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Man-made, uncontrolled Ecological disaster underway in French Guyana

Since the early 1990s, an uncontrolled gold-mining boom has taken a huge toll on the environment, clearing large areas of forest, destroying river banks and beds, and releasing large amounts of mercury in surface waters.

Document created 02 March 2004, last updated 05 March 2004

Forest mining site   Photo Brigade Nature ONF
A series of recent press releases by environmental organisations, scientists, local politicians as well as newspaper articles are once again drawing attention to this problem which by early 2004, has still not received adequate attention from the French authorities. References and links to these sources of information (in French) are presented at the bottom of this page.

Nature in French Guyana: a brief outline
French Guyana is a relatively small area of 83,534 km2 (32,266 sq. miles) located on the Atlantic seaboard of South America. It shares borders with Suriname in the north, and with Brazil for over 700 km in the south and west. Reaching approximately 150,000 in the year 2000, the population is small (although growing quickly), and development is largely confined to the coastal areas. The interior has low population and is little developped.

From a biological point of view French Guyana has exceptionally rich flora and fauna, even by comparison with the neighbouring Amazon basin. It has many unique species of plants and aquatic and terrestrial wildlife, and is considered to be one of the richest ecosystems on the planet. Crucially, the territory is one of the last places on earth to have retained most of its original, undisturbed tropical rainforests, which cover the great majority of its total area. At the current and relentless rate of forest destruction in the Amazon basin and elsewhere, in 20 years French Guyana has the potential to remain one of the last examples of tropical rainforest left on earth.
Sediment release in river   Photo Brigade Nature ONF
The cause of the problem: uncontrolled surface gold mining
Gold was discovered in French Guyana in 1855 and was fairly intensively exploited along the Approuague and Aratye rivers until the 1930s. Thereafter this activity declined and remained low key until the 1980s. However the discovery of new deposit in 1992 sparked the current mining wave.

The major difference this time is the large scale of the operations, combined with the near-total anarchy and lawlessness that the territorial authorities so far have failed to bring under control.

At present, gold mining in French Guyana is largely an illegal activity, carried out without permission, without any control, sometimes encroaching on protected areas, and with total disregard for even the most basic environmental concerns. While a number of international companies have obtained mining permits their involvement so far has been limited. Most of the mining is carried out by self-appointed locals, who rely on a massive illegal immigrant workforce (currently in excess of 10,000), mostly from Brazil, for the bulk of the hard work. Some of these illegal migrants also directly operate their own mining sites.
Riverside mining site   Photo Brigade Nature ONF
Methods used for mining the alluvial gold deposits
Typically a mining site has two big pumps, and one or two diesel engines. One pump feed a monitor used to break up the soil and sediments, and the resulting liquid mud is channelled to a pit. The other pump then moves it over a series of carpet-covered gravity inclines where gold is trapped. The remaining mud is treated with mercury to retain the finer gold particles.

Damage to the environment on a catastrophic scale
Gold mining as it is currently practised in French Guyana destroys forest on a large scale, pollutes rivers, and impacts on wildlife. In addition large amounts of mercury are released in the atmosphere and rivers, poisoning not only wildlife but also the populations who live and rely on these environments. Such damage is currently being wrought on such a large scale, and in such anarchic and uncontrolled manner, as to pose a major threat to both French Guyana’s general environment, and to its population.
Mining site of Adieu-Vat   Photo Pierre-Michel Forget
Damage to forest and the general environment
Mining sites are cleared of their forest cover, typically using bulldozers. The ground and alluvial deposits are then dug and washed out, down to the bedrock. After operations are over no reclamation is carried out, and abandoned mining sites are left in such a state of environmental havoc that forest recovery is very long and may never be complete. To this must be added the various types of pollutions generated by the exploitation. This ranges from fuel and oil spills to the dumping of refuse such as batteries, plastics, cyanide compounds and above all mercury (see below).
After over 10 years of intense mining activity, and with currently over 10,000 illegal migrants involved in addition to local residents, a multitude of mining sites have destroyed a very large total area of forest. It is this survival of the tropical rainforest of French Guyana, with all its special and precious characters as described above, which is now at stake.

Damage to rivers
As presented above, the mining method used means that all washed up sediments end up in rivers. The considerable additional sediment load has resulted in the water quality of some rivers such the Approuague being significantly degraded. The aquatic ecosystems suffer, vegetation dies and fish populations dwindle or disappear. In addition rivers also suffer from the direct and unmitigated impact of deforestation and excavation, as sites are often located on river banks which are dug out with excavators and bulldozers, or directly on barges in the river (30 reported on the Approuague). Most French Guyana’s rivers are now reported to be polluted: Maroni and its tributaries, Mana, Oyapock, Appouague, Mahury, Sinnamary. About mercury pollution: see below.
Mining site on river bank   Photo Pierre-Michel Forget
Damage to wildlife
Wildlife suffers through intensive hunting, as hunting teams continuously roam the forest in order to provide game to feed the miners. The hunted species include deer, caimans, tapirs, monkeys, capybaras and more. As a result the forest is emptied of its fauna.

Mercury pollution and environmental poisoning
Mercury is used to recover fine gold particles from sediments by amalgamation. It is then separated again by distillation. This is often done without using proper equipment and methods (system to recapture mercury vapours after distillation), so that a large proportion (more than half according to some estimates) of the mercury is released in the environment and the rivers.
The current production of gold in French Guyana is estimated to be approximately 40 tonnes per year. As 1.3 tonnes of mercury is required for each tonne of gold produced, this implies the use of 52 tonnes of mercury each year. Even if only a fraction of this is released in the environment, the scale of river pollution by mercury in French Guyana is considerable.
High concentrations of mercury have been measured in both fish and the local population, and clinical signs of mercury poisoning have been found in the population, especially (but not only) the native population who rely on fish as a substantial part of their diet.

Lawlessness, violence and impunity
Adding to the disastrous environmental situation, the state of lawlessness linked to illegal mining also affects the social situation. In particular the most extreme cases of violence, including threats, murder and torture, especially against illegal migrants, have been reported repeatedly over the years, with near-total impunity for their perpetrators.

Links to external websites:

[wb1]  Gold mining on the Approuague - Current state and historical background by Pierre-Michel Forget

[wb2]  Gold plunder in Guyana - A detailed presentation by Sepanguy, French Guyana's nature protection society

[wb3]  Letter to the Prime Minister by ASE - Very detailed historical and factual statement by Action Sante Environnement

[wb4]  Law of the Jungle - A film by Philippe Lefaix (requires broadband) documenting lawlessness and gold mining in French Guyana

[wb5]  Nature in French Guyana - Over 150 pages on the environment, flora, fauna and environmental issues

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Mining site on river bank Photo Pierre-Michel Forget

Sediment release in river Photo Brigade Nature ONF

Mining site of Adieu-Vat Photo Pierre-Michel Forget

Riverside mining site Photo Brigade Nature ONF

Forest mining site Photo Brigade Nature ONF

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