Dirty
Gold
Dirty gold from the Amazon in Swiss banks
Sandra Weiss
from
Gold prospectors have sold 25 tonnes of gold from the Amazon region in Switzerland in the past year.
Gold counts as one of the most secure investments for European investors in the current crisis. In the year 2006 the ounce cost 525 dollars, this year it is worth 1500. Yet hardly anyone who has an ingot lying in the safe-deposit boxes of the banks wonders where the precious metal comes from. Perhaps from the Peruvian jungle? Gold prospectors have sold 25 tonnes of gold from the Amazon region in Switzerland in the past year – investigations into money laundering and tax evasion are at present ongoing in Peru. A lucrative business.
But the consequences of the gold boom are devastating: thousands of hectares of cleared rain forest, poisoned rivers, exploitation, prostitution. Sandra Weiss has looked around on the spot.
Promise and damnation lie close together at Madre de Dios in the Peruvian Amazon: the millionaire beach borders Laberinto (the Labyrinth), the paradise at the “little hell”. Names written by gold. For centuries the fine, glittering dust has accumulated in the sand of the rivers of the Amazon basin. Washed out from the bowels of the Andes by crystal-clear rivers, over perilous waterfalls and through deep ravines torn right down into the tropical lowlands where the wild, icy floods turn into lazy, muddy tropical rivers. These grind the gold into a fine powder that they deposit somewhere in the heavy, dark sand. Nowhere else is there such fine and pure gold as here. The gold price has never been as high as it is now. And that is the tragedy of Madre de Dios.
Here and there the species-rich rain forest has changed into a sandy desert, a lunar landscape perforated by craters and flanked by tree skeletons.
Here and there the species-rich rain forest has changed into a sandy desert, a lunar landscape perforated by craters and flanked by tree skeletons. And right in the centre are collections of shabby wooden huts sealed against the rain with blue plastic sheeting: gold-miner camp-sites. Nomadic settlements on demand. There is no drinking water, no electricity, no schools, no roads – but there are improvised supermarkets, pharmacies, gas stations, bars and brothels. And for those who wish, the overpriced offer can be weighed against gold.
Adán Quispe* stands knee-deep in a crater of sand, 10 metres deep and 80 metres in diameter. Beads of sweat trickle down his athletic, naked torso. He is bitten by mosquitoes and some of his wounds are infected. He is used to the biting cold of the Andean highlands, the sweltering heat of the jungle is draining. But that doesn't matter now. Concentrating, the prospector pumps wet sand into a funnel with a hose under the deafening noise of the diesel generator. There, the sand is mixed with water and trickles down a few metres onto a kind of chute covered with fibrous carpet. ‘Chupadera’ is the name of the machine invented here by the gold prospectors. What gets stuck in the carpet is ‘arenilla’, the heavy, dark sand in which the gold dust is hidden. Hardly recognisable to the naked eye. Only sometimes does the sun conjure up a seductive, fleeting glitter.
Hardly recognisable to the naked eye. Only sometimes does the sun conjure up a seductive, fleeting glitter.
The sand is removed from the carpet with brooms and mixed with mercury in buckets to bind the gold. Adán stirs impatiently with his bare hands in the small sieve made of natural fibres to speed up the process. He then heats the lumps with a kind of Bunsen burner to vaporise the mercury again. This is the magical moment when everyone pauses. So many hopes rest on the shapeless yellow something, sometimes as small as a coffee bean, sometimes like a quail's egg!
The dream of owning a house, a car, a university education for the children. But many a dream only lasted a few hours, and many a fortune was just as quickly gambled away, drunk and whored away or violently stolen. Many a corpse was buried nameless in one of the many craters. A tribute to the gods, the prospectors believe. To ensure that Mother Earth continues to show her generosity.
The priceless metal casts a spell over everyone: poor people from the highlands as well as runaway criminals, the drug mafia, Asian triad bosses and even the indigenous people of the Amazon who mine on their tribal territory. Multinational mining companies are also said to buy up the illegal gold - and then export it legally, environmentalists denounce. Adán can earn up to 600 soles, around 180 euros, a day with his toil. More than a judge or a minister. And there is a lot of gold in Peru: in 2011, the esports brought in 2.5 billion dollars; the Andean country is the sixth largest gold producer in the world.
In the course of the gold rush, the provincial town of Puerto Maldonado has grown by 40% in just five years. Importers of excavators and lorries such as Yamaha and Caterpillar are making millions in sales in the jungle nest, which until a year ago had no tarmac road. More than 50,000 farmers and day labourers came from the highlands to the green hell of the Amazon. Desperate family fathers and unscrupulous adventurers with nothing to lose. Just like Adán.
More than 50,000 farmers and day labourers came from the highlands to the green hell of the Amazon.
For him, time is gold. The 25-year-old works 24-hour shifts on commission. If he finds something, he gets 25%, the rest goes to the owner of the concession, who uses it to maintain the machines and provide fuel and food. Adán finds eight grams on a good day. Sometimes half a kilo - or nothing at all.
The riverbeds are treacherous and change their path from year to year. Where there is jungle today, there may have been a river 50 years ago. To find out, you have to cut down the trees and dig up the earth. 32,000 hectares of primeval forest have already been cut down in the region, ‘there are hardly any fish left, and the few that there are are inedible due to heavy metal contamination,’ warns César Ipenza from the environmental protection organisation SPDA: ‘The gold from the Amazon carries with it exploitation, prostitution and environmental destruction.’
By now the gold prospectors are at the gates of the largest nature park in Madre de Dios, and the government has finally heard the cries of alarm. ‘He is now taking the bull by the horns,’ announced President Ollanta Humala. In recent months, the military has destroyed dozens of machines, rationed fuel supplies, banned the purchase of gold and evacuated gold mining camps. There have been protests, three deaths - and some findings about the illegal business and its ramifications all the way to Europe.
`The gold from the Amazon carries with it exploitation, prostitution and environmental destruction.`
Especially when middlemen such as Oro Fino and UMT came under scrutiny. In the previous year, UMT had illegally flown more than 19 tonnes of gold worth 900 million US dollars to Switzerland via the airline KLM and passed it on to the company MKS Finance in Geneva, reported the newspaper ‘El Comercio’, citing documents from the public prosecutor's office. Oro fino had delivered four tonnes of illegal gold to Switzerland in 2011 under the name AS Peru&Cia; the recipient was the company PAMP in Geneva, a subsidiary of MKS.
For example, it is assessed whether the business partners are on blacklists for money laundering or terrorism.
The exporters now face eight years in prison for money laundering and tax evasion. The public prosecutor's office did not initially comment on the Swiss importers. Upon enquiry, the company MKS stated that it was unaware of the allegations and was endeavouring to ensure the greatest possible transparency in the purchase of gold. For example, it would check whether the business partners were on blacklists for money laundering or terrorism. However, the transactions with Peruvian partners had complied with applicable government regulations, in particular the origin from legal mines. Nevertheless, the management is currently reviewing the information and the business relationship with the partners in Peru.
*Name changed on request
