Peru: Tons of mercury to illegal mining

Illegal mining has devastated 20 thousand hectares of forests.

Illegal mining, which is growing due to corrupt officials, continues to use large amounts of mercury to gold production.

Without any control, tons of the mercury are mainly distributed among illegal enterprises engaged in extracting gold in the region of Madre de Dios and Puno.

Internationally leading providers of mercury are United States and Spain that, between 2010 and 2012, sold around $ 10 million (the largest importer of mercury in South America) to Peru

Illegal mining in Peru is a problem of a magnitude similar to the drug traffick that has many similarities. Of the five million ounces of gold annually Peru exported, more than one million is of illegal mining.

Illegal mining, as drug traffick, involving thousands of people, even with more families in the gold extraction that in drug traffick.

The impacts of illegal gold mining are huge in aspects of the environment, society, health, the economy and national security.

Despite numerous public complaints against illegal mining and the corrupt officials who protect it, to date is not achieved progress in the fight against this illegal activity.