VZCZCXRO2041
RR RUEHAST RUEHHM RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHPB RUEHPOD RUEHTM RUEHTRO
DE RUEHBR #0330/01 0761910
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 171910Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY BRASILIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3812
INFO RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE
RUEHPO/AMEMBASSY PARAMARIBO 1774
RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA 4153
RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO 0894
RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO 2714
RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION 7442
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RUEHSO/AMCONSUL SAO PAULO 3731
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 7442
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RHEBAAA/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHDC
RUEHC/DOI WASHDC
RUEAWJA/DOJ WASHDC
RUEAEPA/HQ EPA WASHDC
RUEANAT/NASA HQ WASHDC
RUCPDC/NOAA WASHDC
RUMIAAA/USCINCSO MIAMI FL
RUEHRC/USDA WASHDC
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BRASILIA 000330 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT PASS USAID LAC/RSD,LAC/SAM,G/ENV,PPC/ENV 
INTERIOR PASS USGS INTERNATIONAL: JWEAVER 
NSF FOR INTERNATIONAL: HAROLD STOLBERG 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV EMIN EAID TBIO SOCI BR XR
SUBJECT: GOLD MINING POSES HEALTH, ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS IN GUYANA 
SHIELD 
 
REF: (A) 2004 PARAMARIBO 259, 
      (B) 2004 PARAMARIBO 377, 
      (C) 2004 PARAMARIBO 411 
 
BRASILIA 00000330  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY  Artisanal small-scale gold mining (ASGM) has seen 
exponential growth in the South American countries of the Guyana 
Shield (Guyana, Suriname, French Guyana, Venezuela, Brazil) since 
the early 1980's, owing to dramatic gold price increases and limited 
government presence in the remote interior regions.  According to 
the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), ASGM has become the 
world's largest source of mercury emissions in the environment. 
Although artisanal mining may bring employment and income to 
impoverished areas, the environmental and health consequences of 
unregulated gold mining are severe, including: deforestation, 
mercury pollution, public health deterioration, and social conflict. 
 Furthermore, illegal mining promotes a culture of lawlessness, 
contributing to regional instability via ancillary illicit 
activities.  END SUMMARY. 
 
-------------------------------- 
GOLD MINING IN THE GUYANA SHIELD 
-------------------------------- 
¶2.  The Guyana Shield currently ranks among the fastest-growing gold 
production regions in the world, following only Peru and Indonesia. 
Over two million square kilometers of geologic Precambrian rock 
extend west across the Shield from Venezuela into Guyana, Suriname, 
French Guyana, and south into Brazil, offering access to an exposed 
greenstone with rich deposits of gold, diamonds, iron, and bauxite. 
The prospect of getting rich quick has inspired small-scale gold 
miners to flock to this sparsely populated region with porous 
borders and rainforests that rank among the world's most 
biodiverse. 
 
¶3.  The Guyana Shield experienced a gold rush revival starting in 
the 1980's in response to rising gold prices that followed 
abandonment of the Bretton-Woods fixed gold price of USD35 per ounce 
(oz).  Gold prices rose to nearly USD400 per oz in the 1980s and 
1990s, climbed to USD600 in 2006, and reached as high as USD1000 per 
oz in 2008 and 2009.  Correspondingly, the region witnessed 
exponential growth in small-scale gold mining focused on the 'mass 
exploitation of lower-grade gold deposits', according to David S. 
Hammond, an international forestry consultant. 
 
¶4.  Although some larger mining companies have entered the gold 
market, the region remains dominated by small-scale mining, which 
has proven a compelling alternative to widespread unemployment. 
However, much of the gold extracted from the interior of these 
Guyana Shield countries remains a part of the informal sector, 
contributing little to government tax bases (REFTEL A). 
 
¶5.  Artisanal mining has created a 'Wild West' sub-culture in the 
Guyana Shield interior, bringing alcoholism, prostitution, disease, 
crime and other illicit activities, according to Marcello Veiga, a 
regional specialist on ASGM.  Serious health, safety and security 
issues radiate beyond the immediate mining environment, eroding the 
broader financial benefits achieved by gold extraction. 
 
¶6.  Accurate information on official and illicit mercury trading is 
not available; however, the UNEP Global Mercury Project estimates 
metric tons of annual average mercury consumption (i.e., 
environmental loss) in the Guyana Shield to be: Brazil-45, French 
Guyana-7.5, Guyana-15, Suriname-7.5, Venezuela-15. Other sources 
quote figures 4 to 5 times higher.  Information gleaned from 
Surinamese sources in 2004 reported mercury quantities in the range 
of 20 to 40 tons per year (REFTEL A).  French Guyana, Suriname and 
Venezuela (countries with active ASGM activity) report to UNEP no 
official trade in mercury, making estimates of mercury use extremely 
difficult. 
 
BRASILIA 00000330  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
 
------------------------------------- 
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ON GUYANA SHIELD 
------------------------------------- 
¶7.  Mining of low-grade gold deposits involves forest clearing and 
hydraulic blasting of river banks with high-powered water cannons to 
expose potential gold-containing gravels.  In most cases, gold ores 
are then concentrated by settling before amalgamation with mercury, 
and final conversion to gold product via mercury heat vaporization. 
Mining specialists estimate that 1 to 3 grams of mercury are lost to 
the environment for each gram of gold recovered (USGS). 
 
¶8.  The Brazilian Oswaldo Cruz Institute blames small-scale mining 
for deforestation, mercury contamination of rivers, transmission of 
malaria, HIV and other diseases, cultural erosion and social 
conflict.  Blacksmith Institute and the Green Cross indicate ASGM as 
one of the world's Top Ten Worst Pollution Problems, 
http://www.worstpollution.org .  In 2005, Venezuela's Minister of 
Environment commented that it will take over 70 years to 
decontaminate areas polluted by mercury and 300 years to re-plant 
destroyed forests, suggesting long-term impacts on climate as well 
as local ecosystems. 
 
¶9.  Although ASGM may create employment and income for marginalized 
populations in impoverished areas, the lack of regulatory 
enforcement threatens the long-term productivity of the region due 
to environmental degradation, riverine mercury contamination and 
consequent health impacts.  Hardest hit by transient mining 
activities, are the Amerindian (indigenous) and Maroon forest 
communities that benefit nominally from the financial gains of 
mining but bear the weight of environmental and social costs. 
 
¶10.  Guyana and Suriname are especially vulnerable to the 
detrimental environmental and health impacts of ASGM, having few law 
enforcement resources to regulate small-scale miners effectively or 
protect affected populations.  COMMENT: In an industry known for 
'liquidation' of resources rather than sustainable use, ASGM in the 
Guyana Shield is likely to continue until deposits are exhausted. 
END COMMENT. 
 
----------------------------------------- 
HEALTH IMPACTS OF SMALL-SCALE GOLD MINING 
----------------------------------------- 
¶11.  Mercury's well-documented bioaccumulation (concentration in 
animal tissues) up the food chain poses a significant health risk to 
Guyana Shield residents that rely on freshwater fish as their 
primary protein source.  Predatory fish, at the top of the riverine 
food chain, are routinely found with mercury concentrations that 
exceed the recommended WHO mercury limits of 0.5 micrograms per gram 
of fish, according to Jan Mol (2001) and other Surinamese 
researchers.  Elevated mercury levels in Atlantic fish have also 
been detected in Mol's research, raising questions about the impacts 
of ASGM on marine fisheries. 
 
¶12.  Decades of research have documented that mercury accumulation 
in humans causes neurological damage, birth defects and sensory 
impairment (UNEP).  In the Guyana Shield, researchers have only 
recently begun testing of mercury content in the hair, blood and 
urine of infants and mothers in affected communities (REFTEL B,C). 
Doctors are also gathering evidence of the rising incidence of birth 
defects, mental retardation and mental impairment.  Most directly 
affected are downstream Amerindian and Maroon forest communities; 
however, Guyana Shield tributaries also drain to coastal cities, 
threatening to leave a legacy of mercury poisoning, decreased mental 
abilities, birth defects and decreased human potential across the 
region. 
 
¶13.  As to other health concerns, poorly managed mining camps often 
 
BRASILIA 00000330  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
results in the presence of stagnant wastewater pools ideal for 
mosquito breeding.  Mining camps become hotspots of mosquito-borne 
diseases such as malaria and dengue, and the migrant labor force 
facilitates disease transmission from one community to the next. 
Prostitution and HIV are also consequences of a transient labor 
force with short-term profit motives. 
 
--------------------- 
BRAZILIAN GARIMPEIROS 
--------------------- 
¶14.  Migrant mine workers, many from Brazil, clandestinely cross 
porous country borders of the Guyana Shield countries, often 
introducing new mining methods, equipment and cash. Just as often 
however, AGSM operators contribute to the contamination of local 
areas without consideration of long-term effects of mercury 
pollution on local populations.  Some Guyana Shield governmental 
officials attribute lawlessness in mining camps to the transient 
labor force. Recent WWF reports indicate active (legal and illegal) 
garimpero (Brazilian miner) populations of 30,000 in Guyana, 30,000 
to 60,000 in Suriname, and 10,000 in French Guyana. 
 
¶15.  Migration of Brazilians has been driven by crackdowns on 
illegal gold mining and enforcement of tribal land integrity in the 
Brazilian Amazon, the lack of border controls, and the relative lack 
of mining regulatory enforcement in the interior regions of the 
Guyana Shield. 
 
¶16.  COMMENT: In light of growing international agreement on the 
need for mercury emission controls, countries of the Guyana Shield 
are likely to encounter increasing global pressure to gain control 
over the historically unregulated ASGM sector.  Already, Brazil and 
French Guyana have signed an agreement intended to help them work 
together to reduce the rampant illegal gold mining that devastates 
forests and poisons populations in their border region.  Government 
officials in Guyana Shield countries claim, however, that national 
resources are not available to enforce regulations related to ASGM 
and mercury emissions (press reports, REFTEL A).  Even today, the 
environmental damage and public health risks associated with ASGM 
mercury use have not been considered sufficiently high priority to 
warrant action.  Furthermore, news reports indicate that Guyana 
Shield government and industry leaders believe international efforts 
(e.g., UNEP, EU) to limit mercury trade are unlikely to affect their 
local mining industries in the short term.  Until these governments 
prioritize the protection of public health and environmental 
resources, there is little chance that progress will be made towards 
reducing poverty, improving employment conditions, improving 
national security in interior and border regions, and raising the 
overall national income for future generations. END COMMENT. 
 
¶17.  This cable was drafted in coordination with U.S. Embassies in 
Brasilia, Georgetown and Paramaribo. 
 
KUBISKE