Peru Mining Ghost Town

Associated Press
A boy plays on the banks of a crater made by gold mining in Huepetuhe in the Madre de Dios region of Peru.
A boy plays on the banks of a crater made by gold mining in Huepetuhe in the Madre de Dios region of Peru.

This nearly half-century-old Amazon boomtown has gone bust with the government's recent crackdown on illegal gold mining.

Mayor Marco Ortega estimates more than 22,000 people have left Huepetuhe since the government halted gasoline shipments in April and sent troops to destroy heavy machinery used in mining that it deemed illegal.

He says only about 3,000 people remain.

"The economy has collapsed," says Ortega. "The gold buyers, the hardware stores, hostels and all kinds of businesses have shut down. We are nearly a town without people."

 

A sites just a few kilometers away from each other in the mining area of Huepetuhe, shows cows grazing on grass on land not yet mined on May 22, 2014, top, and one last tree on the top of a mountain scathed by mining on May 26, 2014, 2014 in Peru's Madre de Dios region.  (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

 

A sex worker waits for customers at a bar in Huepetuhe in the Madre de Dios region of Peru.
A sex worker waits for customers at a bar in Huepetuhe in the Madre de Dios region of Peru.

The brothels that flank a broad mud flat of mining runoff are now all but idle, as are most gas stations.

The government official overseeing the crackdown has said authorities plan to provide work for miners rendered jobless, but Ortega says no assistance has arrived.

According to official figures, wildcat miners have extracted 159 million metric tons of gold worth $7 billion over the past decade from the Madre de Dios region that includes Huepetuhe.

Joel Macedo, 25, and his wife Nilda mine for gold without the use of machinery in Huepetuhe in the Madre de Dios region of Peru.
Joel Macedo, 25, and his wife Nilda mine for gold without the use of machinery in Huepetuhe in the Madre de Dios region of Peru.

The environmental cost has been high, with huge scars gouged out of the rainforest that are visible from outer space and tons of mercury, a toxin used to bind mined gold flecks, released into the environment and contaminating the food chain in a region of rich biodiversity where several indigenous tribes live in voluntary isolation.

The miners who stayed behind are reduced to rudimentary gold extraction using pickaxes, shovels and small motors.

The government gave informal miners until April 19 to formalize any claims they might have, but the vast majority didn't have any.

One lingering miner, 25-year-old Joel Maceda, had been earning $1,071 a month as a heavy machinery operator. The father of two says he now struggles to earn a quarter of that, and his wife now pitches in.

"She works with me because we have nothing to eat," says Maceda, his 2-month-old on a blanket on the ground.

Rather than return to his native highlands city of Cuzco and start over, Maceda hopes the government will let some mining resume in Huepetuhe. Not all operations there were illegal.

"The government may be doing things right by ending illegal mining, but they should have thought of us, the lowliest workers."