Interventions Against Illegal Mining

Interventions against illegal mining have a spillover effect on legal mining areas – study
Staff Writer | September 24, 2023 | 6:06 am News Latin America Gold

Stronger regulations are needed in legal gold mining areas when interventions against illegal mining are carried out, new research has found. Taking a Peruvian operation as an example, an international team of researchers led by Evan Dethier from Dartmouth University analyzed the spillover effect of addressing unregulated activities in one area when the same activity is allowed in a nearby location.

Back in 2019, the Peruvian government deployed “Operation Mercury” (Operation Mercurio) in the La Pampa region, an area where gold mining is banned in most places. La Pampa straddles the Interoceanic Highway. North of the highway, mining is mostly legal in mining concessions. However, south of the highway mining is strictly prohibited in the buffer zone of the Tambopata National Reserve. Through Operation Mercury, armed military and national police were dispatched to the region and had a sustained presence until March 2020. Miners were evicted and mining equipment was destroyed. The intervention successfully stopped illegal gold mining activity in La Pampa but activity in legal areas spiked, triggering many of the same environmental concerns.

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