify 鈥渃onflict-free鈥� gold, as it has done with diamonds through the Kimberley Process.

Meanwhile, more illegal miners are flooding in. Says Egg: 鈥淲hen the price of gold goes up, the ministry of environment trembles.鈥�

- Matthew Clark traveled to Peru on an International Reporting Project Gatekeepers trip.