In Madre de Dios, in the Peruvian Amazon, thousands of people depend on gold mining, while the spread of mercury and deforestation are transforming the country’s most biodiverse tropical forest. In La Pampa, one of the region’s main gold mining hubs, a formalized artisanal mining operation is trying to prove that another way of mining is possible. While facing roadblocks, violence, informal economies, and government neglect, it seeks to produce “clean gold” using mercury-free technologies. Through the daily lives of workers, merchants, and small-scale miners, the film explores the tensions between survival, pollution, and legitimacy in one of the Amazon’s most complex extractive economies.
I assume this form of mining is viable for minerals used in jewelry and other forms of art.
But will be interesting if it can be applied for industry, like imagine a sustainable way to get the rare earths for computer technology
God how I would cherish a computer made from parts 100% in respect of nature and my fellow humans.
