Gold Mining in French Suriname: Environmental Destruction

 I became interested in this subject after reading an article in the February Harper's Magazine about illegal gold mining in Suriname -- a French Territory directly to the north of Brazil, that is almost entirely Rain Forest, with tributaries to the Amazon River.  Because it's just been published, the article is not yet available online.  Highly recommended.


http://www.heemskerk.sr.org/GoldMining/GoldMining.html
"Small Scale Gold Mining in Suriname," by Marieke Heemskerk, anthropologist specializing in development and conservation.

[PDF] Maroon gold miners and mining risks in the Suriname Amazon

[PDF] from commdev.orgM Heemskerk - Cultural Survival Quarterly, 2001 - commdev.org
In recent decades, small-scale gold mining has gained importance both as a source of income
for the poor and as a cause of environmental degradation in low-income countries. Gold mining
and its surrounding service economy sustain millions of households in the Amazon, and ...
Cited by 10 - Related articles - View as HTML - BL Direct - All 3 versions

[CITATION] Wildlife management in Suriname

PE Ouboter - Bioconsult. Paramaribo, Suriname, 2000
Cited by 2 - Related articles

Do international commodity prices drive natural resource booms? An empirical analysis of small-scale gold mining in Suriname

[PDF] from mariekeheemskerk.orgM Heemskerk - Ecological Economics, 2001 - Elsevier
Natural resource booms have been central to conservation and development in resource-rich
Latin American countries, yet the origin of these events remains poorly understood. Understanding
the socioeconomic drivers of resource booms is important because such sudden ...
Cited by 13 - Related articles - All 9 versions

[CITATION] Livelihood decision making and environmental degradation: small-scale gold mining in the Suriname Amazon

[PDF] from ddiglobal.orgM Heemskerk - Society & Natural Resources, 2002 - Routledge
Cited by 7 - Related articles - BL Direct - All 10 versions

[PDF]

Environmental impacts of bauxite and gold mining in Nassau ...

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
by JH Mol - Related articles
Environmental impacts of bauxite and gold mining in Nassau. Mountains, Suriname. J.H. Mol. Paramaribo, February 2009. Description of Nassau Mountains ...
www.atbc2008.org/data/File/Articles/NassauSummary.pdf - Similar

 

 

http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Americas/Suriname-MINING.html
Encyclopedia of the Nations: entry on Mining in Suriname

http://travel.mongabay.com/suriname/indexes/gold%20mining1.html
Photos of gold mining in Suriname and its effects on the environment.

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/7-Killed-in-Suriname-Gold-Mine-Collapse-109853559.html
Alcoa and Newmont, U.S. based multinational corporations involved in Suriname gold mining.

http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/2240
"Gold Mining in Suriname's Tribal Communities,"  by Maya Roblin-Ghanie, The Dominion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5abRD9h78BI
"Good-bye Suriname," YouTube video: weird combination of sentimental music and facts about mercury's effects on neurotransmitters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdHAQG_koW0 -- news story from Al-Jazeera.
Iamgold is a Canadian company that is legally mining gold in Suriname.  They see themselves as the "heroes" of this story -- safe mines, paying taxes, etc.  The illegal miners are the Suriname natives and illegal immigrants from Brazil.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjJg_NWty74
"The Artisanal Gold Mining Process Using Gold-Mercury Amalgam, from Start to Finish"
This provides an excellent explanation of how the Gold-Mercury process works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIbhwaw5PQg&feature=related
"Mercury: The Burning Issue, Part 1," by The Blacksmith Institute
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPGPbbHY03M&feature=related
"Mercury: The Burning Issue, Part 2," by The Blacksmith Institute
This 20-minute documentary is mostly about the gold mining in Indonesia, but it does an excellent job of explaining how the mercury (and cyanide) in small-scale mining are used and get into the environment.

--Katherine











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