Illegal gold mining has become the new “drug” in Gran Colombia, and Indigenous communities are paying the price. 

The waterways of Colombia have hidden troves of gold for centuries, but it took the global economic crisis of 2008, in which gold rose in price by 100%, to attract a multitude of mining companies, both legal and illegal.  While legal mining companies such as AngloGold and EcoOro do not use harmful products for extraction, the illegal companies that have flocked to mine this precious metal in Gran Colombia are using dangerous mercury products to obtain it.  As a result, these companies are putting the health of Indigenous communities at risk, destroying the environment, and presenting a safety risk to the United States. This investigative piece will give voice to the affected communities and environments that are consistently being overlooked, with the hopes that promising initiatives will be put into action.

Indigenous people of Gran Colombia, specifically Colombia, are being poisoned by the environment that they have inhabited for more than 500 years. With the rise of illegal gold mining around the country since the early 2000s, the health and safety of these deep-rooted, native communities are in grave danger. According to a report by Corpoamazonia and government agencies, the hair follicles of individuals relying on and living near the Caquetá, Apoporis, and Cotuhé waterways around Bogota, Colombia contain levels of mercury that exceed the appropriate threshold set by the World Health Organization. The report also discloses high levels of mercury in children younger than two years of age, with an increased prevalence of birth defects and mercury poisoning in communities along the waterways. This news is not just shocking because of the apparent patterns that this data presents, but the impact that said defects and illnesses have on individuals is astounding. Caquetá hospital coordinator Evaristo Cano states that "poisoning with this substance, in humans, can generate various diseases, but the most common, in this case, are alterations at the neurological and central nervous system levels.”  

Gold mining’s destructive effects are not limited to the Indigenous population. They also have a detrimental impact on the environment. Samples taken from the Caquetá riverbed present a “high impact of contamination due to the presence of mercury…” says the head of the Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes against the Environment, Gloria Elsa Arias. A study regulated by the Ministry of the Environment, the Universidad de Cartagena, and the national natural park service demonstrates the pollution in the Caquetá riverbeds by identifying 17 species of fish with abnormally high mercury contents. 

While the environmental impact of illegal gold mining is clear, its dangers can be felt on US soil, as well.  Legitimate American gold supply chains have become vulnerable to exploitation. Due to the minimal traceability of gold, it is often impossible to source the origin of the product or its buyer, such that many criminal organizations “engage in both narcotrafficking and illegal mining operations,” using gold as the vehicle to launder profits from other illegal operations. 

For this beat, I will be accessing the Minamata Convention, an internationally signed agreement to halt the importation, exportation, and production of mercury products, as well as to conduct interviews with leaders of local Indigenous communities. I would ask them how this illicit mining has affected the structure of their communities and the health of Indigenous individuals. Resources such as the World Health Organization will be used to highlight the physical harm to humans caused by mercury. I feel this piece would work best as a conventional article, and I plan on formatting it as such, due to a large amount of obtainable information on the subject. 

It is my objective to shed light on this topic and create a movement to end the suffering of those affected by illegal gold mining. While the topic appears to deal specifically with communities in Gran Colombia, the implications on safety, health, and the environment are far-reaching.